Coming out of the game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night, it really feels like the Packers may have reached an inflection point when it comes to both the team’s prospects of this season as well as the long-term tenure of Matt LaFleur.
The loss to the Carolina Panthers was bad and inexcusable, but there was the hope that it was another one-week blip of the team playing down to the level of their opponent.
But what happened at home in primetime against the Eagles on the offensive side of the ball was so putrid that, for the first time in my memory, the “Matt LaFleur should be on the hot seat” noise is no longer just, well, noise.
It’s almost impossible to believe that LaFleur looked at the tape from Carolina and came away thinking that he needed to do more of what he was doing on offense in that game. But that’s basically what happened, and now the Packers have lost consecutive winnable home games because of the ineptitude of the offense and the man who coaches it.
It’s difficult to remember the last time this team seemed so fundamentally broken on that side of the football. The closest thing is the 2018 season, but this is arguably worse considering the talent level that the team possesses and the expectations for this team to take a step forward to being contenders.
It’s gotten so bad that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein published a column in which he argued that LaFleur must look for help from outside of the organization to do a self-scout of the team’s offense and where LaFleur and his staff are failing. Because it is clear that the output of the offense is nowhere close to the talent level of the players.
Now, let’s be clear here. The players need to play better. There were a number of crucial drops that prevented the Packers from extending drives. There were, as usual, too many critical penalties that moved the offense backward.
But a lot of the consistent issues are in large part due to coaching. The basic consistent errors that should never occur. The seeming lack of energy and preparation. The game planning and play calling. The apparent unwillingness to release the shackles from the offense and air it out. The Packers are a frustrating football team to watch.
This is currently a team at a crossroads. Either Matt LaFleur is going to figure it out and this could be his 2010 Mike McCarthy season, or things are going to stay the same or get worse, and it will be his 2018 Mike McCarthy season.
The latter comparison is the simpler one; in 2018, McCarthy had been with the Packers for quite some time, and the team never really managed to gel. McCarthy’s offense was clearly stale, and the team struggled to put together consistent performances. After a midseason collapse, McCarthy was fired with four weeks to go.
Now, I do not see any circumstances in which LaFleur is let go before the end of the year. But there is some basis for comparison here. LaFleur has been with the team for a while, and there’s a possibility that his offense has grown stale or needs some adjustment that he is incapable of making or unwilling to make. If things continue on this trajectory, LaFleur will likely not be coaching this team in 2026, as based on his current contract, he’s likely to be either extended or let go.
There’s also the (unlikely, but possible) chance that this is LaFleur’s 2010 McCarthy season. Now, 15 years later, the effects of nostalgia have kicked in and some remember that team has a juggernaut in waiting. But the fact is that the 2010 Packers were a frustrating and uneven team until the final week or two of the regular season that barely made the playoffs. Many fans were calling for McCarthy’s job in October and November.
After a 3-1 start featuring strong performances against a good Eagles team and a blowout of the Buffalo Bills, the Packers lost back to back heartbreakers against Washington and Miami that had fans fuming. There was some catharsis the following week with the team’s first victory over Brett Favre at Lambeau, but then they had an offensive bore in a 9-0 victory at the New York Jets. They completely dismantled broken Cowboys and Vikings teams back to back (both teams immediately fired their coaches afterwards) but then lost three of their next four in November and December, including a 7-3 stinker in Detroit, and appeared ready to be on the outside of the postseason looking in before winning their final two must-win contests.
That team showed flashes of brilliance and dominance, but also some inexplicable losses and awful offensive performances that made the team incredibly frustrating. You could see the potential, but the team underachieved for basically the entire regular season until the pieces all finally came together right at the end.
The optimist would say that this team is certainly capable of doing that. The 2025 Packers have the best defense the team has had since the 2010 season (more on them in a moment), and their four non-wins have been by a combined 9 points. It feels like this is a team that can compete with anyone, even when the offense is in a bad place. All it takes is the offense getting it together consistently and this is back to being a title contender.
But what if they never get it together? Maybe we’ve already seen the peak of what LaFleur can do with this offense, and what exists is irretrievably broken. Certainly while we are mired in the middle of this, it’s hard to see many silver linings in these offensive performances. The talent remains present, but the players aren’t making plays, and the coach isn’t setting them up to succeed anyway.
It is a cruel twist of fate that this team has existed for a decade and a half primarily as a team that lived and died by its offense, and when it finally gets a championship-caliber defense, the offense completely falls apart.
Honestly, I had no idea where the rest of this year is going to go. There’s still lots of football ahead. Clearly this team is not going to steamroll its way to an NFC Championship, but that’s not saying this team can’t win a title. Of course, at this point, it’s probably equally or more likely that they miss the postseason altogether.
All I know is this: if things continue along this trajectory, Matt LaFleur should not be the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 2025. But the potential still exists for this team to achieve great things, so long as they get out of their own way.
Wisconsin Beer of the Week
Point Brewery based out of Stevens Point is a brand you’ll encounter a lot in the northern and central regions of Wisconsin, but their distribution certainly extends to the Milwaukee area as well. I don’t exactly purchase a ton of their beer, but every now and then I’ll snatch one up and be pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy it.
This was true once again when I cracked open a bottle from a six pack of Point’s Midnight Black Lager that I picked up at my local Woodman’s. This dark lager hit perfectly on a chilly fall night the other night as some of the first snowflakes of the year were coming down.
The black lager/schwartzbier is one of my personal favorite styles of beer; when done well, it’s a perfect blend of light body and roasty flavor. This one comes in at a moderate 5.4% abv. Here’s the description from the brewery:
“The night sky is alluring on its own. When you see the northern lights, it’s downright mesmerizing. That lively contrast is in Midnight Black Lager, You savor the roasted malt aroma and subtle caramel flavor of a dark beer, brightened by the crisp, casual finish of a lager. It’s always midnight somewhere.”
As you can see, I remembered that I actually had a Point pint glass in my collection, so I had to add to the “aura” (as the kids say) of the photo by using it for the beer. So there you go – enjoy Midnight Black Lager in all its intended glory.
Pick it up if you can find it near you!
Props to the defense
You cannot ask more out of the defense than what they did against Philadelphia.
A scoreless first half and 10 total points against the defending champions in prime time? Plus a crucial stop at the end of the game that allowed the Packers to get the ball back with a chance to win the game?
This is a game that should be won 100 times out of 100 when the defense plays that way. The Packers’ offense and offensive coaching staff should be ashamed at how they let this squad down. They were flying to the football and playing with great intensity. They were responding well to the outstanding (GOLD PACKAGE!) audience that was rocking the stadium the entire night.
This looked every bit the part of a Super Bowl caliber defense once again, when there have been a couple games this year where that may have been coming into doubt.
A strong defense is much harder to sustain in today’s NFL than a strong offense. If the Packers let this year slip by without taking advantage of the team’s prowess on that side of the football, it will forever be remembered as a gigantic missed opportunity.
If things do progress to the point where the Packers decide to part ways with Matt LaFleur (and let’s hope that’s not how it goes, because if it goes that way it means things never get better this year), then the first interview the team gives for the vacancy should be to Jeff Hafley. He’s going to be getting looks at other teams sooner than later, and I’d guarantee the Titans and Giants already have brought his name up internally.
Around the NFC North
As always, it’s time to go around the NFC North.
The CHICAGO BEARS are 6-3 and one of the surprise stories of the NFL this year. If you’d have asked fans who would be ahead in the division by this point, the Bears or the Packers, fans of both teams would almost certainly have voted en masse for the Packers. But here we are and that’s why we play the games. The Bears’ divisional trip to Minnesota is going to reveal a lot about their long-term staying power in this playoff race; can they remain consistent? Ben Johnson has done an outstanding job with this team.
The DETROIT LIONS are back to being the deserved frontrunners in the NFC North. A tough road victory over a good Buccaneers team shows that this is not a team that’s going to go down without a fight. Their offensive line remains banged up, but the Lions have a lot of tenacity. At their current states, it’s difficult to imagine another team overtaking the Lions in the divisional race.
The MINNESOTA VIKINGS continue trading wins and losses, and after a tough loss to a rebounding Ravens team, they’re due for a victory at home against Chicago. The Vikings were in the Asante Samuel Jr. sweepstakes, but settled for an addition of Shemar Bartholomew to their practice squad. But it’s not the defense that needs the most help; the offense has been an inconsistent mess largely due to the quarterback situation for most of the year so far. Until that gets resolved, this team is going to have difficulties.
Mr. Backes’s “This or That”
Every day I put a different “this or that” poll up on my whiteboard and have students leave tallies throughout the day. I then compile this information and post it here for laughs.
Here’s what we’ve seen over the last week:
Watching the Packers offense was defeated 40-0 by “doing literally anything else”
Swimming in gym class defeated running in gym class
Chinese food defeated Indian food
Going out defeated staying in
Week 11 NFL Picks
If the Packers can’t win a game against a struggling Giants team that just fired their coach and has lost basically all their promising young players to injury, Matt LaFleur should be fired on the plane ride home.
Packers 27, Giants 10
The whole slate:
PATRIOTS over Jets
DOLPHINS over Commanders
PACKERS over Giants
TEXANS over Titans
PANTHERS over Falcons
VIKINGS over Bears
CHARGERS over Jaguars
BILLS over Bucs
STEELERS over Bengals
CARDINALS over 49ers
RAMS over Seahawks
CHIEFS over Broncos
RAVENS over Browns
LIONS over Eagles
COWBOYS over Raiders