A thrilling, and seemingly unpredictable Packers season is set to play for at least another week, after Green Bay sent the Bears into hibernation on their way to clinching a wildcard birth.
This week, at least for me, is all about a victory stroll for this team, regardless of what happens Sunday, in what has been a SUPER successful season, most definitely beyond what anyone thought would happen.
A major reason why, you may ask ? Their head coach.
After trading away Aaron Rodgers in the off-season all of the pressure immediately went away from the 4-time MVP, and directly toward coach LaFleur.
Leading the league’s youngest roster is one thing, but adding multiple key injuries over the course of the 18-week season is a whole different uphill climb.
Last week I mentioned quarterback Jordan Love should be in the conversation for the league’s top award, the most valuable player, and, with all due respect to #10, and his play, a lot of that credit is due to the way LaFleur turned a corner in his play calling, and his approach.
After that week 10 loss in Pittsburgh, something along the way clicked for LaFleur, which allowed him to just let Love cook, and boy, did he ever deliver.
Coupled with the change of play calling, and despite multiple injuries on the offensive side of the ball, Lafleur helped pave the way for this offense to finish within the top 5 in multiple different categories and gave his team at least one more game in the NFL’s post-season tournament.
Look, is he perfect? No. Will he always get everything right? Of course not. Is he frustrating at times? Sure, name a coach who isn’t.
But, it’s time to give him his flowers. He’s kept this team together under numerous different circumstances including losing David Bakhtiari in week one, Aaron Jones and Christian Watson have missed multiple weeks and has still, despite all of that, led the Packers to the post-season for the 4th time in his 5 years, even after beginning the season with a 2-5 record, where they were left for dead by many.
He is, without question, your NFL coach of the year.
