Matt LaFleur’s late FG decision will haunt the Packers for years

Instead of taking a chance and putting his team in a position to win the NFC Championship Game, Matt LaFleur played things safe and it cost him. 

Matt LaFleur is going to be second-guessing himself for a while following the Green Bay Packers’ heartbreaking loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game. Down 31-23 late in the fourth quarter, the Packers marched down the field and had a shot at potentially tying things up.

However, Aaron Rodgers couldn’t find the end zone and the team faced a 4th-and-goal from the Tampa Bay 8-yard line. Instead of going for it with a little over two minutes left in the action, LaFleur inexplicably decided to kick a field goal to cut his team’s deficit to 31-26. LaFleur’s thinking was to make it a five-point game and hope this defense could make a stop. That didn’t happen.

Packers fans are furious with Matt LaFleur for his bone-headed decision late in Sunday’s loss

So, the thought here was to give the ball back to one of the best quarterbacks ever and trust your defense to stop him? Unreal. As we all know by now, Tom Brady and the Bucs were able to make the necessary plays after that to win the NFC title and book their trip to the Super Bowl.

LaFleur is going to take plenty of heat for a while, and it’s 100 percent deserved. He has Aaron Rodgers, who himself will go down as one of the greater signal-callers we’ve ever seen. While 4th-and-goal from the 8-yard line is indeed a tough play, you’ve simply got to give Rodgers a chance to tie things up here. Taking the ball out of his hands was a monstrous mistake.

It’s now going to be an extra long offseason for LaFleur. This decision he made should definitely keep him up at night on multiple occasions.