The Green Bay Packers crumble under pressure. Can head coach Matt LaFleur rally his team to overcome adversity and silence doubters against the Chicago Bears?
If there's been a constant complaint about Matt LaFleur's time as head coach of the Green Bay Packers, it's that his team has struggled to respond to adversity.
When the Packers get punched in the mouth in games by their opponents, or something goes wrong, it seems to send them into a spiral.
We saw that again in Week 15 against the Denver Broncos. What ended up being a heartbreaking 34-26 loss came about because the Packers could not handle the punches in the second half of the game.
They went into halftime up, 16-14, remember, and they increased that lead to 23-14 with a beautiful Josh Jacobs touchdown run coming out of halftime. The Broncos went three-and-out on their next drive, and the Packers got the ball back with the opportunity to really start laying it on Denver early in the third quarter.
Unfortunately, the first play on that next drive not only led to a Jordan Love interception, but star wideout Christian Watson went down with what appeared to be a serious injury. It turns out he'll be okay, but at the time, it looked like another season-ender.
You could feel the Packers hit the matt and lose their breath in that moment.
If they were struggling to catch their breath after that interception, they were completely knocked down when superstar pass-rusher Micah Parsons went down with less than a minute to go in the third with what was confirmed on Monday to be a torn ACL.
There was still some fight from certain players (shoutout to Edgerrin Cooper), but the Packers lost all the wind out of their sails when Parsons went down.
"We all know what type of player he is, the impact on our football team," LaFleur said after the game, per Mike Spofford of the team website. "To lose somebody like that, it's tough. But nobody's going to feel sorry for us. We've got to find a way."
And now, the Packers will have to try to "find a way" to get back on the winning track without Parsons. They've got three games remaining, and a playoff spot has not yet been locked up.
Two of those games are against NFC North opponents, and the very next one, against the NFC North-leading Chicago Bears, is going to be a massive Sunday Night Football contest at Soldier Field.
LaFleur said his team needs to find a way. He's also preaching the "next man up" philosophy, which is really all he can do at this point.
"We're going to have to feed off one another and rally around each other. There's going to be opportunities for other guys to get in there and they're going to have to be impactful," he said.
Those are all great soundbites from the head coach, but at this point of the season, talk is cheap. LaFleur has to find a way to motivate his team to back those words up.
The Packers have been knocked down, but they're not quite out of it yet. Ahead of him, LaFleur is staring at an opportunity to prove his worth as head coach.
Can he keep this team together and fighting, or will the Packers fall apart?
Too often in the past, we've seen the Packers falter when the going gets tough. If LaFleur can change that mindset, though, they've still got a chance to make something of this 2025 season.