With 4-2 Record, How Have Packers Gone From Staggering to Streaking?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Twenty-four days earlier, the Green Bay Packers were embarrassed in front of a national television audience and booed off the field in a blowout loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

The vultures were circling coach Matt LaFleur’s team after a 1-2 start. They seemed like a team ready to sink under the weight of their fatal flaws, undisciplined play and numerous injuries. They couldn’t run the ball, couldn’t protect the passer and couldn’t get out of their own way.

Incredibly, with their 23-13 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, the Packers have won three consecutive games. They still are a team with fatal flaws, and they certainly haven’t gotten any healthier. They can’t run the ball, they struggle to protect the passer and they can’t get out of their own way at times on either side of the ball.

And yet, the Packers have the fourth-longest winning streak in the NFL.

LaFleur wasn’t proud of the way his team played but he is proud of its mental toughness.

“I think it feels pretty good right now. But once tonight’s over, you watch the tape, you learn from it, you move onto the next,” LaFleur said. “It’s not like our schedule is going to get any easier here. So, it truly is a week-to-week league, and you’ve got to take it one game at a time – really, one day at a time. You’ve got to put in the work, first and foremost. And I love that locker room, I love those guys, they come to battle, they come to work, got a great attitude.”

Same Old Mistakes But Different Results

The victory over Dallas serves as a decent summary for the season.

The rushing attack produced a woeful 57 yards on 26 carries. That’s 2.2 yards per carry. That’s pretty terrible. And yet, when you limit it to the running backs, 20 handoffs were turned into 36 yards. That’s 1.8 yards per carry. You could do better by face-planting.

“We got to find a way to get this run game going because it’s too inconsistent,” LaFleur said.

Later, he added: “We got to keep hammering it because it is critical in today’s football to be able to run the football at a decent level.”

Jordan Love according to the official stats was sacked three times and hit on five other occasions. According to PFF’s early grading, he was pressured on 40 percent of his dropbacks and threw the third-most under-pressure passes in Week 6.

“The goal is to not get hit,” Love said. “The O-line, that is their job, and they take pride in that. And I think we’ll look at what we can continue to clean up. But for me, that’s my job. I’ve got to be able to stand in there.”

The Packers were flagged 11 times for 96 yards. There were three penalties for roughing the passer and two for taunting.

“You can only control how you respond to all that stuff and we’ve got to do a better job of making sure, whether we feel it was justified or not, it doesn’t matter,” LaFleur said. “You got to control your emotions to the best of your ability, and you’ve got to move on and play the next play and go beat him between the whistles.”

The dynamic duo of Christian Watson and Matthew Golden made some big-time plays but also looked like they had traded their receiver gloves for oven mitts at times. Drops have been a problem all season, with Love victimized by a league-high 14 through the first five games. Watson and Love each flubbed touchdown passes against Dallas.

Mistakes But Big Lead

Nonetheless, with no rushing attack, no discipline and shoddy execution, the Packers won with relative ease. They led 17-0 at halftime and more or less cruised over the finish line.

The Packers are 4-2 and in fifth place in the NFC. It’s an unthinkable achievement, really, given how they looked like an understaffed and underfunded semipro team for the first quarter of the season.

“We’ve had some ups and downs, obviously, but most teams do in the National Football League, and it’s truly how you respond to the adversity and if you can face it head on,” LaFleur said. “One thing I love about those guys, even through it all, there’s been any finger pointing.

“Everybody’s looking inward and trying to look at what they can improve upon as an individual, because we know that’s going to help the collective. That’s the way it needs to be, and those guys are selfless guys. Certainly, we’ve got some guys that aren’t playing that probably are deserving of playing. But they just keep coming to work with a great attitude and keep battling, and that’s the mark of a good team.”

For all the warts, they found a way.

Offensively, the Packers – the worst third-down team in the league through five games – went 11-of-18 against Dallas.

“Definitely feels good to get rolling with some wins,” Love said. “That’s what we talk about as a team. The mindset is take it one week at a time. We’ve got to stack wins. Obviously, a little adversity early on in the season with a couple of losses, but it’s all about how you respond, and I think we’re responding well right now.

“It definitely feels good, but we’ve just got to keep building upon it, keep stacking, keep taking it one week at a time.”

Defensively, Jonathan Gannon put together a winning game plan and the players executed it to perfection. Cornerbacks Keisean Nixon and Brandon Cisse won their matchup against Cowboys receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. With some late-game fluff, they caught 15-of-29 targets for 143 yards.

“I think we’re right where we need to be,” Nixon said. “We got them losses out of the way, and I think it’s full throttle nowadays. We’ve just got to keep stacking. One-week-at-a-time mentality.”

Upholding the Standard

The Packers are going to have to play better, to state the obvious. And quickly.

The Packers will play next week at the Lions, who are 3-2 and coming off their bye. Then, they will host the NFC South-leading Panthers, who are 3-2. After that, it’s a road trip to New England to face the defending AFC-champion Panthers, who are 4-2 with three consecutive wins. Finally, in the last game before the bye, the Packers will host the undefeated Vikings.

At some point, their fatal flaws will be just that. Fatal. But they are 4-2 and will be getting Josh Jacobs and Micah Parsons back at some point.

“That’s life in this league, right? Everybody’s going to have some flaws and you just got to find a way to go 1-0 every week,” LaFleur said. “I think the process is a big part of that in terms of what you’re doing from Monday to Saturday.

“I know we’re all judged on that 3-hour window of what the final product is, but I’m a big believer in the process. You’ve got to have a routine and you’ve got to come in with the right mindset and put in the work, because there’s no hiding from it.”

It wasn’t perfect on the field, though the final score showed another win. It wasn’t perfect in LaFleur’s postgame news conference, either, as he almost fumbled his closing thoughts on the final question.

“Proud of our guys. I think they do sh … stuff the right way. I almost slipped there,” he said with a laugh. “They do things the right way and I feel fortunate to be around a group of men like that that are willing to uphold a standard and do things the right way.”

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER