Packers Fail One Challenge, Another Awaits
GREEN BAY, Wis. – After losing to the New York Giants on Sunday in London, the Green Bay Packers have not given themselves much time to bounce back.
For teams forced to play aboard, they’re given the choice of a bye immediately afterward or deeper into the schedule. Coach Matt LaFleur, noting the week off between the end of the preseason and the start of the regular season, opted to have his team play again next week in exchange for a later-in-the-season bye.
So, after a long flight back to Green Bay, the Packers won’t have much time to lick their wounds. On Sunday at Lambeau Field, the Packers will host the New York Jets, who are 3-2. They routed the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, and their losses are against Baltimore and Cincinnati.
“I’d feel better at 4-1, for sure,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “We need to handle adversity a little better. We’re a little bit of a rollercoaster team at times. Our best teams have been more steady, so we’ve got to find that rhythm and that steadiness. We’ve got to get back and get healthy and get rested. We’ve got a home game that we’ll probably be favored in against the Jets. We’ve got to go back and refocus.”
The Packers bounced back from their Week 1 loss at Minnesota by winning three consecutive games. Under LaFleur, the Packers have not lost back-to-back regular-season games in the same season.
“I feel like setbacks, losses make us stronger,” cornerback Jaire Alexander said after a poor defensive performance against a depleted offense. “I ain’t worried, but if we lose next week, then I'll be worried. But it’s a new situation for everybody. New circumstances, sleep patterns. It’s a whole adjustment here in London.”
That last sentence sounded like excuse-making. The previous sentence is what caught Rodgers’ attention, because he had heard similar conversations.
“Frankly, I don’t like all this conversation about losing next week,” Rodgers said. “I’m a firm believer in the power of words and manifestation. And we’ve got to check ourselves on that, because talking about that is not winning football. There was conversation about it in the locker room, and I don’t like it. Ja’s my guy but we don’t need to be talking like that.
“I understand there’s a reality in this game that there’s a win and a loss every single game, but there’s also reality in life that what you’re putting our energy towards, that’s where your focus is going to go. So, I’m not going to address prospects of losing up here other than we just lost this game.”
Games have been played in London since 2007 but playing again the following week is a relatively new thing. The Dolphins did in 2021; they lost in London and then lost the following week. Last week, the Vikings and Saints battled in London. Both teams elected to play again this week and both teams won – Minnesota at home over Chicago and New Orleans at home over Seattle.
So, playing right away after a grueling travel schedule isn’t an insurmountable challenge. The bigger challenge will be fixing their inconsistency on offense and disappointing defense.
“We’ve just got to be critical when we watch the film on this flight and this week and we’ve got to see what mistakes made, make sure we fix them and make sure they don’t get repeated in this next upcoming game against the Jets,” outside linebacker Preston Smith said.
“We’re a team that’s resilient. We come together pretty well on defense. We know how good we can be and how great we need to play in order to look like who we are, and we feel like tonight we didn’t play up to our potential. It’s a lot of mistakes we made, a lot of things we could’ve did better, a lot of plays we wish we had back, but the result is the result and we’ve got to make sure we’re critical of ourselves when we watch the film and move forward with a positive attitude and an attitude that we’re going to attack next week, and make sure we don’t make those mistakes again and give up any big plays.”
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