Matt LaFleur: Anytime a decision doesn’t work out, you regret it

[Captain Fear]

USA TODAY Sports

Matt LaFleur apparently has his regrets.

After the Packers fell to the Buccaneers 31-26 in the NFC Championship Game, LaFleur’s decision to kick a field goal late in the fourth quarter is under the microscope.

Green Bay did have three timeouts plus the two-minute warning to stop the clock. But taking the ball out of quarterback Aaron Rodgers‘ hands on fourth-and-goal at the eight-yard line proved to be hugely consequential.

“Yeah, any time it doesn’t work out you always regret it, right?” LaFleur said in his postgame press conference. “But it was just the circumstances of having three shots and coming away with no yards. And knowing that you not only need the touchdown, but you need the two-point [conversion]. So the way I was looking at it, was that we essentially had four timeouts with the two-minute warning. We knew we needed to get a stop. I thought we were going to have a stop there at the end, but we got called for the [pass interference]. And it didn’t work out.

“So I think anytime something doesn’t work out, do you regret it? Sure. But we’re always going to be process-driven here. And the way our defense was battling, the way our defense was playing, it felt like it was the right decision to do. It just didn’t work out.”

The process may have been right, but the Packers did not get the desired result. And now LaFleur will have the offseason to replay the game in his mind.

“This one does sting,” LaFleur said. “It’s going to take a long time to get over this one.”