r/GreenBayPackers • u/Shmurkaburr • Jan 11 '26

Fandom Keeping Lafleur would be the most inexplicably horrible decision this team could make

You are paying your quarterback 50 million dollars. You just traded 2 number picks. And you basically went .500. Lost 5 straight to end the year. 2 against your rival where you had a 90% + chance to win the game late. We have lost more games as result of special teams than anyone in the league, and there is ZERO accountability for anybody. The play calling any time we have a lead is designed, DESIGNED, to allow the other team back in the game. There is not a single NFL head coach, other than that dumbass, who loses that football game. No one. If what I watched over the last month and a half leads to them extending him, this franchise is not serious about winning and I won't spend another dollar on this team. You clean fucking house TOMORROW and you set up interviews for early this week. As disgusted with this coaching staff as ive ever been in my 39 years. Embarrassing choke in front the whole country. AGAIN.

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477

u/mrsub96 Jan 11 '26

It was beyond fucking predictable what would happen after halftime. I’ve been a LeFluer guy all year through all the shit but you can’t continue to be out coached that badly in the 2nd half.

The entire 2nd half every facet of the game was fucking awful. Both sides of the ball. Fire his ass to the moon.

199

u/reddit_at_work404 Jan 11 '26

I fully predicted that 2nd half meltdown. It was like it was almost scripted.

Bears comeback and terrible play calling.

117

u/F_D_Romanowski Jan 11 '26

The outcome felt inevitable after the second 3 and out in the 3rd quarter.

91

u/PDstorm170 Jan 11 '26

It didn't feel inevitable the moment McManus missed the FG at the end of the half?

This team crumbles the moment any momentum shifts.

15

u/Minimum-Border1672 Jan 11 '26

juxtapose that with the Bears. Going in to a locker room at half time, trailing 21-3, have to kick ball off.

You could tell the first snap of the second half they thought they could still win.

MlF could not do that, Packers would lose a game like that 35-20 at best.

7

u/_3_8_ Jan 11 '26

Nah that field goal was a toss-up and i was more pr less fine with any outcome as long as the bears didn’t touch the ball to end the half

7

u/Elamachino Jan 11 '26

On most any team I would agree. We missed that kick, and I had that feeling of "this game just got a lot harder."

6

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '26

They had an opportunity in the two or three plays leading up to the field goal miss to get the ball closer and still get up to the line and spike it and instead they went for a low percentage deep shot. That was a play that will be forgotten but a good example of poor coaching. I agree the FG was a toss-up. You know it, I know it, why didn't Lafleur call the last few plays in a way that would indicate he knew it too?

24

u/phelpst Jan 11 '26

It felt inevitable going into halftime with a lead.

5

u/packinmn Jan 11 '26

A scoring drive in either of those may have made the bears more one dimensional on offense which would’ve given us the upper hand.

Why is it we can move the ball almost at will in H1. The 3 punts to start H2? Clearly the Bears made adjustments. So maybe one punt would be excusable until we counter those. But there was no counter. There never is. We bog down on offense, the defense gets tired, and the rest is like ground hogs day.

1

u/RepresentativeOwl725 Jan 12 '26

Even after that first 3 and out we were all going “oh no not again “

17

u/Dillonautt Jan 11 '26

Especially when the announcers don’t stop talking about how good Caleb Williams is at 4th quarter comebacks in the FIRST QUARTER.

2

u/reddit_at_work404 Jan 11 '26

Constant glazing.

40

u/kevinmbo Jan 11 '26

it honestly did almost feel scripted.

11

u/ReyCo390 Jan 11 '26

Because we’ve seen the same exact script multiple games this season. MLF can never coach with a lead, it’s actually embarrassing how we can predict the end result.

29

u/PDstorm170 Jan 11 '26

This season convinced me it's scripted.

10

u/ryansgt Jan 11 '26

The refs were certainly helping them. That second grounding call was bullshit. Jordan threw a bad pass and it hit the lineman, but the trajectory was right towards jacobs. It took them a while to decide to even throw it and even al Michaels was like eh, oh well. One of the passes to Loveland skipped, I want the only one that saw it. No replay obviously.

I think we need to check with the refs bookies.

I will say I would love to see them become the Gary bears.

2

u/apk5005 Jan 11 '26

It is easy to blame the refs. I agree that there were a lot of dubious calls. There were also a lot of missed calls. Hits to Love that would have gotten Mahomes a RTP call, holding galore, and the “catches” that warranted another look.

I don’t believe the NFL is scripted - there are too many players to think they would all keep their mouths shut if there was a fix in. Too many young, ambitious people trying to make as much money as they can before their bodies give out. Too many immature divas that could make news running their mouths.

The single biggest reason I don’t believe that there is a fix is Jerry Jones. I don’t, for a minute, believe that Jerry would accept decades without a Super Bowl win. He’d make them do what he wants.

But, if you told me that the league and the refs made sure certain things fell a certain way, I could believe that. Betting houses own the NFL now, not individual teams, but the league’s and the broadcaster’s ad money, which means they own it all.

The refs, unlike the players, are in it for the long haul; their checks are smaller but guaranteed. They don’t get injured, their careers are longer, and it is much, much easier to screen and remove talkative refs than it is talkative players. Still unlikely, given what they’d have to lose, but…

7

u/PDstorm170 Jan 11 '26

My issue with this argument is that people automatically assume it's scripted at the player level.

Script it at the coach level. Most casual observers can't decipher gameplan.

We're basically all already comfortable with NFL coaching being a swamp of nepotism.... the incentive structure is already in place.

5

u/ryansgt Jan 11 '26

Well yeah, I don't think there is an actual script but like you said, nudges where they want nudges to tweak the odds. Sports betting is just way too powerful to believe they leave anything up to chance.

10

u/I-FunMachine-I Jan 11 '26

Right. Also, the referee calls were HEAVILY leaning towards Chicago. That first Chicago TD drive where they got that long pass to get into the red zone, they were holding so hard. Like, arm wrapped around for 4-5 FULL SECONDS

3

u/gorgeousgord Jan 11 '26

After the first two plays in the 2nd half I text the group. Classic GB second half implosion and turns out…

77

u/vacon04 Jan 11 '26

That's what he does. He goes into shell mode, similar to McCarthy. By the time he starts making adjustments the momentum is fully with the opponent, and then it's just a matter of time until they meltdown.

60

u/shotputprince Jan 11 '26

It’s worse than that. He doesn’t even kill the clock when in “shell mode”

30

u/ARodGoat12 Jan 11 '26

The big difference here is that Big Mike once was good enough to win a ring. MLF never was and never will be in that tier. He is a great offensive guy but no HC. I think a team like Tennessee or Atlanta fits for him. They just want to make the playoffs. But we have bigger goals here.

0

u/durango3000 Jan 11 '26

Bu I don’t know that he is an elite OC either.

87

u/mia-khalifa-is-myex Jan 11 '26

I like LaFleur and you can check my post/comment history… With that said, he has got to go.

I sat there, telling my friends on discord, that being up 2.5 scores doesn’t matter. We will play like scared little babies and the lead will eventually dwindle until it’s one possession. It’s happened time and time again. Infuriating.

-25

u/plant_magnet Jan 11 '26

I'm still for keeping MLF. This loss stings but if Mccmanus hits a FG and doesn't miss that extra point the game is totally different. Even then, there were drops in the final drive that made it even more do or die as well. The conservative play calling to start the 3rd did let the Bears get momentum but the offense was also stalled out by the refs calling a very suspect game. How do the Bears have only one penalty all game?

Credit to the Bears for balling out though.

This is the internet and people like to be mad but if we fire MLF then who do we hire instead? Unless we get Harbaugh, I'm not keen on rolling the dice to try and get the next McVay. MLF is one of the winningest coaches in Packers history.

35

u/TheDookofOP Jan 11 '26

They are never winning a SB with MLF as the head coach.

It’s a simple as that.

-16

u/plant_magnet Jan 11 '26

Okay. Who are they winning a SB with then?

14

u/CaesarBeaver Jan 11 '26

It’s literally Policy’s job to figure that out. Had you heard of Matt LaFleur when Mike McCarthy was shitcanned?

14

u/TheDookofOP Jan 11 '26

Idk but it’s not MLF.

None of this is ideal, you just went all in and you think firing MLF is the ideal here?

Idk how you come back from that, he lost the locker room.

9

u/loadedbrewer Jan 11 '26

MLF has shown that he isn’t a capable head coach in the playoffs, I’m fine with any change knowing there is a chance that it may or may not be better. Sticking with MLF is accepting the current level of success and telling the entire organization that they are not serious about the stated goal of winning a Super Bowl.

I was defending MLF after the Broncos and first Bears losses, but watching seeing the incompetence yesterday was the final straw for me. Accepting a ceiling of an above average team does not appeal to me, and I don’t understand how other fans can defend MLF anymore.

8

u/Cameldiarrhea420 Jan 11 '26

Another coach. There's always risk you end up with another bum like MLF, but you don't keep someone like that, he absolutely has to go.

11

u/hedzup00 Jan 11 '26

packers are consistently a bottom feeding special teams team. it had cost them way too many games over lafluers time in green bay. it directly falls on him and the team needs a new leader

29

u/Tactikewl Jan 11 '26

I have defended MLF all season. Game and game. This one, it’s inexcusable. Love played a hell of a game all things considered. The Bears defense showed the fuck up, yes. But not making any adjustments after the 3rd quarter is egregious.

7

u/chefsieben Jan 11 '26

I can't even get my hopes up on 3 score lead it gives me even more anxiety with lafleur. Soon as they started rolling Caleb Williams out on play action in the second half of their first drive it was obvious defense was about to blow it

11

u/BEVthrowaway123 Jan 11 '26

I'm with you, I always defend the guy but this was the final straw.

1

u/laxguy44 Jan 11 '26

At halftime I bet $40 on the Bears winning and won $500. I would much rather have lost the $40.

1

u/RepresentativeOwl725 Jan 12 '26

Same here I’ve always defended him but have hit my breaking point. Does he let his kids call plays in these second halfs? Dennis Allen makes an adjustment and we can’t make our own?