Whatever happened to Matt LaFleur's "all gas, no brakes" mantra?
The Green Bay Packers need to snap out of their offensive malaise, and fast. Heavyweight battles in the NFC will come thick and fast, beginning with the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football before a run of four divisional games in the following six weeks.
LaFleur knows a repeat performance from last week's loss to the Carolina Panthers could produce frightening results against the defending Super Bowl champions, and it may take a complete change in approach, especially with injuries piling up at the skill positions.
It's time to trust Jordan Love and hand him the keys to the offense. Packers fans have said it all season, and ESPN's Mina Kimes hit the nail on the head in her preview for Monday's game against Philadelphia.
"Stop playing for third down. Just stop it," said Kimes on 'The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny.' "It's either dink or dunk, or it's like schemed-up shots. On Tuesday, I ranted about the absence of the intermediate passing game. If they try to come out against this Eagles defense with a bunch of screens and sweeps, it's not going to work. You've got to attack them downfield."
"I just want to see on first and second down, Jordan Love throwing the ball in that 10- to 20-yard range. Please. This Eagles defense is too good against the quick stuff."
Co-host Brentley Weissman added that LaFleur "coaches not to lose rather than coaching to win."
Mina Kimes called out the one thing Packers fans are sick of watching every week
LaFleur's all-or-nothing plan last week was head-scratching, to say the least. Green Bay played so conservatively for the majority of the game but then sprinkled in some of the most unnecessarily desperate heaves deep downfield.
It's time for LaFleur to listen to his own messaging. Just three weeks ago, after a surprisingly aggressive game plan that included a risky fourth-down attempt to all but seal victory over Arizona, LaFleur said: "Scared money don't make money."
Yet the Packers spent all of last week playing with scared money.
Kimes and Weissman put it perfectly. LaFleur calls games like he's trying to get to third down. A first-down screen here. A second-and-long run there. But that plan only works if you actually convert on third downs. To their credit, the Packers rank No. 2 in the league at moving the chains on money downs, but they still fail 51 percent of the time.
Love is close to unstoppable when throwing between 10 and 19 yards down the field, so why not take those shots on early downs?
If it doesn't work, fine. Have another go. But LaFleur's safe play-calling just to reach third-and-manageable creates offensive inconsistency. It pushes the door open for the defense, who only need one crucial stop on third down to shut down drives.
As Kimes pointed out, LaFleur's risk-averse strategy could explain why the Packers continue to "play down" to their opponents. It's the total opposite of his "all gas, no brakes" philosophy. Instead of blowing bad teams away, the Packers let them stick around.
It burned them badly in Week 3 against the Cleveland Browns, a game they had no business losing, and even worse in Week 9. They never got out of first gear last week.
For this Packers team to stack up wins throughout a brutal second-half schedule, starting on MNF, LaFleur must be brave enough to take risks. Hand Love the keys. After all, in his own words, "Scared money don't make money."