Against the cream of the NFC crop, the Green Bay Packers cut the cheese. Their 37-8 loss at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday evening was surprising for all the wrong reasons and left the leaders of the Pack taking responsibility for the stinky showing.
“I’m disappointed with myself how we got outcoached, outplayed,” Packers first-year coach Matt LaFleur said following the defeat. “Bottom line, it’s unacceptable and we’ve got to look at ourselves and there’s a lot to correct if we want to be the team we want to be.”
Green Bay’s offense, which enjoyed fits and starts over the first half of the season, stalled against a high-motor 49ers defense, which was as aggressive in the front seven as it was sturdy in the defensive backfield. The Packers were held to 198 yards, a season-low eight points and a miserable 1-of-15 third-down conversion rate, a stat emblematic of how the Packers played behind the sticks and never recovered from mistakes in early downs.
“There was a lot of stuff today was concerning, quite frankly,” LaFleur stated. “We’ve got to man up, look at stuff critically and we’ve got to be honest with ourselves.
“It was bad ball.”
Sunday’s loss was just the latest in a string of concerning performances for the Pack. Earlier this month, in Green Bay’s first trip to California, the 7-1 Packers were handled by the Los Angeles Chargers, 26-11, in a game in which Green Bay tallied just 13 first downs and 184 total yards.
Aaron Rodgers, who was sacked at least once by a Bosa brother in both games, saw similarities between the Golden State losses.
“Just a couple bad performances,” Rodgers explained. “I think both games we were bad on third down and tonight we were terrible on third down. We didn’t do a good job establishing the run in both games.”
Green Bay will exit the month of November with a record of 1-2 after starting the season 7-1, having been outscored in the 11th month, 79-43 and outgained 1,182 yards to 770.
Where some might see an autumnal regression in a team led by a rookie coach, though, Rodgers sees a cohesive unit going through growing pains. The Packers QB noted in his post-game presser that he was encouraged to hear “post-game remarks” from some veteran voices in the locker room and that Sunday’s loss is as much a building block as it is a stumbling block.
“I feel good about our culture,” Rodgers said after the game. “I feel good about the locker room. I feel good about the leadership. We didn’t play very physical tonight. We obviously didn’t execute. But I felt good about the energy pregame and the approach. We had a good week of practice which is why it’s so surprising, the performance.”
At 8-3, the Packers are now locked in a tie atop the NFC North with the Minnesota Vikings, who Green Bay defeated in Week 2 and against whom the Packers own a tiebreaker — for now. Green Bay might pull ahead in the coming weeks with get-right games against the Giants and Redskins next on the slate, but the Pack finish with a dangerous trio of games against their NFC North opponents, including Minnesota in Week 16.
Despite Sunday’s humbling loss, a playoff berth is likely and a division title is within reach. The Packers will take their comeback from this defeat one game at a time, but Rodgers can’t help but look ahead to when they can avenge their loss to the NFC’s best.
“I still like our chances,” Rodgers said. “We have the makeup to bounce back from these kinds of things and put ourselves in a position to potentially come back here and play again.”