Matt LaFleur’s finest hour
This is exactly the type of game the Green Bay Packers lost too often with Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers running the show. When the MVP quarterback went down, optimism was effectively siphoned out of the locker room. Mike Daniels, the team’s nail-spitting defensive tackle, explained this effect in a Q&A last season. The Packers frankly were not built or coached to win a football game that didn’t funnel through its quarterback.
Defensively, they lacked the temperament and belief to carry the team to a win.
Offensively, the pass-first identity was too entrenched. Scott Tolzien or Brett Hundley couldn’t step in, hand the ball off and keep the ship afloat.
With Jordan Love (MCL) out and Malik Willis in, these Packers proved they can win at the line of scrimmage.
As much as the Packers tried to manufacture mystery into kickoff — refusing to rule Love out until Sunday — everyone involved surely knew what was coming: a Lombardi-like diet on offense. Willis signed 20 days ago. Exactly as the Colts planned, the Packers ran early and ran often. In the first quarter alone, they rushed for 164 yards, the most since the Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos went for 167 in 2011. By halftime, that total was up to 237. In all, LaFleur ran the ball on 53 of 67 snaps. Free-agent signing Josh Jacobs, a wise pivot, was the primary hammer with 151 yards on 32 carries.
Defensively, the Packers intercepted Anthony Richardson three times.
Green Bay couldn’t have asked for more from Willis, who went 10 of 12 for 122 yards, one TD and supplied perhaps the most entertaining three-yard gain this century. On third and 10, center Josh Myers vomited all over the football a split-second before snapping. Unable to throw, Willis side-stepped the rush and took off.
“I asked Malik why he didn’t throw the ball on that third down, and he told me Josh threw up on the ball. I was like, ‘That’s the first time I ever heard that,’” LaFleur said.
“The official came over to me, and said, ‘We saw your center throwing up on the ball, do you want us to take him out next time?’ I said, ‘Absolutely, please do that,’ because you’re talking about a critical situation, and it’s third down, and I’ve never had to throw with vomit on the football. Malik probably didn’t appreciate that.”
Give the head coach props for getting Willis up to speed and for devising a gameplan that’d work. In the same situation, countless quarterbacks past fail in disastrous fashion. Not only did the ex-Titan function — he made plays when necessary.
He didn’t turn the ball over once and connected with Romeo Doubs on a 39-yarder.
“I’m more blessed than anything,” Willis said. “I’m just grateful for God to give me another opportunity. Somewhere different. Clean slate. Just giving me the opportunity to be around guys who helped me get going the past three weeks to learn as much as I can. Guys in that locker room who are behind you, whoever’s starting and continuing to have that confidence in you. It builds. It helps you go out and be yourself.”
Mostly? LaFleur deserves praise for his team’s overall compete level. Effort is not something a coach can conjure with one rousing speech the week of a game. It takes time. The way LaFleur has built the Packers — year to year, Rodgers to Love — prepared them to win this kind of game. Youth helps. This has been the youngest team in the NFL since moving on from Rodgers. You don’t know what you don’t know. He’s gotten a group of 22-, 23- and 24-year-olds to genuinely believe they can make the playoffs after starting 3-6 one year and win a game with Malik Willis the next.