Matt LaFleur was heated.

Just 15 minutes earlier his Green Bay Packers had walked off the field a 34-20 loser to Detroit, the team’s fourth straight loss to its division rival. They didn’t just get beat, though. They got dominated and bullied in nearly every facet of the game, especially in the first half. The Lions ran for 212 yards on the night, sacked Jordan Love five times and became just the third team in the last 50 years to hold a lead of 24 or more points against the Packers at home.

That set the stage for a still seething LaFleur to boil over when he spoke to reporters with one question drawing his ire more than others.

“What do you think happens to cause a first half like that where you got nothing?” wondered one writer about LaFleur’s team being out-gained 284 yards to 20 and facing a 27-3 deficit at home.

“You saw it. We got our ass kicked. If I knew, it wouldn’t have happened,” LaFleur said before pausing and later adding, “That’s a B.S. question, man.”

Matt LaFleur: mad pic.twitter.com/ZrA7dyAaNC

— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq) September 29, 2023

The seemingly innocuous question was a fair one, because for a second week in a row the Packers fell into a deep first-half hole. They figured a way out against New Orleans on Sunday, but this one was too much. They never got the running game going (27 yards) and failed to protect Love against a ferocious front seven for the Lions.

“It wasn’t good enough. They whipped us. They manhandled us,” said LaFleur, whose team dropped to 2-2 on the year. “Again, if I knew the answer to that, it wouldn’t have happened.”

Green Bay played without its two best players along the offensive line in left tackle David Bakhtiari and left guard Elgton Jenkins, while Zach Tom played through a knee injury at right tackle. Guard Jon Runyan also got dinged up during the game with an ankle injury.

“It is what it is. I don’t think anybody is feeling sorry for us, so we’ve got to get better,” LaFleur said. “Everything wasn’t good enough. The plan wasn’t good enough. That was humiliating being down 27-3 at the half.”

While the offense struggled to find its footing, the defense got run through, over and around by the Lions running game. David Montgomery had never beaten the Packers while with Chicago the last four seasons, but he ran wild Thursday night. He had 121 yards and three scores against a Green Bay defense that has now allowed two of its four opponents to run for 200 yards or more. Opposing teams are now averaging 155 yards per game.

“We are going to have to do something different because it’s insane to do the same things over and over again and expect a different result,” said LaFleur while also praising the Lions running backs and offensive line. “But it’s still inexcusable. You should be able to take one phase away… .”

The one thing LaFleur did feel good about was the fight of his team, coming out in the third quarter and trimming the lead to 10 early in the fourth quarter.

“Obviously, we were in such a hole, and that’s two weeks in a row we’ve put ourselves in a pretty bad situation,” LaFleur said. “We were very fortunate four days ago to come out of it. Tonight, against a really good team, it was an impossible hole to overcome.”