“That’s on me. That can’t happen.”
With 58 seconds left in the game on Sunday at the Chicago Bears ’ 37-yard line and down two points, the Green Bay Packers needed to make a decision. Would they attempt a 55-yard field goal or try to convert another set of downs in the fourth-and-four situation?
Ultimately, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur chose to kick the ball with Brandon McManus, who put Green Bay up a point with 54 seconds remaining, but not before burning the team’s first timeout of the second half. The Bears needed those spare seconds to kick a 51-yard field goal of their own, which they snapped with all of three seconds left on the clock.
Had the Packers not used that timeout, they could have burned at least half of the time that the Bears needed to pull out their final drive heroics at Lambeau Field on Sunday. After the game, LaFleur admits regret over the timeout.
In a post-game radio hit, LaFleur told Larry McCarren (h/t Zach Kruse ) that the end-of-game clock mismanagement “falls on my shoulders.” In his post-game presser, LaFleur stated that the team was planning on going for it on fourth and four, a context in which the timeout makes more sense, but that special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia convinced him during the timeout that the team was already in McManus’ range.
“Hindsight is 20/20, but I wish I would have taken the timeout,” said LaFleur. “That’s on me. That can’t happen.”
Hopefully, LaFleur is more aware of McManus’ range when the Packers open up their postseason action against the Philadelphia Eagles next week.
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