If there’s anything that remains consistent about the Packers of the last several years, it’s that it can be impossible to predict what version of the team you’re going to get in any given week.

The 2025 Packers are no example. Despite having shown early signs at the beginning of the year of being a well-balanced juggernaut, the team has fallen back into old habits of killing themselves with mistakes and playing down to the level of their competition. And yes, many of these trends have existed throughout the Matt LaFleur era.

Now, you’re not going to hear me call for LaFleur’s job in this column. I’m definitely not there yet. But it is very clear that he has some work to do, and that he has played a major role (perhaps the largest role) in the places where the team has fallen short this season.

I saw a discussion online this week about whether the Packers would make any moves at the trade deadline. This isn’t something they frequently do, but even then, this was one year where I actually found myself thinking no, the problem isn’t necessarily with the personnel on the field (though they absolutely need more strength at the corner position), but rather with the mentality of the team at the moment.

For one, LaFleur seems to be unaware that his quarterback is good. Watching the Packers offense on Sunday, it was like LaFleur was forcing Jordan Love to play with one arm tied behind his back. 

As I wrote on BlueSky, it’s understandable to want to establish the run; Josh Jacobs is a great back and was the engine of the offense in 2024. But it’s 2025, and Jordan Love has become probably the team’s best offensive player. It’s time for the offense to flow through him, and that means accepting that there may be a couple boneheaded decisions per game to go along with the brilliance we see of his in the downfield passing game. 

But it’s not just LaFleur who is maddeningly inconsistent; the players themselves are also not consistently making plays. The run defense performed a pretty impressive disappearing act for most of the game, as the Panthers ground out long drives to minimize the Packers’ possessions. Pass rush was virtually nonexistent, and even if it was present, it wouldn’t have mattered much given the way the Panthers were able to run the ball.

On the opposite side of the ball, there’s barely any consistency in play (or personnel) along the offensive line. I’ll never for the life of me understand why the Packers thought it was a good idea to take an all pro left guard and turn him into a mediocre center. Multiple Carolina rushers came untouched through the A gap–something that should just never, ever happen. 

Love himself obviously needed to play better than he did in the late game, though part of me feels his interception (and his near second) were understandable given the frustrating game plan put into place. After absolutely carving up the Steelers, Love was never really allowed to open up, and it was the downfield passing that really seemed to be working for the Packers. It wouldn’t be surprising if Love was feeling a need to force the ball in tough circumstances simply because he was hamstrung so much by his play caller. Now, that’s still not an excuse for bad decision making, but it wouldn’t at all surprise me if those two things were intertwined.

It was just… ugly. And it came a week after a fairly convincing victory on the road against a pretty good Steelers team. And this is who the Packers continue to be; they oscillate back and forth depending on who they’re playing.

The “young team” excuse will surely be trotted out, but these guys are professionals. They have to be able to get up for every game every week. And LaFleur is no longer a rookie coach; he’s in his seventh year and has experienced a lot in this league. 

The team has to be better, and they have to be more consistent. The effort from essentially all parties on Sunday was pathetic.

And now… a date with the defending champions.

Wisconsin Beer of the Week

This week: a true throwback!

In 2015, I went to the now-defunct Brenner Brewing Company for a release of its Halloween beer, an imperial stout called Witchcraft. Supplies were limited; each customer was allowed to purchase a single four-pack, and there was a line. But I managed to secure one.

The brewery itself was… interesting. It didn’t necessarily have the best reputation in the Milwaukee brewing scene. They had one really outstanding beer, an IPA called City Fox, which to this day remains one of my favorite IPAs I’ve had from a Milwaukee brewery. But beyond that, they never really created anything noteworthy… other than Witchcraft.

That’s one of the things that makes Witchcraft such a unicorn of a beer. A brewery that is otherwise essentially a footnote in Milwaukee’s craft brewing scene at this point created something that ranks among the best beers I’ve ever had. The beer was so good that I figured I’d save my last bottle for a special occasion.

Well, special occasions came and went. In 2018 I had one last bottle remaining, and my wife and I took it to the hospital to celebrate the birth of our first son. However, once he was born, my wife quickly realized that the absolute last thing she wanted was very high ABV barrel aged beer. So we decided to save it for another special occasion.

Then it just sort of… sat. In our cellar, in our beer fridge. This particular style of beer can go a very long time without being opened, and the wax seal added some preservation. 

Finally, when I came across it again a couple years ago, I decided we would wait until the 10-year anniversary of the beer to finally crack it open. And that’s exactly what we did.

On Halloween Night, I cut off the wax seal, cracked the beer open, crossed my fingers, and poured it evenly into two glasses. It maintained a very nice carbonation, and it was still very molasses forward, with plenty of that bourbon flavor still there. While there were signs that the beer was past its peak, it definitely was still an outstanding beer. I’ve had a lot of great barrel-aged stouts from local breweries, but I’m not sure I’ve ever had one with a taste or mouthfeel quite like this. To this day, 10 years after its release, Witchcraft holds up as a true Milwaukee great, oddly enough from a brewery that generally failed to achieve excellence.

Here’s the description, if you’re interested. It weighs in at 13.5% ABV and 70 IBU.

“With the warmth behind us and cold ahead, the inaugural batch of WItchcraft was brewed under the harvest moon of 2014. This beer prepares you for the annual descent into darkness. Nine malt varieties, molasses, honey, and Anodyne coffee. Aged for one year in bourbon barrels and virgin Missouri oak barrels. The result is nothing short of perfection.”

Do the Packers have what it takes to beat the Eagles?

It’s almost impossible to know which Packer team is going to show up against Philadelphia on Monday night. It’s hard to believe homefield advantage will make much of a difference, given what we just saw against Carolina on Sunday. But hopefully the Panthers stinker at least lights a fire under this team and has them ready to go for primetime football against the defending champions. It'll be harder without Tucker Kraft, but great teams have to be able to overcome these sorts of backbreaking injuries.

For their part, the Eagles are coming in well rested off their bye week, plus one extra day. The Packers are going to have to deal with a wide range of weapons on that Philly offense. While Saquon Barkley isn’t having the MVP caliber season he did a year ago, he did just have his best performance of the season in the Eagles’ last game, and he’s still a threat for an explosive play at just about any time of the game. After the trouble the Packers had against a bad Carolina offensive line with stopping the run, they’re going to need to be on full alert on Monday night.

The defense is also going to have its hands full with the Eagles’ passing game. Jalen Hurts may be having his finest season throwing the football: 15 touchdowns to a single interception with a 70.2 percent completion percentage. AJ Brown is expected to be back in the lineup, though at the time of me writing this (Wednesday) it remains to be seen whether he will be back from injury. If so, he’s a dynamic, big-bodied receiver that could bully some of the Packers’ defensive backs. Devonta Smith is a highly capable #2 who has had a couple explosive games already this season.

The Packers were unable to topple the Eagles in two different contests last year. They played them close in week one, and simply weren’t up to the task in the playoffs. The Packers are a better team (ostensibly) than they were a season ago, but it’s impossible to trust them given what we’ve seen so far this season.

Green Bay is certainly capable of winning this football game. The question really comes down to whether they have the discipline to learn from their most recent game and play a complete football game for once.

We really look at turnovers different than we once did

I’ve been spending a fair amount of time going through old NFL highlights recently just for nostalgia’s sake. For example, I was looking at one compilation of the 1999 St. Louis Rams “Greatest Show on Turf” season, which was a lot of fun. But going through that year, something that really struck me was the number of turnovers.

In 1999, the Rams had a whopping 31 turnovers. That would have been second most in the league in 2024 (34 was the most), but in 1999, it fell somewhere in the middle of the pack. THat year, the Chicago Bears led the league with 48 (!) turnovers–an average of three per game! Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles had the fewest with 17. There were 10 teams with 17 or fewer in 2024!

This speaks volumes to how much offense has changed around the league. Turnovers were once just considered to be an inevitable part of the game. One of the greatest offenses of all time, that 1999 Rams team, turned the ball about twice per game. These days, that number would likely lead to firings and benchings.

It’s really in the passing game that those turnovers have drastically decreased. While fumble numbers have remained relatively consistent (any decrease there is also due to decreased quarterback fumbles), interception numbers have plummeted. Quarterbacks are being more careful with the football, but offenses are also relying much more on short passing games and one- or two-read schemes that rely on routes getting guys open quickly. Long-developing routes and multi-player reads are nowhere near as prevalent as they once were, and so the risky throws are also fewer and farther between. 

This increased scarcity in turnovers has that feedback loop of making teams even more risk averse. If fewer turnovers are happening, that means every single turnover that DOES happen is even more consequential. While turnovers have always had a significant correlation with the outcome of the game, that’s even truer than it ever has been considering it takes fewer takeaways than ever to win the turnover margin. 

In that aforementioned 1999 season with the Greatest Show on Turf, all but six of the top 25 quarterbacks in the league by touchdown pass threw double digit interceptions. Brett Favre, Drew Bledsoe, Jake Plummer, Kerry Collins, Jim Harbaugh, Doug Pederson, and Brian Griese all threw at least as many picks as touchdowns!

Compare that to 25 years later in 2024. Of those top 25 quarterbacks by touchdown pass, more than half did NOT throw double digit interceptions. 

So, the game has changed noticeably. It’s one of those things you KNOW, but you don’t quite realize just how much until you’re looking back at old highlights, see great offenses making all kinds of mistakes, and the announcers don’t really make that big of a deal of it. 

Around the NFC North

As always, it’s time to go around the NFC North. 

• The CHICAGO BEARS will take any victories they can get, though it might be hard to feel great about a victory in which your defense is absolutely shredded by a 40 year old quarterback. Still, the Bears continue to take steps forward, and now more than halfway through the season still find themselves in realistic contention for a wild card berth. Coaching truly can make a difference, it turns out.

• The DETROIT LIONS wasted an opportunity to gain some ground on the Packers by falling at home to a Vikings team quarterbacked by JJ McCarthy. Ironically, right before the game, the team on Fox NFL Sunday unanimously agreed the Lions were the NFC North’s best team and eventual division champions. Just goes to show once again that my theory about the 2025 season is correct: there are actually no truly great teams, and this year’s champions will just end up being whichever decent team manages to string together three or four good games in a row.

• The MINNESOTA VIKINGS continue their up and down season with a win over the Lions, and now suddenly talk of playoffs is back on the menu despite them currently being in the basement of the division. But with the North’s records all so tightly grouped together, anything is possible. Kevin O’Connell has proven he can make a three course dinner with table scraps at the quarterback position, so as long as Brian Flores’s defense can hold up and the team’s bevy of skill position players can help out, they’re going to be in a lot of games. The question just comes down to whether the quarterback can make enough plays to get them victories. On Sunday, he did just that.

Mr. Backes’s “This or That”

Every day I put a different “this or that” poll up on my whiteboard and have students leave tallies throughout the day. I then compile this information and post it here for laughs.

Here’s what we’ve seen over the last week:

• Six Flags defeated Noah’s Ark
• Coffee defeated Tea
• Sour patch defeated Skittles
• Sophocles defeated Shakespeare (we’re working on a unit featuring Oedipus Rex and a Shakespearean tragedy of students’ choice)

Week 10 NFL Picks

Hard to know what version of the Packers we get, but if anything has been consistent about Matt LaFleur’s teams, it’s that they rarely win on the road against strong competition. Give me Philly.

Eagles 30, Packers 20

The whole slate:

BRONCOS over Raiders

COLTS over Falcons

BROWNS over Jets

PANTHERS over Saints

PATRIOTS over Bucs

RAVENS over Vikings

BILLS over Dolphins

BEARS over Giants

TEXANS over Jaguars

SEAHAWKS over Cardinals

LIONS over Commanders

RAMS over 49ers

CHARGERS over Steelers

EAGLES over Packers