GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Seven points scored against the Philadelphia Eagles in a loss on "Monday Night Football." Thirteen points the week before in a loss to the Carolina Panthers. Ten points in a Week 3 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
And in every one of those games, the Green Bay Packers' defense held their opponent to 16 or fewer points, including Monday's 10-7 defeat at Lambeau Field.
No wonder Jordan Love said, "You feel like as an offense you're letting the defense down."
The Packers' performance against the Eagles was not only one of the worst offensive games in Love's three seasons as the starting quarterback, but also in Matt LaFleur's seven seasons as head coach.
"I know as a defense, they definitely have every reason to look at us and say, 'What are you guys doing? You guys need to figure it out and help us out and put up some more points,' because they're doing a great job," Love said. "It's frustrating, but we'll stay together. We'll keep the energy high and find ways to get better and be better as an offense."
If that sounds familiar, it's because there was a similar refrain after the 16-13 loss to the Panthers a week earlier, and after the 13-10 loss at Cleveland in Week 3.
"We're midway through the season, we can't just keep saying, 'All right, we're going to address it,'" Packers running back Josh Jacobs said. "We've got to find actual answers to our problems. I honestly don't know what those answers [are]. I feel like everybody's got to dig deep and have the belief and give more. I mean, it's not easy. We can't live off of what we did last year or nothing like that, we've got to be in the moment."
That's where LaFleur, the offensive play caller, comes in. He has one year remaining on his contract and new team president Ed Policy, who took over in July, has not offered him or general manager Brian Gutekunst an extension yet, according to sources. Policy also said he doesn't believe in lame duck coaches or general managers.
If LaFleur thinks he's coaching for his job, he would not say so.
"I'll leave that for everybody else to decide," LaFleur said. "I'll just focus on the day-to-day ... I feel like you're always coaching for everything in this league, you know? That's just my mindset. It's always been that way. You can't ever exhale. You gotta always be pushing. That's just my mindset and that will be my mindset 'til they tell me not to coach anymore."
LaFleur did not have many answers for why the offensive struggled so mightily on Monday. A week earlier, he lost perhaps his best playmaker, tight end Tucker Kraft, to a season-ending knee injury. Against the Eagles, he lost Love's most-targeted receiver, Romeo Doubs, to a chest injury in the second half, and center Elgton Jenkins to a fractured lower leg.
But it doesn't explain why they struggled to get much going in the running game, even though that was the focal point of LaFleur's game plan against the Eagles. Jacobs carried 21 times for 74 yards (a 3.5-yard average) and had the only touchdown on a 6-yard run with 5:49 remaining.
"We wanted to try to establish the run game and try to build off of that," LaFleur said. "I thought there were some moments where we did a decent job, but ultimately it wasn't enough. It seemed to me that when we got in those critical moments, it wasn't necessarily the first and second down, it was more the money down, third down, fourth down, where we just malfunctioned."
And it doesn't explain why the Eagles seemed to know what the Packers were going to run on their last real chance -- a fourth-and-1 with 1:30 left that the Eagles stuffed and forced Jacobs to fumble.
"They called it out," Jacobs said. "We called our play. They [said it's an] 'inside zone, it's coming right here.' So I kind of like didn't want to run right there, but you know ... yeah, that's just how it played out."
Love threw for just 176 yards, and his 4.9 yards per attempt were the fewest in any game of his NFL career as a starter, according to ESPN Research.
"Not good enough," Love said when asked how he has been playing of late.
The Packers (5-3-1) fell from first in the NFC North to third. In all three losses, they have allowed 16 or fewer points. The New York Jets are the only other team that has multiple losses this season when allowing 16 or fewer points.
"Honestly, it's just super frustrating," Packers defensive end Micah Parsons said. "But it's just one of them things, like we're going to win together, we're going to lose together, regardless of the outcome, and just being there for our teammates, regardless of who's playing better or which side is playing better. It's just important that we hold each other up, until they get rolling. When everyone gets rolling, we'll be a really good team."
