The first installment was a first-round TKO. As the rematch looms between Green Bay and San Francisco, the Packers hope to fully understand what led to a 37-8 loss to the 49ers in primetime 50 days ago.
“I’ve got to go back and watch that tape again to really try to grasp what happened and why it happened and how can we adjust and what are we going to do to ensure it doesn’t happen [again],” coach Matt LaFleur said Monday, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. “That’ll happen over the next couple days.”
In the loss, quarterback Aaron Rodgers generated only 106 passing yards. 49ers tight end George Kittle accounted for more than that on his own, catching six passes for 129 yards and a touchdown.
“I’m going to look at everything, and everything that anybody that’s had success against them,” LaFleur said of the 49ers. “I mean, that’s a really good team. In all three phases. They’ve got obviously one of the top defenses, I think it’s one of the top offenses and they’re really solid on special teams. So I’ve got a lot of respect for everybody over there. Richard Hightower does a great job with the special teams, you all know my relationship with [defensive coordinator] Robert [Saleh] and what I think about him not only as a person but as a football coach, and I think Kyle [Shanahan] does as good as anybody drawing up plays and scheming people as there is in the National Football League. So we have a big challenge in front of us. But it’s something that I think our guys are going to roll up their sleeves and come in and prepare the right way and be ready to go.”
In two California games this season, the Packers were anything but ready to go, losing 26-11 to the Chargers in L.A. before returning for a Sunday night Santa Clara massacre. For the first trip, LaFleur took the team to the West Coast on Friday. For the 49ers game, they traveled on Saturday. They’ll do that again.
The Packers have been installed as 7.5-point underdogs. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, it’s only the fourth time in Rodgers’ 191 career starts that the Packers have been underdogs of a touchdown or more.