Matt LaFleur says he doesn't know what the Packers do well after 35-14 loss drops them to 1-2

Matt LaFleur is one of the most searched names in America today because of one sentence he said after Thursday night's 35-14 home loss to the Atlanta Falcons. "Right now I don't know what we're doing well offensively," the Green Bay Packers coach told reporters, according to ESPN. The loss drops Green Bay to 1-2, its worst start in LaFleur's eight seasons, and the Lambeau Field crowd booed the team off at halftime.

What happened on the field

The official box score reads like a mismatch. Atlanta gained 498 yards to Green Bay's 328, averaged 7.5 yards per play and held the ball for 37 minutes. Bijan Robinson ran 29 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns, and Drake London caught nine passes for another 194. Michael Penix Jr., back from a torn ACL in his season debut, went 18 of 25 for 256 yards.

Green Bay ran the ball nine times for 17 yards. ESPN said that was tied for the third-lowest rushing total by the Packers in more than 90 years, and that Robinson's 194 yards were more than Green Bay has run for all season (146). Jordan Love threw 53 times, completing 28 for 312 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

The Falcons had scored 16 points in their first two games combined with a third-string quarterback, ESPN reported. They had 17 by halftime.

Why the offense has stalled

The short version is the offensive line and the missing running back. Josh Jacobs, the Packers' leading rusher the past two seasons, is on the commissioner's exempt list. Right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele is out for the season with a knee injury, and rookie Jager Burton was the team's third different starter at left guard in three games, per ESPN.

CBS Sports put numbers on the rest: Love has been pressured on 42.4% of his dropbacks, and Green Bay leads the league with nine dropped passes when no other team has more than five. LaFleur, who calls the plays, spread the blame. "There's enough blame to go around," he said. "There's some play calls I would love to have back."

The defense is missing Micah Parsons, who is on the PUP list after tearing his ACL last December. LaFleur said on Sept. 17 that Parsons was still "a couple weeks away," CBS Sports reported, and the team has not yet opened his practice window.

How badly the market missed

This is the part the highlight packages skip. Green Bay closed as a 4.5-point favorite at DraftKings, with a moneyline of -238 against Atlanta's +195, according to the line ESPN carries on the game page. Strip the bookmaker's cut out of those two prices and the market gave the Packers about a 67.5% chance of winning, roughly two in three. They lost by 21, missing the spread by 25.5 points, and the 49 combined points went over the 43.5 total.

One game does not make a market wrong, but it does reset it. The Packers' early prices were built on a healthy roster and a playoff team from last season; three weeks in, the numbers ESPN and CBS cite describe a team that cannot run and cannot protect its quarterback. Watch how books price Green Bay's next game against that backdrop. Current lines for every priced game are on our NFL odds board.

What comes next

The Thursday game buys time. Green Bay does not play again until Sunday, Oct. 4, at Tampa Bay, then hosts Chicago on Oct. 11 and Dallas the following week, per the ESPN schedule. That is a division game against the Bears and a Sunday night home date with the Cowboys, a stretch that will decide how loud the pressure gets.

The pressure is new again. CBS Sports noted Green Bay gave LaFleur a multi-year extension in January even though the team lost its last five games of 2025, a run that ended with a wild-card loss to the Bears. That deal quieted the hot-seat talk; a 1-2 start with the worst home loss of his tenure has brought it back.

Full results are on our NFL scores page and the rest of Week 3 is on the NFL schedule.

Sources: ESPN (game story, LaFleur follow-up, box score, closing line and Packers schedule), CBS Sports (offense analysis and Parsons and Jacobs report). Reported Friday, September 25, 2026. Odds shown for information only, not betting advice.