Look, I’m not saying that I agreed with Green bay Packers’ coach Matt LaFleur’s decision to kick a field goal when his team was down eight points with [2:01] left in the game. Well I actually lied: I agreed at first until common sense kicked in.
I, and seemingly most people on social media, thought that LaFleur should have gone for it on fourth and goal late in the game. The Packers were trailing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 at the time, so a touchdown and a two-point conversion would have TIED the game. Going for the field goal would have been useless because even if the Packers forced a three-and-out and got the ball back, they still would have needed a touchdown with even less time left and fewer timeouts.
And I don’t give a damn what the analytics said, I’ve long said they do not belong in sports. In case if y’all forgot, the analytics only favored the field goal decision 10% to 9%, so either way it was useless!
So yes, LaFleur crapped the bed with that decision. That said, he wasn’t the only culprit here.
Aaron Rodgers, come on down.
Rodgers is all but the 2020 NFL MVP. He yearned to play a conference championship game at home. He was going against a Tampa Bay secondary that was playing with two backup safeties. Oh, and Tom Brady gave him THREE interceptions.
Yet Rodgers came up short. He couldn’t take advantage of those backup safeties. He couldn’t cash in those three Brady interceptions. He didn’t do well in the red zone.
But none were more egregious than this: why the hell didn’t Aaron run it on third and goal???
Yes, LaFleur made a bad decision going for the field goal late. And yes, he is probably having some sleepless nights over it. But A-a-ron has to bear some culpability instead of throwing his head coach under the bus.
It’s gonna be an interesing off-season in Green Bay…
Categories: NFL
GB let the game get away with them by giving up a long TD pass with 6 seconds left in the first half. That was the most costly error.