“On the road again.”
When Willie Nelson sings it, it sounds so sweet.
When you are the Green Bay Packers, it sounds like a grueling experience while meeting a team unlike you … that won last week. The Packers have now lost six straight games since Micah Parsons went down with a season ending injury last December. He still hasn’t returned, and won’t for at least a couple more weeks.
The six-game losing streak has been built in the strangest of ways. If the NFL played three quarter games the Packers would be a lot better off. But those darn fourth quarters have found Matt LaFleur’s men unable to close the deal seemingly no matter what the score is.
In a playoff game last January, the Packers took a 21-6 lead to the fourth quarter before allowing the Bears 25 points on the way to a 31-27 defeat. They also got run down in the regular season in a game that kicked off with the Bears and Packers in prime positions to win the NFC North Division. Leading 13-3 after three quarters they got outscored by ten points in the fourth quarter and lost the game by six in overtime.
In all, the Packers five game losing streak to end their 2025 season found Green Bay outscored in the fourth quarter by a 62-15 margin. Their 2025 season ended when they allowed the Bears to overcome a halftime deficit and score the only points in the fourth quarter to earn a 22-16 Chicago Wild Card victory.
The streak continued last week when Jordan Love and company took a 12-point third quarter lead in Minnesota before allowing the Vikings to score the game's final 29 points.
Is it LaFleur’s fault? Is it coaching, conditioning or a mental block?
That can be debated, but LaFleur didn’t help his team’s cause on Sunday with another head-scratching decision. This is the same head coach that in my opinion of working in the NFL for more than five decades made the worst strategic decision ever. In the 2020 NFC Championship Game the Packers had stormed back from a 28-10 second half deficit to pull within eight points and drove to the eight-yard-line to set up a first-and-goal with just over two-minutes left on the fourth quarter clock.
This was a battle between two of the best quarterbacks in the game, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Rodgers missed on three straight passes, setting up a fourth-and-goal from the 8-yard line with 2:09 left on the game clock.
A touchdown and two-point conversion would pull the Packers even, but LaFleur called on kicker Mason Crosby to try a 26-yard field goal.
Why?
If the kick was good, the Packers would trail by five points with just over two-minutes left and still need a touchdown to catch the Packers. If Rodgers got the Packers into the endzone on that fourth down play a two-point conversion would pull Green Bay even.
The kick was good, the Packers were within five points and turned the ball over to Brady and his Buccaneers offense. You know what happens when Brady needs something to win a game? He gets it. What he needed here was one first down and he got it.
Game over.
Buccaneers go on to win Super Bowl LV over the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Packers suffer a crushing defeat while their coach didn’t play his best option to win the game. His boneheaded decision last Sunday in Minnesota was nearly as equally baffling.
The Packers dominated the action for more than three quarters and when they converted a field goal on fourth-and-six pushed their lead to eight points, 25-17. But the Vikings were flagged for a five-yard penalty and LaFleur was faced with the decision to take the points off the board and go for the first down. That’s what he did, failed on the fourth down, turned the ball over to the Vikings and then gave up 22 unanswered fourth quarter points to lose the game by 17, 39-22.
Their opening day defeat ballooned their fourth quarter deficit during their half dozen games losing streak to 69 points; 84 to 15.
It was a quiet flight home for the losing team. It is most likely a focused group at practice this week and when they jet to New York for this Sunday’s game I suspect we will get a determined squad ready to take on the home team. The Packers are favored on the road despite their six-game losing streak over the past two seasons.
Let me get this straight. A team that has wilted like unwatered house plants is on the road against a team that won last week and has to give points.
Right.
I’ll take it.
Qoxhi Picks: Green Bay Packers (-3½) over New York Jets