Matt LaFleur will reevaluate preparation for the West Coast trip,
GREEN BAY – Every new step Matt LaFleur takes as the Green Bay Packers’ head coach is for the first time. His first practice. His first road trip. His first win and loss.
He has spent a decade in the league learning, watching. This is his first time doing.
So when LaFleur decided to fly his team to the West Coast a day early last week, he played his first cross-country road trip by the book. It’s a schedule predecessor Mike McCarthy employed many times.
How the Packers lost in their listless, 26-11 defeat at the Los Angeles Chargers invites open season on second guessing.
LaFleur’s team was outplayed in every phase against a team it was favored to beat in an environment where the majority of fans boisterously supported his team. Given how thoroughly it was dominated, how easily their four-game winning streak ended without a fight, the loss was stunning.
Maybe a more seasoned coach could have better read the tea leaves. That the Packers were a team brimming with confidence with their 7-1 start. That they had developed a sort of invincible feeling after winning four games without Davante Adams. That they were getting their top receiver back.
And, perhaps most of all, that they were taking the party out of Green Bay and placing it in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, and getting an extra day to enjoy that southern California atmosphere.
“I think anytime you go out and you put a performance like that,” LaFleur said, “that’s the first thing that comes to mind was, were we into it? We talked about it all week, that this game was going to take laser focus. When you’re sitting at 7-1 and you’re playing a team that’s 3-5, I don’t care, that was a good football team. And that’s what I told our guys.
“I don’t think I did a good enough job of preparing our players for what type of team they were about to play.”
The Chargers were a playoff team one year ago, their 12-4 record tied with the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC’s best. Each of their five losses this season had come by one possession. Two came after turnovers inside the final 90 seconds when the Chargers were in range to tie the game.
All reasons that laser focus LaFleur referenced — the laser focus that was clearly missing Sunday — was so necessary.
After the game, quarterback Aaron Rodgers said it was important for everyone on offense to reevaluate how they used the extra day in California — the 48 hours before kickoff — to prepare. Lack of preparation, as well as overconfidence, was a common refrain in the locker room, and not just from the offense.
LaFleur said Monday that nobody missed curfew Friday or Saturday nights. He did not say how late curfew was set, or if he loosened restrictions on how his players spent their time.
Feeling good
Davante Adams made his return to the field Sunday after missing four weeks with a turf-toe injury on his right foot, and the two-time Pro Bowler led the team with 11 targets and seven catches — though he managed only 41 yards (5.9 average).
“It felt good, it felt good to be out there with the squad, obviously,” he said. “It had been a long time. It wasn’t the product that we wanted to put out there, but it was good to get back out there.”
Rodgers targeted eight pass catchers, but the receiving corps specifically had a slow week. After Adams, Allen Lazard, Geronimo Allison, Jake Kumerow and Marquez Valdes-Scantling caught a combined five balls on 10 targets for 65 yards.
“I’ve got to do a lot better job putting our guys in position because we really didn’t even get into the game plan,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said. “It was a spread, throw-it-all-over-theyard kind of game. And that’s not what we want to be.”
Adams said he was on a snap count and rotated in and out of personnel packages, but the Packers ran just 49 plays and gained a season-low 184 yards of total offense.
Za’Darius Smith offers apology
After Sunday’s loss, Packers outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith declined to discuss his marijuana citation issued last month but apologized for the incident.
Smith was pulled over for speeding while returning to Green Bay from Chicago on Sept. 29, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported Friday. Along with being ticketed for speeding, he also was ticketed for possessing marijuana or synthetic marijuana. Smith admitted to police that he had smoked marijuana that day, and officers found three blunts in a duffle bag Smith claimed were his, according to a report from the Racine County Sheriff ’s Office.
Smith has an initial appearance on both citations Monday in Racine. His appearance is not mandatory, according to Wisconsin online records.
Smith said the situation is not a distraction.
“I still went out here and gave it all I had, man,” Smith said. “It’s just one of those situations where we have to overcome this. Next week, we’ll know more but right now, I know nothing as far as the situation goes.”
King still battling injury
Kevin King stopped short of saying he aggravated a groin injury that has bothered him “off and on” over the past few weeks, but the Packers cornerback said he was placed on a snap count.
From the start, King split snaps with backup Tony Brown. When he wasn’t on the field, King occasionally rode a stationary bike to stay loose. He primarily played in priority situations, such as third downs and when the Chargers crossed midfield.
King first injured his groin against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 26. He has not missed a game this season, noteworthy considering he played only 15 of 32 career games in his first two seasons, but the injury has lingered.
Inside linebacker Blake Martinez said he aggravated his right hand, which was broken one week earlier. In the second quarter, Martinez said his hand was stepped on while making a tackle.
Emotions flare on sidelines
Cornerback Tramon Williams is usually a pretty mild-mannered guy, but something got him riled up in the fourth quarter enough that he was shown on the TV broadcast yelling at secondary coach Jason Simmons and needing teammates and coaches to settle him down.
It came after the defense gave up the Chargers’ final touchdown on a 1-yard run by running back Melvin Gordon with 10:32 left.
“We were losing, man,” Williams said of what sparked his outburst. “We felt that we should have been playing better and we just weren’t. We didn’t have that spark. Emotions just start to flare. That’s what you saw.”