Hello Wisconsin: Matt LaFleur’s Coaching Deserves Flowers

I have to admit that I gave the Packers very little chance of winning a game without Jordan Love. Go back to my column last week and you’ll see as much under my predictions.

As it turns out, I very much underestimated this team and the supporting cast that has been built around the quarterback.

Perhaps most of all, I underestimated Matt LaFleur.

Now, we all know that LaFleur has had the most victories of anyone in their first five years of coaching not named George Seifert (who won two championships in that time with the 49ers). Clearly this is a good coach; I never thought otherwise.

Of course, there have also been moments where I have been critical of LaFleur over the years, particularly with some of the decisions he’s been slow to make regarding personnel that seemed obvious to we in the bleachers, as well as regarding some of the ways the team has failed to show up after long road trips.

But this week’s victory over the Colts may have been one of LaFleur’s finest moments as coach of this team so far. 

It helped that the defense played excellent football. Yes, they allowed a lot of ground yards to Jonathan Taylor, but they completely neutered the Colts’ passing offense, and prevented the much-hyped Anthony Richardson from making any of the big plays that he has been able to hang his hat on in his short career so far.

But LaFleur also showed a lot of creativity with his play design, despite the game plan being “run as much as possible.” There were new wrinkles, motions, and fakes that had the Colts diving all over the field. Perhaps the prettiest new play design of them all was the end around to Bo Melton, which had multiple potential players to receive a handoff only for Melton to get out to the edge while the Colts all expected an interior run. It was a thing of beauty.

But most of all, consider this: Malik Willis had been on the team for a whole three weeks. He still does not have a grasp of the entire offense. Despite that, the Packers were able to work around the situation and do enough on offense to come away with the win. When Willis had to throw, the Packers put him in position to succeed, and he finished with an efficient day in the air. 

I know there were people who were critical of the Packers’ decision to sit on the ball rather than attempt a two minute drive at the end of the first half, but LaFleur’s response after the game mirrored my own thoughts. When your defense is playing that well and you have a lead, why force a guy who’s that new to the team and still barely knows the offense to get into an uncomfortable position and potentially damage his confidence? LaFleur’s confidence in his defense paid off, and Willis continued playing well into the second half even as the run game started to lose the momentum it had in the first half.

It was an excellent showing of flexibility from LaFleur and a tremendous game plan. The defense gets a big-time assist, but LaFleur deserves some credit for a game that very many people did not think the Packers could win.

Wisconsin Beer of the Week

Untitled Art Brewing is typically known for their fruited sours, decadent pastry stouts and hoppy experimental IPAs. However, every now and then they release a real banger of a more traditional style beer, and one such example was their recent Black Lager.

This moderate 5 percent ABV traditional black lager features midnight wheat, citra, and hallertau blanc hops. It’s a hair smokier than your standard german dark lager, but despite the hop varieties, it’s a no-frills black lager that is very versatile. It’s the kind of beer I could enjoy with a book, with a meal, or with a bonfire. 

This one may or may not still be available for purchase in Wisconsin; if you can’t find it, you can always check out the wide range of other beers offered by Untitled Art. While I haven’t loved every beer of theirs I’ve ever had, they’ve had WAY more hits than misses, and every now and then create something truly unique and sensational.

A tale of two first-round draft picks

After two weeks of play, there are two players on the Packers’ defense with intertwined fates who have both stood out, but for very different reasons.

Linebacker Quay Walker and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt were both selected in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft. That year, Wyatt barely saw the field, while Walker showed some athleticism but was often exposed, something many of us saw as being simple growing pains of a player making his way under the coaching of a bad coordinator.

But now in their third years, their careers have taken opposite trajectories. Where Wyatt saw some real growth last year, Walker failed to produce a second-year jump. This year, Walker may be the team’s worst player after two weeks, while Wyatt has been excellent. 

As long as we talk about the 2022 draft, people are going to specifically look at those two first round picks and compare what happened to them and how they contributed to the team over their careers. Right now, it’s looking like only one of these two are going to get a second contract, and probably not the guy many would have expected at this time a year ago.

Walker’s big selling point was supposed to be his closing speed and ability to make big lateral plays. But to this point, he’s frequently out of position to make those plays, and has often been a liability in both the running game and in coverage. He’s bad coming off the edge as an extra rusher, though reasonably effective at rushing up the middle.

If he’s not able to figure it out quickly, he’s going to be denied a fifth-year option and will be on a lame-duck contract next season at best. He has a tremendous amount of physical talent, so hopefully he can turn things around.

Wyatt, meanwhile, has been looking like a stud in the making. He’s disruptive against both the run and the pass, and combined with Kenny Clark, TJ Slaton, and Karl Brooks makes for an outstanding top three rotation along the interior of the defensive line. It’s been a long time since the big bodies up front on the defense were an area of strength for the team, but right now that IDL spot is one of the team’s best positions by overall talent.

Around the NFC North

As always, it’s time to go around the NFC North. 

• The CHICAGO BEARS have not learned their lesson. It doesn’t matter who they get playing quarterback; they continue to ignore the offensive line in the offseason. All the offseason victory laps this fanbase was ONCE AGAIN taking are looking pretty silly at the moment, as Caleb Williams has absolutely no ability to get anything done. Now, to be fair, Williams himself has also not looked good; his college game has not yet translated to the pros, and he appears jittery and unable to make the same types of throws he’d been making at USC. But his growth is going to be capped until the team can figure something out on the line. Meanwhile, there’s a good chance that for a third QB in a row the team fires its coach after the QB’s rookie year, subjecting him to immediate turnover and destroying any shot of true consistency early in the critical moments of his career.

 

• The DETROIT LIONS were upset at home by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield, who continues to play gritty football after being cast off by a couple different franchises. Dan Campbell took all the blame for some of his decision making, but the fact is that the team never should have been in position to lose this game in the first place. It’s going to be a tough road to a divisional title repeat, and the Lions got a taste of that this week against Tampa.

 

• The MINNESOTA VIKINGS had one of the upsets of the week against San Francisco and are now a very surprising 2-0. Perhaps I underestimated Sam Darnold, who looks like a player reborn. The Vikings may just have enough talent after all to be competitive this year in a relatively weak NFC. After all, they just took down the conference’s presumed top dogs, so why not?

This or That in Mr. Backes’s classroom: Week 2

As some of you may recall, last year I started doing weekly “this or that” polls on the whiteboard in my classroom at school for laughs. I decided to make it a weekly part of this column to keep you updated on what the youths are saying these days about entirely unimportant issues.

Here are some of the results from the last week:

• Big dogs defeated little dogs
• Chappell Roan defeated Sabrina Carpenter
• Crunch wrap supreme defeated cheesy gordita crunch (Taco Bell menu items)
• Movies at the theater TIED with movies at home
• Short sprints defeated long distance runs

I’ll continue to keep you updated on the most pressing issues of our time.

But really, how about Malik Willis?

Hard to say enough things about Willis and how he was able to succeed in the position he was in. 

The man had been on the team for barely three weeks and didn’t know until the night before the game that he was going to be getting the start. He’s still learning the playbook and the language of the offense. To go out and help guide a team to victory in those circumstances is so impressive.

Sure, the Packers didn’t ask him to do much. But the occasional times they needed him to make plays, he stepped up and made smart decisions, and even a couple big plays (bomb to Romeo Doubs, a couple nice chain-moving runs). 

Hilariously, Willis is currently a better statistical quarterback this season than both Caleb Williams and Jared Goff, and when looking at efficiency, he’s near the front of the league when combining CPOE and EPA/Play. Now, of course, we’re talking very small sample size, so this doesn’t exactly mean a lot, but it’s kind of hilarious to rub in the faces of Bears fans who spent the whole offseason grousing about how they were in a new era and were suddenly going to own the Packers again.

What Willis did for his career on Sunday also can’t be understated. After showing the ability to come in and do what he did on relatively short prep time, he’s going to be getting backup gigs for years to come. At the very least, he’s solidified the backup job on this team, which desperately needed someone to show some degree of competency after the debacle of this summer’s Sean Clifford vs. Michael Pratt matchup. 

Week 3 Picks

It’s certainly a lot to ask of Malik Willis to play well enough to help the team win two games in a row for the Packers, especially now that the team is heading on the road. But this is a unique week; there’s some measure of revenge involved in that he’s heading to play the team that gave up on him.

Ultimately, though, the matchup of Willis versus the defense is not as important as the Titans’ offense against the Packers’ defense. Quarterback Will Levis does not have the talent of Anthony Richardson, so the Packers need to be able to come out and suffocate this Titans offense and keep the offense in a position to win the game. If the defense can allow the Packers to maintain control of the time of possession stat, then the Packers will win the game.

The Packers have way more talent on the field than the Titans even without Jordan Love. For a second consecutive week, it’s likely they will need that talent to carry the way to victory and to make the job easy for the fill-in quarterback.

LAST WEEK: 8-8

SEASON TO DATE: 19-13

 

THIS WEEK, give me…

 

JETS over Patriots

BROWNS over Giants

SAINTS over Eagles

TEXANS over Vikings

BUCS over Broncos

PACKERS over Titans

COLTS over Bears

CHARGERS over Steelers

SEAHAWKS over Dolphins

RAIDERS over Panthers

49ERS over Rams

CARDINALS over Lions

RAVENS over Cowboys

CHIEFS over Falcons

BILLS over Jaguars

BENGALS over Commanders