Cheesehead
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- Mar 19, 2019
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"You just can't do that stuff," LaFleur said of what amounted to two touchdowns allowed in less than 75 seconds of game clock, and putting the blame on the coaching staff for the wrong defensive coverage call at the end of the first half. "That's inexcusable. That should not have happened.
"That was a tough pill to swallow. That was about as bad of a sequence as you could have in a critical game, obviously."
The Packers battled back with touchdowns on their next two drives, sandwiched around an Adrian Amos interception, to make it 28-23 heading into the fourth quarter.
But when Jaire Alexander got another interception of Brady to thwart a Tampa Bay scoring drive, the offense went three-and-out, allowing Shaq Barrett's third sack of Rodgers. A second Alexander pick preceded another three-and-out, with the Bucs' fifth sack of the game. Two opportunities lost.
"We had some chances," Rodgers said. "Had the ball there with all the momentum. Just kind of needed one first down to get going, and didn't get it, which is disappointing."
A Buccaneers field goal made it 31-23 and then Green Bay's offense finally got moving again on a 29-yard completion to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who four catches for 115 yards, including a 50-yard TD in the first half.
But then came another stall at the worst possible time, with three incomplete passes on first-and-goal from the 8. With 2:09 left and the Packers possessing all three timeouts, LaFleur surprised many by deciding to kick the field goal and see if the defense could get the ball back.
"I was looking at we essentially had four timeouts with the two-minute warning," explained LaFleur, who also said going nowhere from the 8 on three plays, and needing the two-point conversion with the touchdown, factored into the decision. "Anytime something doesn't work out, do you regret it? Sure."
Rodgers (33-of-48, 346 yards, three TDs, one INT, 101.6 rating) said he had called the third-down play, which resulted in a scramble and incomplete pass, and suggested he might have called something different had he known LaFleur wasn't going to go for it.
"That wasn't my decision," Rodgers said. "I understand the thinking above two minutes with all our timeouts, but it wasn't my decision."