Packers coach Matt LaFleur said after Saturday night’s loss to the 49ers that his team was hurting after getting bounced out of the playoffs.
“It stings,” LaFleur said. “Part of the reason it stings so bad right now is we fully believed and fully expected to win this game. Give San Francisco credit, they made more plays in some of those critical situations down the stretch. It’s a tough football team. But I felt like we had plenty of opportunities to put the game out of reach and unfortunately just didn’t do enough. It’s never one play. I’m sure a lot of it’s going to come down to the missed field goal, but there’s plenty of opportunities. Go back in the first half and have three red zone opportunities and have six points. There’s a lot of plays out there that if one play goes different we probably have a different result right now.”
LaFleur said he doesn’t know why kicker Anders Carlson missed a field goal, which has been a problem for the Packers this year.
“I don’t know. I think if we had the answer we would have fixed it,” LaFleur said.
The Packers had a young team that exceeded expectations. It hurts in the moment, but LaFleur enters the offseason knowing his team is close to where it wants to be.