Green Bay Packers: 3 Key Improvements to Make in 2nd Half of Season

Be better at playing from behind

During the Matt LaFleur era, the Green Bay Packers haven’t suffered many losses, but when they do, they are typically quite ugly. Over a season and a half as Head Coach, including the playoffs, Green Bay has lost only six games under LaFleur, but they’ve lost by an average of 17 points.

As good as the Packers are at playing with a lead, they are equally as bad at playing from behind. Once they get punched in the mouth or face some sort of adversity, they’ve rarely been able to respond.

So what’s the issue? Well, I’m not really sure. At times when they do fall behind, LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers appear to somewhat abandon the game plan, and the result is Rodgers running around and holding the ball too long as he tries to be Superman like he did in 2018 during Mike McCarthy’s final season. And as we’ve seen, that doesn’t work very well. This offense is at its best when the ball is out quickly, and Rodgers is taking what’s available with some deep shots sprinkled in.

We’ve also heard after several losses that there is a “lack of energy.” Once again, why that keeps happening, I do not know. But it does need to change. Each and every week, this team needs to bring their own juice.

This season the Green Bay Packers have been excellent at taking an early lead, scoring on all eight of their opening drives. However, that isn’t always going to be the case, especially in the playoffs. So when they do get punched in the mouth, and they do fall behind, they need to be a lot better at responding and finding a way to regain the lead.

Bonus: The run defense

I didn’t include the run defense as one of the main areas of improvement, mainly because this one is quite obvious. There have been instances where the Green Bay Packers run defense has looked okay, but for the most part, this unit is still a major liability. Through eight games, the Packers are allowing 4.6 yards per carry, which is the ninth most in the NFL.