Gary Ellerson didn’t dress up the Green Bay Packers’ first win of the season.
“The Jets were bad, and we didn’t look good either,” the former Green Bay running back said of a 20-17 overtime escape. “But they were able to muster up a win.”
His larger point concerned Matt LaFleur, whose late-game record has provided fuel for an increasingly loud segment of the fan base.
“A lot of Packers fans have been calling to have Matt LaFleur fired,” Ellerson said during a Sept. 21 appearance on ESPN Milwaukee. “And of course, four of these games he’s lost, he’s had double-digit leads.
“Now he comes back and wins a game when he was down by 10. I don’t know if you can have it both ways; I think you’ve got to give him a lot of credit.”
Ellerson’s argument asks for consistency.
Assuming LaFleur owns the collapses, he deserves a share of the comeback, even when the road there featured an offense stuck in neutral, a stack of penalties and enough injuries to make the win feel secondary at times.
LaFleur Reverses Packers’ Troubling Late-Game Pattern
The criticism didn’t materialize from one bad afternoon.
Green Bay had squandered four double-digit leads over the previous 12 months, a stretch that culminated in a 39-22 season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
The Packers led 22-10 with a bit more than five minutes remaining in the third quarter before Minnesota scored the final 29 points. That collapse followed losses to the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears, plus a blown lead against Chicago in the playoffs.
The odds of Green Bay going 0-4 in those games were calculated at 1 in 2.5 million by Forbes.
LaFleur had become the face of a team that repeatedly failed to finish.
Against New York, the script finally flipped.
The Packers trailed 17-7 with 11:04 remaining after a MarShawn Lloyd fumble handed the Jets a short field. Jordan Love answered with a touchdown pass to Christian Watson. A 63-yard punt return by Skyy Moore then set up Trey Smack’s tying field goal.
“Talk about resiliency. Our guys kept battling,” LaFleur said afterward, according to the Packers’ official game recap.
Packers’ Ugly Win Isn’t Terrible News
Ellerson began his take with a note that Green Bay didn’t play well.
The Packers produced 199 total yards, converted 1 of 9 third downs and fumbled five times, losing one. The teams combined for 27 penalties and 289 penalty yards, per a game account from Reuters.
The winning sequence still had something LaFleur’s group had lacked. Green Bay’s defense stopped the Jets on fourth-and-1 near midfield late in regulation, then sacked Geno Smith on consecutive plays to begin overtime.
Love followed with a composed 58-yard drive, and Smack ended it with a 26-yard field goal.
LaFleur can’t claim sole possession of that resilience. His defense and special teams rescued an offense that managed three yards after Moore’s return placed the ball at the New York 18.
The Packers also failed to capitalize on their final possession of regulation.
The shortcomings are visible, and perhaps the wider debate about LaFleur is alive and well.
With Green Bay looking messy, wounded and inches from an 0-2 start, LaFleur’s team found a way out. And the coach who took the blame for four improbable defeats earned his portion of an unlikely win.
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