The Green Bay Packers offense didn't have its left tackle 1 (David Bakhtiari), wide receiver 1 (Christian Watson), wide receiver 2 (Jayden Reed), tight end 1 (Luke Musgrave), and they lost their wide receiver 4 (Dontayvion Wicks) during the game. Even without so many important pieces, they managed to score 33 points on the Carolina Panthers.

One could expect praise from head coach Matt LaFleur. However, he decided to go with a different approach, taking the negative perception around Joe Barry's defense and sharing the blame of an unnecessary tough win.

"That was definitely frustrating," LaFleur said of the defensive performance. "But it wasn't just on the defense. I mean, offensively, you've got to give them a breather, especially if we're bleeding a little bit defensively. We've got to find a way to put together a scoring drive. We've got to find a way to get some first downs, to allow those guys to recover, recoup. Momentum's a crazy phenomenon and I think they got the momentum in the second half and they were rolling really in every phase."

According to the head coach, the offense's inability to have a longer drive and to score late in the fourth quarter was a big reason why the defense melted down. But can you really blame a unit that played so well with so many young pieces and facing so much adversity? Is it fair with the players?

LaFleur usually likes to put the blame on himself when any problem surfaces, and he sees the offense as his responsibility. That's why he decided to make this kind of declaration. But it's absurd to a point where it's unfair to the offensive players. When something is wrong, and something is clearly wrong with the defense, a head coach has to make a truthful, reasonable analysis. It is what it is.

Inside and out

It's obvious that LaFleur will have a different internal approach to the situation. Inside the locker room and during the week, he will assign who really is to blame. But public perception matters too, and LaFleur exposed the offense to protect a bad defense.

In a following interview to Packers.com, the head coach admitted the defensive performance was not good enough.

"We couldn't get off the grass on third down and gave up too many explosion plays," LaFleur said. "I thought early on we were getting some decent pressure on the quarterback, and then he was kind of picking us apart in the second half. It's good to get the win, but certainly I don't think it's up to our standard."

It's important for LaFleur to keep the defense afloat and with some kind of confidence, but there were better ways of doing so other than throwing his own offense and his own work under the bus.

Nowadays, everyone sees the game. Everyone has more access to data, stats, information, real-time, qualified analysis. The coach's opinion is important for the external public to understand the internal perception of what's happening. But if that's the internal perception, the problem is even bigger.

The idea that it's a full roster that wins and loses together is fair coach speak, but football is a specialized sport. And there was a clear disconnect between what happened on the field and LaFleur's press conference narrative.

There's an old saying around the NFL saying that if you go out there every week and say it's your fault, someday people will believe you.

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