Many will blame Matt LaFleur, and understandably so. Others will point to Jordan Love not playing well enough, and that's also fair.
But both are having to overcome what is becoming an offensive line disaster this season, and it's derailing the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl dreams alarmingly fast. They are now 5-3-1, third in the NFC North, and seventh in the conference. With a brutal eight-game schedule to come, even the Packers' playoff hopes are under attack.
Here's the problem: Green Bay can't run block. Defenses know it, and they are reacting by playing soft coverages and daring the Packers to run the football. LaFleur and Love see it and keep leaning on the rushing attack. But again, the line can't block, and Josh Jacobs has to fight off defenders in the backfield.
According to Pro Football Focus, Jacobs entered Week 10 having accumulated 428 of his 534 rushing yards after first contact. There's only so much he can do with that.
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Now, they've lost Pro Bowler Elgton Jenkins, potentially for the season. It won't get any easier.
When the rushing attack didn't provide enough of a spark, LaFleur tried to stretch defenses horizontally with a mix of screen passes, checkdowns, and sweeps. That, too, didn't work. Defenses, like the Carolina Panthers last week and the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football, swarmed to the ball and shut down just about anything thrown short.
Packers' offensive line is quickly derailing the team's Super Bowl hopes faster than anything else
Teams are sitting deep and making it difficult to hit explosive plays down the field. It's begging for an offense to run all over them, but the Packers' embarrassing run-blocking is preventing them from taking advantage.
Just how bad? Green Bay entered Week 10 ranked 21st in run-block win rate, per ESPN, and the updated numbers after MNF won't make it look any better.
It's not just a run-blocking problem, either. Philadelphia's pass-rushers kept getting in Love's face, and it clearly impacted his game. On the ESPN broadcast, Troy Aikman said the pass rush was "really unsettling" Love and that he had "not been able to get comfortable." That led to mistakes and missed opportunities.
To exaggerate a point to make a point, imagine the Packers' 2014 offensive line of David Bakhtiari, T.J. Lang, Corey Linsley, Josh Sitton, and Bryan Bulaga. Put them in this offense. Do you think defenses would dare the Packers to run?
That would be a dream scenario, as they would bully lighter boxes and carve open rushing lanes so big they'd extend to the parking lot. It would force opponents to shift a safety into the box, which in turn would open up big-play potential in the passing game.
The 2014 line was special and hard to replicate, but if Green Bay had high-quality run blocking, the offense would find its rhythm far more easily.
That doesn't eliminate LaFleur, or Love for that matter, from blame. It's LaFleur's scheme. It's his decision which linemen take the field. He calls the plays. If the offense is about building around your strengths, we're not seeing enough examples of that.
Take the 4th-and-1 failure that effectively ended the game on Monday night. Instead of giving Love a chance to throw (or even scramble if he had to) and make a play, he called a run out of the shotgun. Jacobs had to rely on Jordan Morgan and Luke Musgrave to make their blocks, and it, predictably, resulted in a loss of yardage and a fumble.
Would Andy Reid take the ball out of Patrick Mahomes' hands on 4th-and-1 with the game on the line? Joe Brady with Josh Allen? If the Packers could run block, maybe it would make sense. But LaFleur must know who this team is and where their strengths lie.
Ultimately, though, LaFleur and Love remain restricted by the lack of success along the offensive line. Great defenses, and even good ones, are figuring out how to win in the trenches against them.
It's on the head coach to adjust his game plan, and for Love to elevate those around him, but the play of the starting five is crushing the Packers' Super Bowl dreams.