Packers head coach Matt LaFleur gave his team a soundbite to remember on Sunday following their last-second 16-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers in a shocker at Lambeau Field.
Two days after his least-favorite holiday of the year, LaFleur watched in horror as Carolina’s Rico Dowdle-led rushing attack excelled and kicker Ryan Fitzgerald nailed a 49-yard game-winning field goal.
Needless to say, LaFleur was none too pleased with Green Bay’s first home loss and wasn’t happy with his team’s effort.
“Give credit to Carolina,” LaFleur began. “They played the game that they had to play in order to beat us in regards to trying to run the football consistently throughout the course of the game and just make us dink and dunk the ball down the field, which we were able to move the ball. And then played good defense in the red zone. …
“We did enough things just to, you know, we deservedly got our ass beat.”
As LaFleur noted, the Panthers’ running game was on point to the tune of 163 yards and two touchdowns. Dowdle tallied 130 of those yards on 25 carries and both scores in his first game as the bellcow since Chuba Hubbard (five carries for 17 yards) returned in Week 7.
A 1,000-yard rusher last year for the Cowboys, Dowdle has played well in his first season with Carolina. But, for a defense that’s been better against backs than receivers, allowing Dowdle’s third 130-plus-yard rushing effort in five games understandably left a bad taste in LaFleur’s mouth.
With a Week 10 date with Saquon Barkley’s Eagles on Monday Night Football on the calendar, LaFleur and the Packers will have to go back to the drawing board if they hope to avoid repeating history and contain one of the NFL’s top running games.
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