Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur played it too conservative against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game and came out on the losing end.
Down eight points with 2:09 left in the fourth quarter on fourth-and-goal from the 8-yard line, LaFleur elected to kick a field goal rather than take one more shot at the end zone.
“Anytime it doesn’t work out, you always regret it, right? It was just the circumstances of having three shots and coming away with no yards,” LaFleur said. “And knowing that you not only need the touchdown, but you need the two-point (conversion). The way I was looking at it was, essentially, you had four timeouts with the two-minute warning. We knew we needed to get a stop. And I thought we were going to have a stop there at the end, but we called for the (pass interference).
“And it didn’t work out. Any time 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.”
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers had thrown three straight incompletions prior to the fourth-down play call.
The Buccaneers were able to convert for three first downs, and the Packers never got the ball back to end the game. The Packers lost 31-26, and now might lose their starting QB, as well.
