Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur said he made an “emotional decision” when he went against the advice of an assistant coach and challenged the drop by receiver Romeo Doubs in the end zone late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s win over the New England Patriots.
Doubs briefly hauled in Aaron Rodgers’ deep pass on 3rd-and-8 from the 40-yard line with 2:02 left, but the rookie failed to maintain control of the ball through contact with the ground, resulting in an incomplete pass.
LaFleur, despite advice from assistant quarterbacks coach Connor Lewis, challenged the call in hopes of getting the touchdown and lost, resulting in the Packers losing a precious timeout late in the game.
“I’m not too proud of that moment. That was an emotional decision,” LaFleur said. “It was a great learning lesson. You can never make those emotional decisions in the heat of the battle. You know better. You have to survive the ground. Connor Lewis, he’s up in the box and he’s in my ear, and he said, ‘I don’t think so.’ He said we shouldn’t challenge it. I just made it an emotional decision. It was almost like throwing a Hail Mary. That could have came back and bit us in the butt. I’d rather learn from that, being on this side, thank god our guys bailed me out in that regard. Definitely the worst decision of the day by me.”
Had the call been overturned, the touchdown by Doubs would have given the Packers a 31-24 lead. But the rule is now clear: A player has to “survive” going to the ground or the call is incomplete, and Doubs clearly lost the ball upon hitting the ground in the end zone.
The decision to challenge did hurt the Packers in regulation. After losing a timeout, LaFleur had just one remaining, and the Patriots – following a punt to the 2-yard line – were able to run out most of the remaining clock in the fourth quarter and prevent one final attempt by the Packers offense to win the game in regulation.
Instead of getting the ball back with 50 or so seconds and a legitimate chance to get into field goal range, the Packers had just four seconds remaining and ran a desperation play from their own 42-yard line to finish the fourth quarter.
The Packers ended up winning in overtime, so LaFleur dodged a bullet. An emotional decision that had real implications on the game didn’t end up costing the Packers a victory.
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