Matt LaFleur sent Packers players into the bye week with a simple but important directive

When it comes to bye weeks, NFL head coaches love to say, “The bye comes at the right time.”

Except Matt LaFleur wasn’t willing to say that on Monday.

No, despite having a quarterback who needs time for his lingering knee and groin injuries to heal, and playing without two starting defensive backs in Sunday’s 24-14 loss to the Detroit Lions, and having his team’s bye come at essentially the midpoint of a 17-game season, the Green Bay Packers coach does have one issue with the timing of this year’s week off.

“For us, the only thing that is hard is to go on a bye after a loss, because this loss will sit with you for a long time,” LaFleur said Monday during his usual day-after-the-game Q&A session with reporters after the Lions snapped the Packers’ four-game winning streak to drop them to 6-3. “We’ve got a lot to think about, I would say, over the next 13 days before we play again.

“There’s a lot of things that we all have to collectively work on, on an individual basis, in order to get us to be a better football team.”

The Packers’ next game is Nov. 17 against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. Between now and then, LaFleur said he and his coaches have “a lot of projects” to work on during their week off but that he wants them to take a work-from-home approach to those assignments and do them on their own schedules so they can recharge their batteries for the final eight games and, he hopes, a sustained playoff run.

And while the loss to the NFC North-leading Lions (7-1) left him and his players with a bad taste in their mouths, LaFleur also found one major reason for optimism.

“I think what’s also encouraging is the fact that we’ve been able to find ways to win games and we’re not playing our best ball — obviously,” LaFleur said.

“We’ve had good moments of playing good, complimentary football and then we’ve had some not-so-great moments. And I think some of the mistakes maybe that we’ve made the last four games that we’ve won showed up (on Sunday) against a good football team.”

That much was obvious against the Lions, as Packers would-be pass-catchers dropped five balls, quarterback Jordan Love threw an ill-advised interception that was returned for a touchdown just before halftime, Love and fill-in center Elgton Jenkins had shotgun snap issues and the team was flagged for 10 penalties for 67 yards.

“We killed ourselves in every phase,” wide receiver Christian Watson said. “Everybody knows there were a bunch of things we need to be better at. We’ve just got to be able to grow from it, learn from it and not make those mistakes again. We’ve got to find a way to dial it in.”

But compared to where they were last season after nine games — sitting with a 3-6 record and looking very much like a team in the throes of a rebuilding project — the Packers are in a much better position. And if they can match last year’s 6-2 finish, they’ll be in the thick of the race for the NFC’s No. 1 seed.

That said, LaFleur believes one of the things he and his coaches can do better is to take a page out of their approach during the second half of last season, when they ramped up the number of competitive periods during practices, leading to “more energy,” he said.

LaFleur also had his assistants challenge each player before he departed Lambeau Field on Monday to identify “one thing that we can all improve upon” during the bye week and upon their return. That same admonition goes for the coaches, too — including LaFleur.

“Because all of us can improve in some area,” LaFleur said. “And I wanted our guys to know that leaving the building today so that when they come back (next) Monday, not only can they work on it on their own for the next six days, but when we get back and have practice next Monday, that there’s got to be an intentionality behind that.”

Musgrave recovering

Second-year tight end Luke Musgrave, who is on injured reserve after undergoing ankle surgery last month, could still play this season, LaFleur said.

LaFleur confirmed that Musgrave, who’d appeared in four games with two starts and caught five passes for 22 yards before going on IR, did indeed undergo surgery and is recovering.

“He will hopefully be back later this season,” LaFleur said.