‘We’ve got to get all the guys playing as one’

GREEN BAY – The good news is Head Coach Matt LaFleur believes the defensive letdowns in the Week 18 loss to the Lions are eminently fixable.

The bad news is they reflected some of the same mistakes the defense has made in the past when it’s gotten into a rut.

“We just had guys going outside their job responsibilities at many different times throughout the course of the game and doing things that ultimately get you beat,” LaFleur said Monday, a day after the Packers wrapped up the regular season with a 37-30 loss at Detroit. “That’s exactly what happened. We’ve got to get all the guys playing as one, owning their responsibility.”

The more frustrating breakdowns occurred on Detroit’s two trick plays, a double-reverse pass and flea-flicker, that went for 75- and 36-yard touchdowns. LaFleur said unscouted looks are always difficult, but the defense has rules for reading keys and executing assignments, and those were abandoned on those plays.

There was also a fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line on which Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown relatively easily caught a TD pass when he was supposed to be double-covered.

Against mostly defensive reserves, St. Brown later had a key 28-yard gain on a shallow crossing route in the fourth quarter as part of his eight-catch, 109-yard day. But the fourth-and-goal was a chance in the middle of the second quarter, with the starting unit still in the game, to keep points off the board.

“That’s what I’m talking about in terms of guys doing their responsibility,” LaFleur said. “We always want to give our guys tools to play certain things, and unfortunately if you use the tools in the wrong situation, it looks like what it looked like on that fourth down. That was a critical play in the game, obviously, that we did not handle the right way.”

The Packers did rest several of their front-line defenders as the game wore on with the playoffs around the corner. But in the end, the Lions racked up 404 yards and scored the most points of any opponent against Green Bay since Week 1.