Under-pressure Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has fronted up and admitted his team suffered a ‘butt-whipping’ at the hands of the lowly Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football.
The 35-14 drubbing stunned a packed Lambeau Field and led to the home crowd booing their team off, with LaFleur’s seat now hotter than ever before.
‘It’s three games in,’ the coach told reporters postgame. ‘We’re nowhere where we need to be but there’s a lot of ball left in front of us,’ LaFleur said. ‘It was a butt-whipping.’
The Packers knew they’d have their hands full early in the season with their offense missing Josh Jacobs and their defense lacking Micah Parsons, but they couldn’t have expected their home opener to go this miserably.
With a makeshift offensive line struggling to give Jordan Love time to throw or to create running room for Jacobs’ backups, the Packers were embarrassed by the previously winless Atlanta Falcons, with their record moving to 1-2 on the year.
‘Well, that was a humbling night,’ coach Matt LaFleur added.
The Packers were booed by the Lambeau Field crowd for much of the second half, which led to some surprising comments from star tight end Tucker Kraft.
Seemingly not expecting the boos to have rung around the notoriously loud stadium, he said of the fans: ‘It’s pretty disappointing.’
‘It’s not going to help us win,’ he added. ‘Like, I don’t know [if] people think that’s going to rally us or something like that. We’re grown men.
‘We’re mentally strong enough, capable enough to get back on the field and play ball. But it’d probably be much easier with the 70,000 people behind us rather than opposing us.’
The Packers didn’t give the crowd much reason to cheer, and they find themselves at a potential crossroads before the end of September.
This wasn’t what team president/CEO Ed Policy had in mind when he signed LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst to contract extensions even after the Packers ended the 2025 season with five straight losses, including a wild-card playoff defeat at Chicago in which they blew a 21-3 lead.
Green Bay has made three straight postseason appearances but looked nothing like a potential playoff team Thursday.
The losses of Parsons and Jacobs certainly hurt.
Parsons will miss at least one more game as he continues his recovery from a torn ACL that ended his 2025 All-Pro season early.
Jacobs was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list after he pleaded no contest two weeks ago to misdemeanor charges of battery and criminal damage to property stemming from a May altercation with his then-girlfriend.
Meanwhile, injuries on the offensive line are hurting the Packers.
Green Bay played without two of its starting linemen after left guard Aaron Banks hurt his toe and right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele tore his patellar tendon in a 20-17 overtime victory over the New York Jets on Sunday. Bako-Bewele, who is Green Bay’s best lineman when healthy, won’t play again this season.
Although Love was only sacked once, the Falcons pressured him throughout the night.
‘J-Love shouldn’t be getting touched or on the ground that much,’ right tackle Anthony Belton said. ‘There’s no excuses to it. Just moving forward, we’ve got to keep hammering it every day to keep (him) clean. Thats just got to be our motto.’
The Packers have also lacked discipline. They committed an NFL-high 26 penalties through the first two weeks. They led 7-0 on Thursday when Brenton Cox Jr was called for roughing the passer on a third-down incompletion. Instead of punting, Atlanta scored a tying touchdown on that series and took control shortly thereafter.
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