Packers Report Card: Starting With Matt LaFleur, Grading Loss to Vikings

What a mess.

The Green Bay Packers entered the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game at the Minnesota Vikings with a chance to make a statement that last year’s five-game losing streak was behind them. They were a new team, and there was new reason to believe in the 2026 version of Matt LaFleur’s Packers.

Instead, it was a lot of the same old story. One thing goes wrong, and the Packers spend the rest of the game trying to put a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

Most of those wounds were self-inflicted as the Packers continuously shot themselves in the foot. The final result was being outscored 22-0 in the fourth quarter and turning what should have been a sure victory against a backup quarterback turned into an embarrassing defeat.

Yes, it’s a new season, but the Packers’ losing streak has stretched to six games over the course of two seasons. They had double-digit leads in three of those games. They had a two-score lead in four of those games. At some point, there are trends that cannot be ignored, and it starts with the head coach. He leads off our weekly report card.

Coaching

If there is a poor decision to make on the configuration of the offensive line, this coaching staff is going to find it. Whether it’s starting Jake Hanson and Royce Newman over Zach Tom in the 2022 season opener or putting Dennis Kelly in the lineup and flipping Billy Turner to left tackle instead of leaving Yosh Njiman on the blindside in the 2021 divisional round, the Packers have consistently found ways to make the wrong decisions up front.

The coaching staff, like most others in the NFL, often claims they want their best five players on the field, regardless of configuration. No, they could not have fully accounted for the health issues with left guard Aaron Banks that led to him being inactive after claiming he was the healthiest he’d been during the spring.

They did, however, have a heads up throughout training camp. Banks was injured throughout camp and rotated in and out of the starting lineup. His most common replacement was fifth-round rookie Jager Burton. When Banks was listed as questionable on the injury report for Sunday’s game, it felt logical that Burton would be the choice to be the starter. A tough spot for the rookie, to be sure, but a position that he had gotten plenty of reps at with the starting lineup.

In theory, another option would have been moving Jacob Monk to left guard and reinstalling Anthony Belton at right guard. Maybe that wouldn’t have been the greatest solution, either, but at least they are positions that each player has repped at. Plus, Belton has plenty of talent as a former second-round pick.

Instead, the Packers attempted to prove they were smarter than anyone and started former undrafted free agent Donovan Jennings.

Jennings is not the only one who struggled, but the process here is incredibly poor. Jennings repped sparingly with the starting lineup during training camp and was clearly behind Burton by the time camp ended. What changed in 10 days? With limited practice time, how is it fair to expect Jennings to be ready for a position he had not earned through a month of training camp?

The @Vikings are the first team in NFL history to be down by 12+ points with under 20 minutes left in regulation and end up winning by 17+ points. pic.twitter.com/PnwBsd86T8
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) September 14, 2026

The answer is it’s not fair to Jennings, but whoever is in charge of these decisions deserves to be severely questioned.

Jordan Love was under siege for most of the day. Brian Flores blitzed him on a whopping 40 of his 46 dropbacks, according to PFF. Love was beaten up throughout the game, and the offensive line looked tremendously confused throughout. As the game started to snowball, the offensive line looked even more overmatched.

It never stood a fighting chance because its best five players were not on the field.

That was just at the beginning of the game.

Much will be made of LaFleur’s decision to take points off the scoreboard after Trey Smack’s 40-yard field goal would have made the score 25-17. I will not criticize that decision, because one of the detractions for LaFleur has been his lack of a killer instinct. That decision was LaFleur trusting his offense to be able to gain a yard and step on the throats of the Vikings.

The problem comes with what happened next. To be sure, the Packers got a lousy whistle on the ensuing possession, but that’s part of football. LaFleur often talks about controlling the controllables. Officials are not controllable. Getting outscored 22-0 in the fourth quarter? That’s controllable.

The ensuing sequence after the Vikings’ touchdown drive gave them a late lead in the fourth quarter was as predictable as it was disastrous. LaFleur called for an inside run on the first play of the series for a team that could not run the ball for most of the game. His second-down call was a long-developing pass play in which his best receiver, Christian Watson, was being used as a decoy.

The third-down call was dead on arrival as Minnesota could simply pin its ears back and aim its shoulder pads between the 1 and 0 on Love’s jersey.

Ultimately, the buck stops with the head coach. LaFleur survived last season’s collapse to fight another day in green and gold.

His first crack at redemption? It looked a lot like the way last season ended.

The Packers knew the Vikings would blitz. Everyone knew that.

Jordan Love got hammered, relentlessly, anyway. ⬇️https://t.co/NY6i23nVTR
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 14, 2026

Grade: F

Pass Offense

For all the criticisms that can be had about Green Bay’s offense in this game, it’d be hard to blame Jordan Love for any of them. Yes, he threw a late interception on a pass that was tipped and he fumbled on Green Bay’s last possession of consequence.

Prior to that? Love was the only reason Green Bay’s offense could move the ball. He was under siege for most of the game. He had no semblance of a running game, and little protection to speak of. He threw for 387 yards and two touchdowns, anyway.

Christian Watson finished with 147 yards on six catches, but had just one catch in the second half.

One of the criticisms of Green Bay’s offense is the inability to get the ball into its best players’ hands when things start to go south. That was true again on Sunday as the Packers ran out of answers for the avalanche of pressure that the Vikings were able to get on their quarterback.

Love was excellent, but it’s hard to envision him surviving the season if the protection issues that presented themselves Sunday become the norm.

Grade: B-Plus.

Rush Offense

Whether it was Marshawn Lloyd or Chris Brooks, neither did well in their first audition to replace Josh Jacobs. Lloyd finished with 37 yards on 13 carries. Brooks added 29 on seven carries.

For as much as the masses want to let Jordan Love cook, it is hard to play offense against a pressure-heavy defense when there is no semblance of a ground game. LaFleur’s offense wants to tie everything to its ground game, but through one week it’s hard to envision how they’re going to be able to do much in that regard. Holes were hard to find, and the backs did not do much to distinguish themselves.

The final numbers were 21 carries for 66 yards. That’s good for 3.1 yards per carry. That’s not going to cut it against anyone. It is back to the drawing board for this group.

Grade: D.

Pass Defense

For all the discussion surrounding Green Bay’s ability to get pressure on the quarterback, the defense did well in that regard. Carson Wentz was sacked three times, and Kyler Murray was pressured into an interception on his first pass attempt of the game. Four players had at least a share of a sack. They had a sack by Edgerrin Cooper taken off the board by an illegal contact penalty on Javon Bullard. On that same drive, Chris McClellan’s first career sack was nullified by his roughing-the-passer penalty.

The problem? Wentz diced the Packers up for three touchdown passes and was more effective in the red zone than the Packers were against Minnesota’s defense.

Justin Jefferson had eight catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns. His first touchdown came on an egregious mental error from Lukas Van Ness. The Vikings were clearly trying to get the Packers to jump offside for a free play before the 2-minute warning in the first half.

The only one who did not get the memo was Van Ness, who jumped offsides, giving Wentz a chance to throw up a prayer to Jefferson who was one-on-one against rookie Brandon Cisse. Cisse appeared to lose the ball in the air and then lost the rep with Jefferson being on the receiving end of Minnesota’s first touchdown of the game.

The other concern is that as well as Green Bay’s defense played at times, it was facing Wentz. It was not facing the MVP version of Wentz from yesteryear but rather a backup who is holding on to one of his last opportunities in the NFL.

There will be better quarterbacks on the schedule, including against Geno Smith and the Jets next weekend. How will the defense do against those? They were good on Sunday but will need to be better as the level of competition rises.

Grade: C-Plus.

Rush Defense

The final stat line for Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones was 27 carries for 99 yards. Both scored a touchdown as the beneficiaries of Green Bay’s mistakes.

Ultimately, the interior of Green Bay’s defensive line held up well against a solid ground game. The only big run was Mason’s 28-yarder on the go-ahead touchdown drive.

Overall, the Vikings averaged less than 4 yards per play. Green Bay’s defense will be credited with giving up 39 points, but it was much better than what that final number might suggest.

Grade: C.

Special Teams

A mixed bag for Cam Achord’s debut. Trey Smack drilled a 59-yard field goal for the first points of the season. He made all his field-goal attempts in his debut. He also missed an extra point after Green Bay’s first touchdown.

Bo Melton had an explosive return, but the Packers also gave up one to set up a Vikings touchdown that cut the margin to 22-17. Kamal Hadden might have saved a touchdown with his open-field tackle on the first kickoff return.

Their punt return game showed some life with Skyy Moore at least looking comfortable and competent in his limited opportunities. His 12-yard return of a bouncing punt gave the Packers the ball at the Vikings’ 36, but the offense squandered the opportunity.

Daniel Whelan, who is usually reliable, shanked a punt but pinned the Vikings inside the 5 on another.

The most egregious error was the long return after the Packers took a 22-10 lead. Myles Price’s return gave the Vikings a short field and an opportunity to score on a series that the Packers could have started to squeeze the life out of Minnesota’s offense.

Instead, the Vikings scored a touchdown and it was a ballgame again.

Grade: C-Minus.

From @JacobWestendorf, here are the winners and losers - bet you can't guess the losers - from the Packers' embarassing loss to the Vikings today. ⬇️https://t.co/wLcbvgBBs5
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 14, 2026

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