The Anti-Clutch Gene
I have always felt that it is rather difficult to truly judge a coach. As fans, we really only see a small portion of their job. We do not see the long hours in the facility, the management of people during practices, the planning, the politics, the bureaucracy. Sometimes you get an obvious case like Urban Meyer or Nathaniel Hackett, these guys are so clearly over their heads (Hackett) or have the wrong mentality (Meyer). But for the most part, we can really only judge coaches for their game-day decision-making and public-facing actions.
The worth of a coach can also be hidden by quality roster and it can be difficult to separate the success of the two from each other. Nick Sirianni is the current prime example. A lot of people, myself included, do not have a terribly high opinion of Sirianni as a coach. He’s made some stupid hires, he frequently makes questionable game-day decisions. He’s an unlikable turd. But his tenure has seen the Eagles reach pretty much the pinnacle of their success as a franchise. He has to be responsible for some of that, even if much of the credit is given to Roseman and the players. Is Sirianni a bad coach? I dunno. Is the cat in the box dead? Maybe the only way is to set them both free.
I do not think Matt LaFleur is a bad coach, but I think his tenure in Green Bay maybe should have ended last year. I think one of the prime indicators that a coach is simply done for a team, be they a good coach or not, is when choking becomes a trend. Harbaugh racked up a lot of double-digit 4th-quarter chokes. Tomlin couldn’t get a team past the wildcard. The 4th quarter chokes are what finally killed Brian Daboll. This was the logic behind the firing of Sean McDermott, a move that I still disagree with but understand where the frustration and logic came from. A trend of choking feels like a failure of coaching. A failure to maintain a game and morale. Chokes happen. They should not happen with such regularity. That feels like a locker room problem. The Packers have been a frightening failure since Micah Parsons was hurt last season. They choked against the Bears. They choked against Denver. They flopped against the Ravens. They choked against the Vikings. They choked again against the Bears in the wildcard, and in Week 1, with a fresh slate, facing a Vikings team that lost their QB in the first quarter, they choked their biggest choke yet.
LaFleur inherited a prime Rodgers and a quality roster and could never make it to the top. He seems remarkably capable of scheming, but his gameday decision-making is cowardly when it should be risky and risky when it should be safe. I laughed at Packers fans who wanted LaFleur gone last year, but I see their vision now. LaFleur appears to have reached his ceiling. Maybe what he needs is a change of scenery.
NEWS:
Chaos Report and Cartoon Bets will likely be up late due to travel logistics. There will also likely not be a comic next week for the same reason, but I might have time to make one so I won’t say for sure. Just be aware next week might be weird as I will be in transit a lot.
Finally someone out of the fanbase sees it. I’ve wanted him fired since the Bears collapse (the first one). If not earlier.
The fact he never got a chip with Rodgers, in his prime, is a great indicator he doesn’t have “it.” The choke against the Bucs in the NFCCG was particularly bad. With Love, it’ll be a lot more divisional and wildcard exits.
LaFourthquarterfail.
Taking your own points off the board is like Greek tragedy levels of football hubris. I know you have like a 90% chance of getting one yard on a qb sneak, but man it doesn’t matter that you actually are better at weaving than the goddess of weaving, she’s still going to turn you into a spider.
In fairness, ALL of Rodgers’ HCs spent most of their time choking and “wasting” Discount Double Choke’s prime, save for that one year when they backed into a Super Bowl win ass-first. And I’m sure in every case it was the coaches’ faults, it *certainly* couldn’t have been because Rodgers was toxic AF and an absolutely misery of a human being to be around on a daily basis. Consider how much money he gave his family to pretend to have a relationship with him again.
But I digress! Je suis d’accord, LaFleur should have been shown LaDoor LaLastYear. C’est d’hommage! Quelle horreur!
I still enjoy to see them wallow in mud. Because it brings me joy to see He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named whine and cry about it. *Homer Voice* Stuuuuuupid Packers. They never learn.
All? He only had 1 other head coach in his entire time with Green Bay
I wasn’t restricting this exercise to GB. He had 3 coaches there – Sherman his rookie season, which we can leave out since he didn’t play much that year. And we’ll chop off the various interims, and I should have been cleared in my phrasing, but I’m also including his other stops. So Tomlin in Pittsburgh, and Saleh in NY.
Tomlin wasn’t quite the same situation though. He basically left before the Steelers got tired of him, so they just got another Mike
So what you’re saying is there’s a decent chance LaFleur could be out of Green Bay by the end of the season?
I think consistent choking and underachieving is definitely where a coach getting cut loose makes sense; went back through your archive cause this tipped a memory and yep, last year Coughlin worked with the Giants they kept choking their leads constantly. I was immensely pissed at the extension and I will be even more if we turned out to be right about Lafleur, this team has way too much talent to constantly be pissing it away.
‘splains Hafley too. Looking like he’s part of the same culture. Wasn’t exactly big taters at Boston College either.
No clue why Miami keeps raiding Green Bay for parts these days. Everyone knows cheese melts in the heat. Philb-[yawn] Philbin wazzzzz…. [snrkz] Philbin was already once too often.
Part of me feels a lot of choking is just a team over performing and regression to mean.