Ranking Top 6 Matt LaFleur Losses, Including Packers vs. Browns

Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur has been one of the best coaches in football since taking over in 2019.

His teams won 13 games each of his first three seasons at the helm. His only losing season came in 2022, which was the only time he missed the playoffs. LaFleur ranks 13th in NFL history in winning percentage. Eight of the coaches ahead of him are in the Hall of Fame. That’s really good by any objective measure.

Whenever you’re tenured as long as LaFleur has been, there will be some bad losses that accompany some of the big wins.

Sunday’s 13-10 loss at the Cleveland Browns certainly was one of them. The Packers led 10-0 when the fourth quarter started. The Browns had not eclipsed 200 yards of offense and never showed any reason to believe they could put a drive together against Green Bay’s dominant defense.

With just a few plays, the script flipped, and an ugly win turned into one of the most embarrassing losses of LaFleur’s tenure.

That got us to thinking: What are the worst losses under LaFleur? This loss certainly makes the list. The only question is how high?

No. 6. - 2019: The State of California

Admittedly, this is cheating. The state of California was responsible for three of Green Bay’s four losses in 2019, including a 37-20 loss in the NFC Championship Game to the San Francisco 49ers.

The other two games that year were against the Los Angeles Chargers, where the Packers did not score a touchdown until after it was a three-score game, and a 37-8 beatdown at San Francisco three weeks later, when the 49ers showed the Packers who the boss was on Sunday Night Football.

The reason all three losses make the list is the theme that followed. After those games, the talking point was the same.

“They schemed us up very well. We weren’t ready to play football as a team,” Za’Darius Smith told Chris Simms and Mike Florio of PFT Live after the NFC Championship Game.

How were the Packers not ready on three separate occasions?

The NFL season is a long war of attrition. There will be games in which teams don’t play their best. Not being ready to play an NFC Championship Game? That’s the biggest reason this loss cracks the list, even if the Packers were clearly an inferior team.

No. 5. - 2021: Week 1 Embarrassment vs. Saints

The Packers faced an offseason of drama following their brilliant 2020 season.

They lost in the NFC Championship Game at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Aaron Rodgers looked gutted after the game. He would say in his postseason media availability that a lot of people had their futures up in the air, and his was included.

That seemed strange at the time, until Adam Schefter’s bombshell report on draft day came out that Rodgers had told members of the organization he did not want to return.

Rodgers eventually did return, and the season was viewed as potentially his last with the team. The urgency to win a championship that year was at an all-time high.

Their season opener was against the New Orleans Saints, who were breaking in a new quarterback in the wake of Drew Brees’ retirement. The Packers caught a break by not having to play in New Orleans, as weather conditions moved the game to Jacksonville.

The Packers did not handle their change well.

James Winston, a journeyman, tore Green Bay’s defense apart. Green Bay’s offense, which was the league’s best in 2020, mustered only a field goal in a 38-3 shellacking that gave the Packers a dose of reality to open the season.

“Our guys are going to have to take a long, hard look in the mirror,” LaFleur said.

The Packers would rebound, though, for a third consecutive 13-win season.

No. 4. - 2022: Aaron Rodgers’ Finale

The Packers were 4-8 and it looked like Aaron Rodgers was going to be playing his final games in Green Bay in a meaningless fashion. Instead, a four-game winning streak put the Packers in position to clinch a playoff berth against the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field in Week 18.

The Lions had rarely won at Lambeau Field during Rodgers’ tenure, and they had nothing to play for other than pride. This should have been a walkover and given Rodgers one more chance to make some magic in Green Bay.

Instead, it became a goodbye.

The Lions harassed Rodgers throughout the night. Green Bay’s offense was only able to muster one touchdown, Rodgers and Aaron Jones had costly turnovers, and Jared Goff converted a late third down that allowed the Lions to run out the clock and eliminate the Packers from the playoffs.

Rodgers walked off the field with his arm around Randall Cobb and slowly took in the scene.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb (18) and quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) leave the field after a season-ending loss to the Lions. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK

He was traded the following April, meaning his final pass as a Packer was an interception, and a winter of uncertainty followed the Packers.

Meanwhile, the Lions rode the momentum of that night to back-to-back NFC North titles while becoming one of the best teams in football.

No. 3. - 2023: New York Giants

After slumping to 3-6 in Jordan Love’s debut season as the starter, the Packers were riding high with two big wins over the Lions and Chiefs.

Jordan Love appeared to turn the corner as a potential franchise quarterback. With their record even at 6-6, a win on Monday Night Football against the New York Giants felt like a certainty with Tommy DeVito playing quarterback.

As it turns out, nothing is certain in the NFL, and the Packers learned the hard way.

DeVito became a folk hero that night, throwing for 158 yards for a passer rating of 113.9 and adding 71 rushing yards, giving life to a sellout crowd at Met Life Stadium. Love, who had been brilliant the previous two weeks, was mediocre and threw an interception.

The Packers did put a drive together, ending with a touchdown pass to Malik Heath to give them a one-point lead. Against a third-string quarterback, that should have been enough, but Joe Barry’s defense could not keep Devito and the Giants out of field-goal range.

“I think our team learned a valuable lesson in terms (of), you don’t play your best, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, where you’re playing, when you’re playing, you’re not going to win the game,” LaFleur said.

For added insult, DeVito was a one-hit wonder. The Giants lost their next three games and DeVito was benched.

No. 2. - 2025: Cleveland Browns

There are other games that have arguments for this list, but only two that could be in the top spot.

The Browns are being quarterbacked by Joe Flacco, a journeyman who is closer to AARP benefits than he is to winning a Super Bowl. Cleveland’s offense was putrid for most of the day. Green Bay’s defense really only gave up three points. The other 10 came from blunders on special teams and offense.

Browns kicker Andre Szmyt is mobbed by teammates and fans after kicking the game-winning field goal to beat the Packers. | Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With the Packers leading 10-3, quarterback Jordan Love threw a critical interception. LaFleur regretted the play call that led to Cleveland scoring the tying touchdown.

While Green Bay’s defense was dominant, it didn’t appear the Packers played with the same energy as the previous two weeks, when they were at home facing two NFC contenders.

Moreover, they were penalized 14 times and failed to make any plays to put away a Browns team that was begging to be cast aside.

The casual talk about going undefeated only adds to the embarrassment of losing to a team that started 0-2 this season after going 3-14 last year.

As LaFleur said on Monday: “The goal, and I’ve said it a million times to you guys - I don’t think I’ve obviously said it enough to our team - the goal is to go 1-0 every week. And it pisses me off when we start talking about things outside of the next game.

No. 1. - 2021: NFC Divisional Playoffs vs. San Francisco

There have been other playoff losses that LaFleur has had to own while being in Green Bay. His decision to kick a field goal against Tampa Bay in the 2020 NFC Championship Game can be debated, but there was at least some question as to who the better team was with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

The following year when they faced San Francisco?

There was no question.

The only advantage the 49ers had was psychologically, because the Packers had been beaten by them so many times in the recent past.

Aaron Rodgers had everything he could have asked for. They were at home. It was cold, unlike the loss to Tampa Bay. Lambeau Field was packed with fans, a luxury they did not have the season prior thanks to COVID-19 regulations.

The Packers started the game with a bang, scoring a touchdown on their first possession. The defense responded with a three-and-out powered by a sack from Za’Darius Smith, who was making his return from a season-long injury.

It looked like the Packers were going to exorcise some demons in blowout fashion.

Instead, the game turned on a fumble from Marcedes Lewis deep in 49ers territory, which kept the Packers from extending their lead to at least 10 points. The offense sputtered the rest of the night. Aaron Jones inexplicably cut to the middle of the field instead of steamrolling to the end zone on what could have been a touchdown. Mason Crosby’s field goal was blocked just before halftime.

That was not even the biggest blocked kick of the night.

Green Bay’s defense had held the 49ers’ offense out of the end zone all night, and they led 10-3 late in the game when Corey Bojorquez’s punt was blocked and recovered for a touchdown that tied the game at 10.

Green Bay had the ball with a chance to win, but LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers could not make any late-game magic. Instead, they went three-and-out. Following the punt, the 49ers drove to the game-winning field goal. To add to the insult, the Packers only had 10 players on the field on a season-deciding play.

The special teams were awful for the duration of that season, and it bit them at the ugliest time.

“This is a tough pill to swallow for all of us right now,” LaFleur said immediately after the game. “That’s a really disappointed locker room. I hurt for them. This is three years in a row where we have a situation where two years in a row we’re the No. 1 seed and you lose home playoff games.

“Obviously, I didn’t do enough to get our team prepared to win a football game. And certainly when you only score 10 points offensively, I put that all on myself. I’ve got to be better than that.”

The reality is that the Packers were a better team than either of the next two teams they would have faced. They had already crushed the Los Angeles Rams at Lambeau Field, which is who they would have hosted in the NFC Championship. Had they reached the Super Bowl, they would have faced the Cincinnati Bengals, another team they’d defeated that year.

This loss was a Super Bowl that they fumbled away, which is why it earns top honors.