GREEN BAY, Wis. — If Matt LaFleur couldn’t find the answers to what ails the Green Bay Packers’ offense from within, the coach wasn’t opposed to a little thievery.
“I’m going to study some of the things around the league and see if there’s something that we can steal to try and find a way to generate, specifically on the offensive side of the ball, just generate some momentum for our offense,” LaFleur said of his plans for last week’s bye.
His problem might be that he can’t steal any players.
Such is life with a first-time starting quarterback (Jordan Love) who has three rookie tight ends, no receivers who joined the NFL before last season and hasn’t had his No. 1 running back (Aaron Jones) for three of the first five games. No matter how many innovative ideas LaFleur pirated from his coaching colleagues over the past week, it won’t change the fact that he’s dealing with the youngest team in the NFL.
Still, he knew he had to try something beyond just the typical self-scouting projects every team does during their bye.
He might want to look for something that will lend itself to a faster start. Whatever has been on his scripted first 15 plays has not worked of late. The Packers, who are 2-3 heading into Sunday’s game at the Denver Broncos (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS), have been outscored a combined 54-6 in the first half of their past three games — mostly recently in the Monday night 17-13 loss at the Raiders in Week 5.
No team has been less productive in the first half of games this season than the Packers, who have averaged just 93.8 yards in the first two quarters. They are the only team in the league averaging fewer than 110 yards in the first half.
