If you could determine just one reason for why the Green Bay Packers lost their past two games, it wasn’t Micah Parsons’ injury, Jordan Love’s concussion, or any other personnel deficiency. The lack of red-zone efficiency is the big factor, and it was especially obvious in Chicago.
The team reached the red zone five times, and left all those five with a combined six points — the only touchdown happened outside of the red zone.
“That certainly is problematic,” head coach Matt LaFleur said after the game. “That’s two games in a row where we haven’t been very good down there, so we’ve got to look at what we’re asking our guys to do and how we can go out there and execute a little bit better.”
From Weeks 12 to 16, the Packers are 29th in red zone touchdown rate — the only worse teams are the New York Jets, New England Patriots, and Carolina Panthers.
Red Zone Efficiency Weeks 12-16
Context:
– Raiders and Panthers only have 6 red zone drives, yet rank 1st and 32nd in efficiency
– Dolphins only have 10 red zone drivesRams have 25 red zone drives in that time period, the most in the league for context pic.twitter.com/3siQeQHzvp
— Josh (@JoshiosTweets) December 24, 2025
Let Love cook
Conservatism has been part of the problem for the Packers. While Josh Jacobs is and has always been pretty effective close to the red zone, Green Bay has been too reliant on the running game trying to score, and that eventually puts the offense in unfavorable situations. The Packers have had a 45.6% pass rate in the red zone this season, which is 24th out of 32 NFL teams, via SumerSports.
The problem is particularly apparent on second downs — you must have read or thought about how Matt LaFleur likes to call runs on second-and-longs. Green Bay has a 43.3% second down pass rate in the red zone, 26th in the league.
If you think it makes sense to protect Jordan Love from himself, well, adjust your thinking. Love is first among qualifying quarterbacks in the entire NFL in red zone EPA/play. The Packers are highly efficient in the red area when they actually throw the football, but they are 17th in red zone rush EPA.
That means the Packers are highly efficient throwing it, below average running it, but are deliberately opting to do more what’s less efficient.
Going back to the graphic above, it’s not a coincidence that the Packers have had so many red zone trips ending in field goals. It’s not just mistakes, and obviously some of those happened against the Bears. It’s mostly inefficient decision-making costing the offense.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff to clean up and a lot of stuff to get better at and improve,” LaFleur said on Tuesday. “And that’s where the focus is going to be right now.”
Philosophically, Matt LaFleur likes to set up pass plays with a good run game — and to be fair, that’s part of the reason why the passing game is effective in the first place. But Jordan Love has proved time and again how he can lead the offense, and after weeks of underwhelming results close to the end zone, it’s the perfect opportunity to give him more chances.
