Two of the biggest backfires on the NFL's opening weekend came roughly 70 hours and 9,500 miles apart.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur took points off the board but didn't come up with a first down, and that gamble blew up in his face, the tide-turner in Green Bay's 39-22 loss at Minnesota on Sunday.
That came long after the Super Bowl favorite Los Angeles Rams swooped into Melbourne, Australia, barely a day before kickoff and were walloped 27-7 by the San
Francisco 49ers, who were Down Under for a week to acclimate.
Rams coach Sean McVay said the travel plans had nothing to do with his team's flop, but some Aussies in the NFL suggested it probably had plenty to do with it.
Let's start with the Packers.
On fourth-and-6 from the Vikings 22, rookie Trey Smack nailed a 40-yard field goal to give Green Bay an eight-point cushion early in the fourth quarter when linebacker Dallas Turner was ruled offside.
Rarely has a yellow flag turned out so fortuitous for the offender.
Take the points and it's 25-17.
Take the penalty and it's fourth-and-1 from the Minnesota 17.
On the road.
LaFleur chose the latter.
So, off went the points and in came the call.
“We had two plays called right there,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love said. “I went with the quarterback sneak. I thought we could get it and we didn't.”
Rookie nose tackle Domonique “Big Citrus” Orange left the Packers with a bitter taste when he stuffed Love shy of the first-down marker, the stadium exploding into a deafening roar when the virtual measurement showed up short on the scoreboard.
Everything fell apart for the Packers after that.
Four defensive penalties aided Minnesota's go-ahead touchdown drive with Aaron Jones scoring from 3 yards out with 6:37 remaining. The Vikings tacked on two touchdowns on two takeaways to turn a tight game into a comfortable win.
“We're going to be aggressive,” LaFleur said after the game, and he maintained his no-regrets stance a day later, suggesting he's “just trying to push it to a two-score game.”
"Sometimes you live and die by that," LaFleur said Sunday night. "But we're going to be aggressive and we're going to try to go for the throat in that situation.”
Instead, the Packers ended up choking away a game to a division rival on opening weekend, same as the Rams did in the first NFL game played in Australia.
Unlike the 49ers, who flew in early to acclimate with the 17-hour time difference, the Rams decided to drop in barely a day before kickoff so as not to interrupt their regular routine. So, they were in the air round-trip about as long as they were on the ground in Melbourne.
It didn't turn out great for the Rams, who were outplayed in every phase.
McVay insisted the Rams' debacle Down Under had nothing to do with their travel strategy, but you can bet other teams in this copycat league won't be mimicking LA's itinerary.
“I would have recommended going out early,” said Eagles offensive lineman Jordan Mailata, who grew up in a Sydney suburb. “To climatize. ... But I recommend it just because the flight is so long that I don't think 24 hours is enough to wash out that flight itself. That's just not. You need at least a couple of days. But what do I know? I'm not a sports scientist.”
How about three days, suggested Australian punter Jeremy Crawshaw of the Denver Broncos.
“If we were to do that, I would advise our building not to do that,” Crawshaw said of the Rams' itinerary. "It takes two to three days for you to flush that stuff out. Sure, on paper, in theory, you should be able to skip the jet lag. The jet lag is the least of their worries, their joints are probably sore, their legs are swelling from being at altitude for 15 hours.
“It's that kind of stuff that the body can't handle. So, if you fly in the day before and expect the body to be performing at 100 percent, it's not going to be,” Crawshaw said.
Like Mailata, Crawshaw has made the flight back to Australia countless times, and every time he feels it.
“Every time I've done that, I've been wrecked for a couple of days, whether it be jet lag or the body just not feeling right," Crawshaw said. “I saw they were going to do that and I was a bit skeptical. I was eager to see how that went. Now, their loss might not be fully down to that, there might be other reasons, I don't know. But I know that for me personally it would have been a big deal with my legs sore and heavy.
"Flying is tough, especially for that long.”
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AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee and AP Pro Football Writer Dave Campbell contributed to this report.
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