Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson is known as “Mr. October.”
The NFL has a coach who should be dubbed “Mr. December.”
It’s Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur, who is 16-0 in December since being hired by the Packers prior to the 2019 season.
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LaFleur, 44, said the perfect mark in December isn’t about him, it’s about the players wearing green and gold. The Packers beat the Chiefs 27-19 on Sunday night.
“It’s always about ‘us’ in that room. That’s why I try not to read too much, if anything,” LaFleur said. “You don’t want it to affect how you do your job. You gotta keep it about the team and understand that there’s going to be challenges.
“Every week there’s a new challenge, and you’ve gotta stay focused on what’s right in front of you. As soon as you start feeling yourself, and you feel like you’ve arrived, this league has a way of knocking you off.”
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It’s not like the Packers’ head coach shines in December but struggles the rest of the regular season.
LaFleur, who played wide receiver at Western Michigan (1998-99) and quarterback at Division II Saginaw Valley State (2000-02), is 53-25 (67.9%) in the regular season and 2-3 in the playoffs. He has moved into a tie for fifth in Coach of the Year odds (+2000, bet $10 to win $210 total).
LaFleur guided the Packers to the NFC North Division title in 2019-21, and Green Bay reached the NFC Championship Game in 2019-20 with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.
Can LaFleur improve to 17-0 in December by winning at the New York Giants on Monday Night Football?
“The bottom line is we’re a .500 football team — we’re 6-6 right now,” LaFleur said. “We’ve clawed out of a tough spot but every week you’ve got to bring your A-game and so the reason we were able to kind of overcome some of that adversity is because of the effort and the work we put in to get to where we are now.”
Packers @ Giants (8:15 p.m….
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/2023-nfl-odds-matt-lafleur-has-become-nfls-mr-december
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Publish date : 2023-12-06 18:08:17
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