Colin Cowherd said Wednesday that the Green Bay Packers’ Week 2 game at the New York Jets has become a referendum on Matt LaFleur after another late collapse opened the season.
“Green Bay at the Jets is suddenly gigantic… I guarantee you some of that locker room has lost faith in Matt LaFleur,” Cowherd said on “The Herd.”
The Packers enter Sunday’s 1 p.m. ET matchup at MetLife Stadium at 0-1 after a 39-22 loss at Minnesota. The Jets are 1-0 following a 23-10 win at Tennessee. Green Bay is a 3.5-point favorite.
The stakes are larger than one early-season road game. Green Bay has lost six consecutive games dating to last December, including the postseason. That is the Packers’ longest losing streak in 35 years.
Those six games include the final four contests of the 2025 regular season, a Wild Card loss at Chicago and Sunday’s opener. Green Bay started 9-3-1 a year ago, then faded and still reached the playoffs before blowing a 21-3 lead against the Bears.
The recent numbers are stark. Over the six-game slide, the Packers are 0-6 with a minus-10.8 point differential per game. They have averaged 19.7 points and allowed 30.5. Their sack differential is minus-9. The team also owns the NFL’s worst fourth-quarter point differential in that span, at minus-69.
Sunday’s loss followed a familiar script. Green Bay led 22-10 late in the third quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. Minnesota scored 29 unanswered points. A failed fourth-and-1 sneak by Jordan Love after LaFleur declined a field goal helped flip the game.
LaFleur later said the staff wanted to be aggressive.
“We’re going to go for the throat in that situation,” he said after the game.
Cowherd has questioned Green Bay’s finishing ability for months. He has argued that LaFleur’s teams often look organized early and then fail to close, especially against physical or opportunistic opponents in the NFC North. The coach is not a lame-duck figure. The Packers signed LaFleur to a multiyear extension in January, days after the playoff loss in Chicago. General manager Brian Gutekunst received an extension as well. LaFleur’s regular-season record entering 2026 was 76-40-1. He has taken Green Bay to the playoffs in six of seven seasons. The franchise has not reached a Super Bowl since the 2010 season and has one playoff win since 2020. That resume is why some Packers supporters reject the idea that Sunday is a survival game for the coach. One fan replied to The Herd’s post by noting the new deal does not even begin until next year and that Green Bay does not have an impulsive owner. Still, the optics are poor. The Packers have blown double-digit second-half leads in three of their last five games against division opponents, including the playoffs. Love threw for 387 yards and two touchdowns in the opener but could not stop the fourth-quarter unraveling. The Jets present a different test. Aaron Glenn’s team controlled Tennessee with 367 total yards, 152 rushing yards and no turnovers. Geno Smith completed 19 of 24 passes. New York’s defense limited the Titans to 195 yards. A loss would drop Green Bay to 0-2 for the first time since 2006, Mike McCarthy’s first season as head coach. The Packers then host Atlanta on Thursday night, leaving little recovery time. Cowherd framed the question as pressure on both Love and LaFleur. The quarterback is in the heart of a large contract. The coach has a new deal but a locker room that just watched another lead disappear. Sunday will not decide the season. In a stacked NFC North that already includes wins by Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota, it may decide how much patience remains inside the building.
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