DETROIT, MI — Following his team’s 29-22 victory over the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur expressed his respect and admiration for Dan Campbell, Aaron Glenn, and the rest of the Detroit Lions organization. In fact, LaFleur knew his team needed to be aggressive from the start against their division rival.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love connected with Christian Watson on a 53-yard bomb on the game’s first play, swinging the momentum in Green Bay’s favor. And they didn’t look back. Love told reporters after the game that he learned of the plan to open the game with a deep threat attacking Detroit’s secondary on Wednesday.
When speaking to reporters after the game, LaFleur went into great detail about how the play came to be. And it was then that he revealed the intriguing fact that he almost scrapped the game-changing play just hours before the game.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love connected with Christian Watson on a 53-yard bomb on the game’s first play, swinging the momentum in Green Bay’s favor. And they didn’t look back. Love told reporters after the game that he learned of the plan to open the game with a deep threat attacking Detroit’s secondary on Wednesday.
When speaking to reporters after the game, LaFleur went into great detail about how the play came to be. And it was then that he revealed the intriguing fact that he almost scrapped the game-changing play just hours before the game.
“I think anytime you’re going against a really explosive offense, it was one of those deals. As a matter of fact, I almost changed that first play call,” LaFleur said. “I was kind of mulling it over quite a bit, and I texted Jordan this morning and told him I was going to change it to something else, and he said he wanted this call. So I said, ‘okay.’
In addition to the plan to start aggressively against a Lions defense that has allowed an average of 31 points in their last three games, LaFleur highlighted specific areas where he believed Detroit’s defense was strong and posed challenges for Green Bay. He also outlined the strategies he knew his team needed to employ to overcome these challenges.
“I think they do a really good job of floating the box and stopping the run. I mean, that’s what they want to be about,” LaFleur said. “So, we knew that we were going to have to try to open up the run through the pass. They’re a very aggressive unit. I think they’re very well-coached, very sound, and they play with a reckless abandon in a good way.
I have a lot of admiration for Aaron Glenn and, obviously, Dan Campbell, and what they’ve accomplished here. I believe those players are playing the right way, and going up against this defense will be difficult. We felt like we needed to use the pass a little bit to maybe soften them up so we could get some rushing yards because, looking back over the season, there were four explosive runs on tape. So it’s more difficult to run the ball against this defense.”
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