The Green Bay Packers – both the team and the fanbase – are trying to figure out why the organization has not managed to finish out games in the way its often high-flying teams should be able to.
The Packers collapsed this year in the Wild Card round, for the second time in less than a month against the Chicago Bears, but the pattern of losing does not start and end there.
The team has a pattern of bottling it at key moments, including losing to the San Francisco 49ers, 30-28, in the 2021 divisional game despite leading 17-0 in the second quarter, and with 8 minutes remaining in the game lead by 10 points, 24-14.
And the team’s former Pro Bowl defensive lineman, Mike Daniels, does not chalk this up to unfortunate coincidence, he believes it is an issue with the team’s culture that precedes even the tenure of head coach, Matt LaFleur.
Mike Daniels Speaks Out On Packers’ Attitude To Divsion Rivals
On Tuesday, Pack-A-Day podcast host, Andy Herman asked Daniels about the difference between the rah-rah energy of Lions head coach, Dan Campbell and Bears head coach, Ben Johnson – versus LaFleur.
Johnson received some backlash after Saturday’s win after locker footage came out of him leading a ‘f*** the Packers’ chant – and Daniels seemed to believe that this was all symptomatic of the Packers’ late-game collapse.
Former #Packers DT @Mike_Daniels76 says It’s not a LaFleur thing, it’s a long standing culture in Green Bay that started way before him.
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“I think it’s not a LaFleur thing. There’s a hatred that in Green Bay we don’t have. Anthony Barr dropped on Aaron Rodgers – they [Minnesota Vikings fans] were celebrating like, ‘The king is dead’. These guys hate us.”
Daniels also added some insight into the workings of the Green Bay locker room dynamics.
Packers Culture Discourages Aggressive Mentality – Daniels
Instead of hyping players up pre-game, the former Pro Bowler notes how when he himself would get a little too amped-up, veteran players actively told him to decompress and “relax”. Something that would seem counterproductive for a defensive lineman about to go out there and play four quarters of a football game.
“And when I would say – we lost to the Lions and I remember saying, ‘I don’t care if I gotta punch someone in the face’, and they say, ‘Yo tell this guy to shut up’. But every time I turn around one of our guys is getting knocked out the game and we’re not delivering the same “love” back to the opponents.”
Indeed, the former Packer believes that team quashes players’ natural aggression to such an extent that they change and become ‘not that same guy’ after spending time in Wisconsin.
“And when we have the guys that can do it, it’s like, ‘Yo, chill out – relax man, you’re doing too much’. I’ve watched guys in college be killers. Played against some of them. They were not that same guy after playing in Green Bay for a couple of years.”
Packers’ Loss Blamed On Culture By Former Pro Bowler