Matt LaFleur on taking points off the board: We're gonna be aggressive, go for the throat

The Packers continued a run of late-game meltdowns in Minnesota on Sunday afternoon and one of head coach Matt LaFleur’s decision loomed large as they went from leading the Vikings to an 0-1 record.

LaFleur opted to accept an offside penalty after Trey Smack made a field goal that would have extended Green Bay’s lead to eight points with just over 13 minutes left to play. The decision resulted in no points when Jordan Love was stopped on a quarterback sneak and the Vikings would score 22 straight points to run away with a 39-22 win.

“I think that’s just we’re going to be aggressive,” LaFleur said in his postgame press conference. “It was going to be an eight-point game. If it would have been a two-possession game, I probably would have thought otherwise. But I thought we had a chance. We didn’t do very well in the red zone. . . . Sometimes you live and die by that, but we’re gonna be aggressive and we’re gonna try to go for the throat in that situation.”

Those kinds of decisions have haunted the Packers on a run that dates back to last season. They’ve lost six straight games overall and they’ve held two score leads in four of those games, including the 22-10 lead they once held before the roof caved in on Sunday. There have been different reasons for each of the losses, but the inability to finish ultimately lands on LaFleur every time.

“I think it’s going to be a topic of conversation for all you guys until we do it,” LaFleur said. “That’s the bottom line.”

It will be a topic of conversation for many people as the Packers try to put an end to their streak against the Jets in Week 2.