Matt LaFleur explains bizarre moment during Packers-Raiders game
Look, the Green Bay Packers defense played a pretty damn good game on Monday night against the Las Vegas Raiders, but there is one moment that rightfully left plenty of people shaking their heads and asking questions.It was the third quarter and the Raiders faced a 2nd and 10 from the Packers 37. The Packers […]
Look, the Green Bay Packers defense played a pretty damn good game on Monday night against the Las Vegas Raiders, but there is one moment that rightfully left plenty of people shaking their heads and asking questions.
It was the third quarter and the Raiders faced a 2nd and 10 from the Packers 37. The Packers defense gave up a 21-yard catch-and-run to a wide-open Davante Adams that eventually helped the Raiders score the game-deciding points.
The play in itself was bad enough, but when the replay showed outside linebacker Preston Smith matched up on Adams – it became even worse.
As we all know, football is a chess match and it's all about playing things the right away. But this was a mismatch from hell that was set up to fail. Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry or head coach Matt LaFleur should've called a timeout as soon as they saw Smith lined up across from Adams.
But they didn't. And it helped them lose the game.
"In a big moment in the game, you know, that's happened a lot when Davante was playing for us," LaFleur explained after the game. "You put a receiver in the slot [and] you have penny or five bigs on the field. And a lot of times that 'backer has to walk in, you're playing quarters coverage and that's what happens.
"Whether it's right or wrong, it's obviously not the most advantageous for us. So whether we can get a check and get out of that look, but credit to them. They schemed it up, they knew what to do when we put that personnel in the game and I can remember games when we did that. That just happens sometimes and obviously [we] want to have better answers than that."
The fact LaFleur mentions "whether" they can check out of it makes the situation all the more frustrating. Just call a timeout. It's that simple.
There's no reason to even think about having Smith anywhere close to Adams. Especially when the Raiders are in Packers territory and driving.
The Packers need to start making better decisions, all-around. Or else this is going to be a very long season.
