Today, the work officially begins on the practice field for what the Green Bay Packers hope is a three-game postseason winning streak and the team’s 14th world championship.
The Packers don’t know if they’ll face the New Orleans Saints, Philadelphia Eagles or Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, January 12 at Lambeau Field (Coverage starting at 2 p.m. on WTMJ). But they do know they want to get better if they want to raise the trophy named after their legendary coach, Vince Lombardi.
“The focus is going to be on us,” Matt LaFleur, the 10th man to follow in Lombardi’s footsteps as head coach, tells WTMJ’s Larry McCarren.
“We’re going to do a lot of self-scout, self-evaluation of looking at things we did well, things we need to improve upon, things we can build off of what we put on tape.”
LaFleur says that the Packers will have their first post-regular season practice today at their facility near Lambeau Field, then will have practices Friday and Monday before their typical four straight days of pregame preparation starting Wednesday, January 7.
Though the Packers have not yet put together a complete 60-minute performance of excellence in all facets of play this entire 2019 season, they still bear the NFL’s second-best record at 13-3 – double their “win” total of 2018 (6-9-1).
“It’s really a credit to everybody invovled with our football program, our coaches, our players,” said LaFleur.
“The mentality these guys have. Going 13-3 in this league is not easy. Really proud and happy for everybody involved.”
The team did it by going 8-1 in one-score games, including six consecutive wins in contests with a margin of victory between one and eight points.
“We’ve got everybody that is working together, everybody working toward a common goal,” said LaFleur.
“There are no agendas. There are no egos. It’s just everybody battling together. The character we have in that locker room in second to none that I’ve been around. Just fortunate to be in that situation.”
Listen to much more of Matt LaFleur’s interview with Larry McCarren above in our podcast player.