GREEN BAY — On a cold November night at Lambeau Field, the Packers walked off the field quietly. The fans walked from the seats to their cars in a much louder fashion.
Groans of an agitated fan base could be heard from the press box walkway towering over the lower bowl concourse, where fans expressed their displeasure with the offense. With Jordan Love. With Matt LaFleur.
Speaking to each other, some wanted to see coach LaFleur take the cold walk they were about to endure, never to return. All wanted to see results, and soon, following a 10–7 loss on Monday night to the Eagles, dropping Green Bay to 5-3-1 and third place in the NFC North.
But in the catacombs of Lambeau, there was a different vibe.
Love and LaFleur were disappointed but not deterred at the postgame podium, talking about his team’s effort being terrific while also acknowledging its failings over the past two weeks. Additionally, both recognized the problems offensively that have resulted in 20 points over the Packers’ last two home games, losing both games despite holding their opponents to a combined 26 points.
“We’re not getting into a rhythm,” said Love of the offense. “We’ll have a good play here, and then we’ll have a negative play. It’s a lot of things whether it’s a turnover, penalty, drop, sack, it’s a lot of things. So it’s just [finding] ways to keep the positive plays going and avoid these negative plays that we’re getting.”
Yet of all the headwinds facing the Green Bay attack, Monday night showed why star tight end Tucker Kraft’s season-ending torn ACL may prove to be the moment things changed permanently for the 2025 Packers.
Going into the game, Green Bay had targeted its tight ends 59 times, including 44 for Kraft, for an average of 7.3 per game. In their first eight games, the Packers also ran a good bit of 12-personnel (one RB, two TEs and two WRs), using that grouping on an average of 24.4 plays per game.
Against the Eagles, coach Matt LaFleur had to go elsewhere. Green Bay called only five plays in 12-personnel, one of which resulted in a pass attempt. Perhaps LaFleur should have considered it more, as the offense averaged 8.4 yards per play on those downs, compared to 3.9 for the game.
“I think that’s something we’re obviously struggling with, finding the right solutions right now,” LaFleur said. “So we have to take a long, hard look at that and come up with a better plan, bottom line. You score seven points in this league, you’re probably not going to win many games. … Ultimately, we have to do a much better job and it starts with myself.”
Overall, the Packers targeted tight ends only three times (all to Luke Musgrave), choosing their receiver depth despite being without Jayden Reed, due to a broken collarbone sustained in Week 2, Matthew Golden, who injured his shoulder last week, and Romeo Doubs after he exited this game with a chest injury.
Throughout the evening, Green Bay couldn’t get separation from Philadelphia’s defense. Entering the game, the Eagles were allowing 2.8 yards of separation per route, first in the NFL, per NFL Pro. The secondary, led by second-year corners Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell, lived up to its prior play, holding Doubs, Christian Watson, Bo Melton and Dontayvion Wicks to nine catches for 117 yards on 22 targets.
“There were a lot of guys in and out of the lineup,” LaFleur said. “Obviously we’ve had a few injuries at that position and it was kind of a free-for-all I would say the majority of that second half of who’s in and who’s out, or running some deeper-developing stuff to try to open up that mid-range passing game where we thought we could take advantage.”
Green Bay’s pass-catching group is cause for concern moving forward. While Reed will eventually return, the Packers don’t have a star receiver. Nobody on their roster has ever had a 1,000-yard season, making it hard for quarterback Jordan Love to find easy yardage in the passing game without Kraft in the lineup.
“We’ll do some more 11 personnel and not have as many 12 personnel sets and 13 personnel,” Love said. “So we’ll see. But it also goes back to find a way to attack the defense. I’m confident with whatever personnel is put out there.”
As a result of the injuries, LaFleur and his offensive staff must get creative. The Packers entered Monday night ranking 15th in rushing success rate (43%) and 16th in rushing EPA (-0.4). With an apparent lack of faith in two- and three-tight end sets, LaFleur needs more from running back Josh Jacobs, who was one of the league’s top free-agent additions last year with 1,329 yards and a career-high 15 touchdowns.
This season, Jacobs has been relatively bottled up despite ample opportunities. Through eight games, the Packers ranked 10th in run rate (46.6%) while Jacobs has rushed for 608 yards on 162 carries, ranking fourth in the league. All this while seeing light boxes on 41.1% of rushes, 10th-best in the NFL. Even with that, Jacobs is rushing for only 3.7 yards per carry, down from 4.4 YPA in 2024.
“I do think one thing that could help us immensely is we’ve got to get back to the running game. … I thought it was solid tonight, it was effective. But the more you can keep teams off balance, if you’re really humming, that alleviates a lot of stress on your offense.”
As LaFleur walked to his car in the Lambeau parking lot, he had to be thinking about plenty. How to attack the Giants on Sunday. How to unlock the ground game. How he can reimagine the offense without Kraft.
All of those thoughts are expected and valid.
The same can be said for those fans, walking into the late-night chill of Green Bay, wondering if their Packers will figure it out in time.
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