Packers Head Coach Matt LaFleur (Post-Game Transcript)
Opening Statement:
“Well, it’s never easy when it ends like this. You have to give Philly all the credit. I thought they certainly were the better team tonight, but I thought our guys competed. When you come into somebody else’s house against a really good football team, you can’t start the way we did. To fumble the opening kick and then turn it into a touchdown and be down seven to nothing from the jump. It was obviously too much to overcome but I appreciate the heck out of our guys in that locker room. Those guys show up every day with a great attitude, great energy, and compete. And I thought our guys competed to the final whistle, to tell you the truth. I thought defensively we played winning football. It’s just offensively and on special teams, we had too many mistakes, and you can’t overcome those against a really good football team. So give Philly all the credit. They deserved it, but I hurt for our guys, because, like I said, there’s a lot of energy and work that goes into this thing and it should hurt, because there is so much time and effort that goes into it. Hopefully we can use this as fuel to have a great offseason and come back next year ready to rock.”
On watching the replay of the fumble and whether he thought Packers KR Keisean Nixon had recovered it:
“Yeah, I thought so. I thought we recovered the ball just from what they showed on the big board and what I was hearing from our guys upstairs. I think [Packers assistant quarterbacks coach] Connor Lewis is spot on the majority of the time, and they all thought it was our ball. Obviously the league felt differently.”
On whether he got an explanation about the fumble:
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t get anything.”
On how much momentum the ruling over the fumble took out of them:
“Yeah, I mean, you have to be able to overcome things. Bad things happen in games, and you just have to be able to be resilient and bounce back. We just didn’t do enough, obviously, to do that. You’re not going to win many games when you’re minus four in the turnover battle and we knew going in. [Eagles head coach Nick] Sirianni’s got a heck of a record when they win the [turnover battle], so that was one of the points of emphasis. I think he’s like twenty-eight and two when they win the turnover battle, and so that was a huge point of emphasis. It always is every week. A lot of these games are going to come down to that. You can’t be minus four and expect to win a football game.”
On what the root cause is of the offense being in a real slog the past few weeks:
“I think it’s collectively. I think we all share a part of blame in that. It was tough tonight because they were playing in a soft zone. Really the entire game got basically a six-one front and played quarters. We didn’t have a whole lot of luck running the ball consistently, getting him out of that. There were a couple drives where I thought we did pretty well. I thought [Packers RB] Josh [Jacobs] competed his butt off. I thought we were competing. It’s just we weren’t as productive as we’d like to be. Then the pass game was just pretty much a struggle all night.”
On the pass game:
“Yeah, and they have good players. And even when we were running quick game, it’s like they were triggering and coming downhill and like smacking us in the back too many times. We tried some double moves to run by him. We got the one [defensive pass interference] on [Packers WR Dontayvion] Wicks. I thought there potentially were a couple other ones that obviously didn’t get called, but that’s life, and you have to be able to overcome it.”
On the slow starts this year against good teams:
“Well, I think that’s going to be a great reflection point this offseason. Because obviously if we had the answers it wouldn’t have been a problem. And for it to come up multiple times, it’s disappointing. This is one of the best defenses in the league so give them some credit as well. And they played better than us. Bottom line.”
On if there was anything he thought they would be able to hang their hat on in the passing game ahead of the game:
“Yeah, there were a lot of things that I thought we were going to be able to hang our hat on. It’s unfortunate. There were a couple times where we had guys open and then the ball gets batted at the line of scrimmage. Sometimes we didn’t have great protection. So I think it was a multitude of things throughout the course of the game that led to a poor performance in the pass game.”
On the interception Packers QB Jordan Love threw right before halftime and whether the Eagles tricked them:
“No, what we did, we made an adjustment on one of our plays, and in quarters coverage, it was a bad adjustment for us, so we shifted the tight end, we put him over the ball. The hole was there to go where he went. I don’t know about the timing of the play and making sure that we got the right route depth and whatnot. [Eagles LB] Zack Baun is a heck of a player. They played visual in the quarterback and he ended up falling off into the window. So I think that’s more of a schematic thing, less of a player performance thing.”
On the fair amount of personal fouls all season as well as a couple costly ones today and what he thinks is going on there:
“Yeah, well, you have to be disciplined at all times. And I get it, football is an emotional game, but you have to put your emotions in check. And I always chalk those up to – I have to look at them first of all to see like, I know there was a difference of opinion when I was asking some of the guys of what they thought about some of those. But bottom line is, you have to keep your emotions in check and you can’t do anything to put yourself in the cross fires of the officials and you never know how they’re going to officiate that. So we just have to be better. Bottom line.”
On what the message is to the team going into the offseason:
“Yeah, I think it just goes back to show you, like the importance of getting these homefield games, in my opinion. We have a really tough division, and you know, I’m hoping our guys use that for fuel this offseason to dig a little bit deeper and come back a little bit better, each individually, because collectively, that’ll make a huge difference. Obviously we’ll comb through everything. I think it was, you know, we still have a young football team. I’m not making excuses or anything like that. We have a young football team that, unfortunately, this is a tough lesson along the way. Hopefully we can use this as fuel to get better and learn and be a better team come next year.”
On whether Packers QB Jordan Love’s elbow was a nagging injury today:
“You’d have to ask him. I never heard him, one time, ever say anything like that.”
On how much the injuries piling up contribute to the struggles today:
“It’s football. It’s unfortunate. I hate it for our guys that have to battle through that. But it’s football. It’s ‘next man up’ mentality. There’s a standard of performance that you have to go out there. We have to hold that standard no matter who’s in. You have to find ways to adjust. It’s our job as coaches to try to make the necessary adjustments to put those guys in positions where they can still have success. We obviously didn’t do a good enough job of that tonight.”
On whether getting Packers RB Josh Jacobs involved in the passing game was an adjustment made in-game:
“No, I mean, we had those plays going in. You know, we haven’t done as much, I would say, empty this year, but we thought that was one of the things that we could take advantage of if they’re playing the shell defense. We hit them on an out route. I think another time we hit them as a check down. Like I said, they played mostly some coverage the entire game. So, you know, that’s about par for the night right there.”
On if a greater veteran presence is needed on such a young team:
“We’ll see. I think every year is a little bit different, and it’s ultimately about how the collective comes together and how we perform as a unit, as a whole team. And I think there’s going to be a lot of time for reflection for that. I love those guys in that locker room, and I appreciate all they do, how they compete, how they put the work in, and I just really hurt for those guys.”
On if he spoke with Packers WR Romeo Doubs:
“Yeah, I talked to him, quickly.”
On Packers QB Jordan Love’s tendency to take shots instead of throwing underneath:
“I think those are all good questions for this offseason as we sit back and reflect. And I love [Packers QB] Jordan Love and how he competes and the work he puts in and I think he’s going to get better and better and better. And certainly, there’s some lessons along the way, some tough lessons, any time you end up in defeat. I mean, that’s hard to deal with, but I think you have to be — he is very critical of himself, and he does such a great job of learning from every experience. So, I think through this, we’ll all be better for it, although it’s tough to go through, but I think there’s going to be a lot of learning over the course of the next however many months before next year arrives.”
On what needs to be done for the offense to generate more explosive plays:
“Well, it was hard tonight. I mean, you have to earn the right to get them out of that soft shell. And we never did. You’d like to be able to lean on some of the things in the run game, and it was just a little bit of a struggle. But, we’ll take a look at it, and we have to come up with better answers. And I think it all starts with just staying ahead of the sticks, though, and being efficient on offense. I don’t know what the third-down numbers were, but I’m guessing they weren’t very good. So, you know, we have to be more efficient, is what I’ll tell you. If teams are going to play that soft coverage like that. And, I mean, you have to be able to convert the third and shorts. And there were a couple times, obviously, at the end of the game, I mean, we got an outcut, we’re open, and we ended up out of bounds. So, it’s all the little details I think that really make a difference in terms of just being able to convert in a lot of those critical situations.”