Every NFL head coach goes through their “firsts.”
For the first half of 2019, most of Green Bay Packers rookie head coach Matt LaFleur’s “firsts” have been overwhelming positive as his team raced out of the gate to a 7-1 start.
Then Sunday’s game happened and LaFleur got to experience yet another first: his first major butt whipping.
This provides the first real adversity situation of the LaFleur era for the Packers. Sure they lost a game to the Philadelphia Eagles earlier in the season but it was lost at the last moment. Green Bay was thoroughly outclassed on Sunday from start to finish. That hasn’t happened since LaFleur took over.
How the coach adjusts going forward, especially with two very tough games on the docket, will very likely determine who the 2019 Packers are. Was the 7-1 start just a long honeymoon before reality set in or was the Chargers game just a bump in the road and a reality check for a team that was perhaps overconfident?
We’ll find out starting Sunday but it’s almost certain the team will put forth a much better effort in front of the home crowd. If not, comparisons to 2015 when the team started 6-0 but finished 10-6 will inevitably pop up.
It’s hard to say a team at 7-2 has its back against the wall, but it almost feels like the Packers are in that position. They’re still a game ahead of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC North and didn’t lose any ground in the division thanks to the entire division losing but the Packers can’t rely on that every week.
“All gas, no brake” is the rallying cry of the first season of the Matt LaFleur era. The Packers would be wise to continue embracing that or else they could suddenly find themselves in a precarious position for the postseason.
Here are today’s curds.
