The Green Bay squandered a commanding lead against the Chicago Bears, revealing a pattern of fear-based coaching. The franchise rot starts at the top.
Each and every loss this season, we've started the postgame analysis with the phrase "Moldy Cheese". At first, it was a funny way to languish at the fact that the Green Bay Packers lost to the hapless Cleveland Browns on the road in Week 3 after looking like true Super Bowl contenders in Weeks 1 and 2, respectively.
Over the course of the season, though, the term "moldy' has become a great way to describe the Packers.
Following their 31-27 loss to the Chicago Bears on the road in the Wild Card round of the NFC Playoffs on Saturday night, it's clear that organizational issues have impacted this once-proud franchise.
And it starts at the top.
Perhaps not just at the very top (just yet) with general manager Brian Gutekunst, but his day in the wood chipper may be soon approaching. Watching first-round picks Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness do just about nothing for several games in a row after Micah Parsons got injured is something that will be hard to recover from.
No, the top, in this case, is head coach Matt LaFleur, who must be fired after this disastrous loss to the Bears.
Losing is one thing. It happens. It happens in rivalry games all the time. Heck, only one team wins the Super Bowl yearly. Every other team ends the season on a loss.
Losing in such a predictably tepid way, though, is a direct reflection on LaFleur.
The Packers went into halftime up, 21-3. They had a 21-9 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Not one true Packers fan felt comfortable with this team coming out at half, though, because we've seen this story too many times in the LaFleur era.
He takes his foot off the brakes consistently. He loses his aggression, or his edge. Whatever he says in the locker room at halftime doesn't get any traction because more often than not, if this team goes into halftime with a lead, there's a very good chance they blow it.
Anything that worked in the first half is seemingly forgotten about by LaFleur.
The proof is in the game script.
The Pack game out gunning and allowed Jordan Love to throw the ball around the yard. He finished with three touchdowns in the first half, and that opened up Chicago's defense so that running back Josh Jacobs could do some damage on the ground.
After halftime, LaFleur seemingly tried to flip the script. You can only watch so many short yardage gains on first down, followed by a mid-level throw on second down, and basically a Hail Mary on third down before you realize that the play-caller has lost the plot.
It's deeper than that, though, because that kind of thing can be fixed by hiring an offensive coordinator who actually calls the plays.
No, the problem, the moldy cheese, goes all the way to the very aura of the head coach.
He coaches scared. He makes decisions based on fear. Case in point? He was completely okay going into the playoffs on a four-game losing streak because he was afraid his players would get injured in the season finale against the Minnesota Vikings. He admitted as much after the game... that watching Christian Watson go down in Week 18 in 2024 caused him to make conservative decisions this year.
Worse than anything, though, is this team's inability to get back up once they get punched in the mouth.
It's a LaFleur staple to fall apart when things get hard. His team can't respond to adversity, but that's a direct reflection of him as a head coach.
Watching him pace the sideline with an anxious look on his face in the fourth quarter of that loss to the Bears will be burned into the minds of Packers fans for the next generation, and it should be burned into the mind of new team CEO and president Ed Policy, who is supposed to be meeting with LaFleur after this game to discuss an extension.
If an extension is on the table, for the good of this once proud organization and the small town in Wisconsin nicknamed Title Town, Policy must reconsider.
Even just thinking it over won't be enough, though. Policy has to take swifter action than that. There's no denying it. LaFleur won't be able to lead this team to the promised land, and that's the only thing that matters anymore.
LaFleur is now 3-6 in the playoffs as a head coach. Again, though, the problem is deeper than the record. It's the man himself. His timid nature has infected this team with a disease that Policy must immediately root out.
LaFleur must be swiftly and unceremoniously fired for this disaster-class of a playoff loss.