Packers coach Matt LaFleur said after Saturday night's loss to the 49ers that his team is hurting after being eliminated from the playoffs.
“It’s burning,” LaFleur said. “One reason it hurts so much at the moment is that we firmly believed and fully expected to win this game. Give San Francisco credit for making more plays in some of those critical situations down the stretch. It's a tough football team. But I felt like we had a lot of opportunities to put the game out of reach and unfortunately we just didn't do enough. It's never a single piece. I'm sure a lot of this will be due to the missed field goal, but there are many possibilities. Go back in the first half and have three chances in the red zone and score six points. There are a lot of plays where if one play goes the other way, we’re probably going to get a different result right now.”
LaFleur said he didn'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 right now, but LaFleur enters the offseason knowing his team is close to its goal.