Getty Head coach Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers reacts during the first quarter of the NFL game against the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field on December 12, 2021 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Another miserable performance for the Green Bay Packers special teams unit will not prompt head coach Matt LaFleur to make a change to his staff.
The Packers had quite a few things go wrong for them on special teams during Week 14’s win over the Chicago Bears, particularly with their kickoff and punt coverage. In the first half alone, they allowed Bears rookie Khalil Herbert to gain at least 40 yards on back-to-back kickoff returns and were unable to stop Jakeem Grant from taking one of their midfield punts 97 yards to the house.
The Packers also had some difficulty with fielding the ball. Malik Taylor muffed a punt that went out of bounds at the 5-yard line in the first half. Amari Rodgers then muffed another one at a critical point early in the fourth quarter; though, it was saved thanks to Bears gunner Kindle Vildor getting baited out of bounds and returning illegally. Even Marquez Valdes-Scantling made a mistake for the return crew, tipping an onside kick that sailed over his head and allowed Herbert to recover it for Chicago.
The performance on special teams was so ugly that the first question LaFleur was asked in his postgame press conference on Sunday was whether replacing Maurice Drayton as the Packers’ special teams coach was an option on the table.
“Absolutely not,” LaFleur told reporters after the 45-30 win. “We’ve got to continue to work, we’ve got to look at the tape, we’ve got to get things corrected. I’ll be the first to tell you that, yeah, are there some things we have to clean up as coaches? Yeah, no doubt about it. But we’ve got to execute better as well.”
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Bojorquez Struggles in Rare Bad Game
It wasn’t just the guys trying to make tackles and field kicks who struggled for the Packers special teams on Sunday night. Punter Corey Bojorquez — who has been a significant improvement over former starter JK Scott this season — also delivered a rare bad performance against the Bears with several punts he would have surely liked to have back.
One such punt was Bojorquez’s shank at the end of the third quarter when he booted it just 22 yards and out of bounds at Chicago’s 29-yard line. The Bears weren’t able to more than go three-and-out on the ensuing drive, but it could have been more problematic given the Packers only held an 11-point lead at that point. Of course, Bojorquez also punted the ball directly down the middle to Grant on the one he returned for a touchdown, but LaFleur didn’t mind the placement as much as other things going on during the failed stop.
“I thought the ball placement was good,” LaFleur said of the punt. “We could have had a little bit more hang time. I mean, (Grant) took it from the 3-yard line. Not many guys are going to do that. Most people teach that you don’t field that ball, but when you’ve got a special talent like that, then you can field it wherever you want to field it because he’s just so explosive. We’ve just got to do a better job. Certainly, I think we could have had more hang time on that, but our guys have got to do a better job in their coverage responsibilities.”