The Green Bay Packers were not a sure-fire touchdown-machine in the redzone last year, as they finished the year 17th in touchdown rate in the final 20 yards of the field. But this year has been a real struggle. Through 11 weeks, the Packers are 29th in the same metric, down from 53.42% to 47.06%.
Quarterback Jordan Love praised the Chicago Bears’ defensive performance on Sunday, but he knows the Packers could have been more effective.
“We had some ops, obviously we left a couple plays out there,” Love said. “But like I said, they’re very good in the redzone and on third down, we knew that coming into the game. In the redzone, you want to put up more points, you want to finish the drive with a touchdown. There was obviously the interception in the redzone that did not help us.”
The Packers were able to move the ball with consistency against the Bears, one of the best defenses in football. Even in a game with a low number of possessions, the Packers had 367 yards in total offense. But Love’s interception in the second quarter and the turnover on downs late in the game cost the Packers at least six points — it was a 20-19 win, so six points is not a useless margin.
“This is the National Football League, you gotta come with your best every week in order to come away with a win. It’s always hard to win on the road, they were 4-1 at home, so I figured this was gonna be a four-quarter battle,” head coach Matt LaFleur said. “I thought there were some good performances, and I thought there was a lot of stuff that we gotta get better at. Mainly, in situational ball. Third-down in the redzone, really on both sides of the football. I told our guys we will never ever apologize for winning and we will take it. We’re gonna learn from this, and we get a big battle next week.”
Even though Matt LaFleur is confident in the Packers’ ability to improve, he knows each week is hard in the NFL.
“Possessions were at a premium. There weren’t a lot of possessions. We had three possessions in the first half. A handful in the second half, I didn’t know when we would get the ball back,” LaFleur pointed out. “The margin of error in this league is so minimal. It’s a .500 league. You have to find a way to win some of these tight games like we did.”
Next week, the challenge is certainly harder. On Sunday, at Lambeau Field, the Packers have a huge NFC matchup against the San Francisco 49ers. Against one of the top teams in the league, redzone failures won’t be forgiven.