Curd is the Word: Penalties Can Taint Victories
The flags fly once again in preseason week 2
By GregMeinholz
A win is a win. Even when it's ugly, a victory still counts. This may be true in the regular season, but in the preseason, sometimes victories can feel a bit tainted. That's not to say that the team didn't deserve to win; they put in the work and pulled off the W. But when you walk away, realizing you have a lot of work to do before these games are real, the scoreboard reading in your favor at the end isn't quite as sweet.
That's what happened in yesterday's 23-19 preseason game 2 victory against the Indianapolis Colts. Now, don't get me wrong, Taylor Elgersma looked pretty good outside of an interception he threw, which ended up being called back, Izzy Abanikanda and Amar Johnson looked like they're going to make a big case for at least a practice squad position with the team, and Sean Clifford made a great TD run which ended up sealing the victory. But one of the most noticeable parts of the game was the consistent flags against the Packers' offense in the first half.
During the first 30 minutes of play, the Packers were penalized 11 times for a total of 85 yards. Usually, as a fan, when such things happen, your first impulse is to blame the referees, begging them to let the players play the game or accusing them of being biased. But when the majority of those penalties are either done pre-snap or are an obvious infraction, they become maddening and game-tainting. No matter the outcome, exciting victory or not, you know you have a lot of work to do.
Last week against the Jets, penalties were notably a problem. The Packers had seven calls accepted for a total of 64 yards. Lucky for them, three other calls were declined. With last week being such a frustrating loss, however, it was easy for those penalties to sort of get caught up in the mix as just one part of the debacle. Matt LaFleur admitted that the penalties were a major problem, and it's hard to get into any rhythm on offense when you're committing multiple penalties, and that was that. This week, however, the penalties increased, and LaFleur seemed a bit more committed to getting them resolved, saying they have to do a better job, and some evaluation needs to be done to try to alleviate these issues.
Perhaps one of the most frustrating facts about these penalties is that against the Colts, the second-round draft pick, right tackle Anthony Belton, was called for five of them. One false start, one unnecessary roughness call, a facemask, and two consecutive illegal formation penalties. Now, rookies are going to make mistakes, but five infractions in one game? That's not to mention that Belton had two alignment infractions last week against the Jets, but those penalties were declined. LaFleur laid into Belton just before halftime yesterday, but he even admitted that it was mainly due to Belton's personal foul that occurred after the whistle had been blown. But outside of that, five pre-snap penalties in two games? Belton needs his coaching staff to take him aside and figure out what he's doing wrong and correct it fast.
It's a Team Effort
Even though Anthony Belton holds the title for most penalties in the preseason so far, that doesn't mean the rest of the team is off the hook. There are still 17 other penalties between the last two games that weren't called on Anthony Belton.
John Madden used to say that holding occurs on every play; it's just rarely called. It's basically up to the referees to determine if the action is egregious enough to warrant the 10-yard penalty. When it comes to those calls, players just need to watch their hands and not hold on for too long, warranting a call. Personal fouls, of course, require discipline, and pre-snap penalties can either expose a fundamental issue or a lack of discipline as well.
No matter the cause, it's up to Matt LaFleur and his coaching staff to put a major emphasis on keeping away from yellow flags in the next two weeks. This week, they were a sour note on an exciting comeback victory. The Packers don't need this to continue into the regular season, where, instead of just being a blemish on the W, they're the reason a notch is being placed in the L column.
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Greg Meinholz is a lifelong devoted Packer fan. A contributor to CheeseheadTV as well as PackersTalk. Follow him on Twitter @gmeinholz and Bluesky @gmeinholz.bsky.social for Packers commentary, random humor, beer endorsements, and occasional Star Wars and Marvel ramblings.
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Comments (16)
EricTorkelson
August 17, 2025 at 06:58 am
When reporters asked tackle Belton to comment on his performance his response was
( I THINK I BROKE HIS NECK. I THINK I BROKE HIS NECK ... I TOLD YA I BROKE HIS NECK )
a little longest yard hummer there, I do like our young tackles though they were brought in to provide physicality
to open up holes for our run game. I have said it before the NFL defenses are now all about lighter fast penetrating pass rushers
and like the Eagles, Ravens and maybe GB you can attack them with punishing OL followed by physical running backs and Quarterbacks.
LambeauPlain
August 17, 2025 at 07:27 am
I was impressed with the 2nd string Defense again. They play with a relentless style ...and that is a product of their coaches AND their teammates pushing each other. Even against the Colts #1 offense for most of the first half and two potential staring QBs, they offset the talent deficit with disciplined effort and attitude the Colts could not match.
The 2nd string offense struggled again against the Colts #1 Defense. So many of the problems are with the back up O depth. Belton cannot be that poorly disciplined and unaware, can he? Telfort is a huge space of roster that should go to someone else...his bigness is the only real asset I see...not sure what else the Packer O coaches covet from this experiment. Jennings...good grief. For most of the first half he didn't have a clue. At least Monk was not flagged. Actually the best O line play came from the bottom of the roster: Cooper, Smith, and Hill did a better job than those they replaced.
STs were better, even with the tryout rookie missing some gimme kicks. Whelan punted really well.
Final score was a nice result but secondary. The Offense's miscues are very troubling. Defense seems to be coming together.
Guam
August 17, 2025 at 07:49 am
You get past the first seven OL and the drop off is significant. I have no idea who #8, #9 and #10 OL might be. Monk looked a little better after a horrible first game. Jennings looked bad against the Colts, Telfort looked bad against both the Jets and Colts, holy crap......! I am not at all sure the last two or three OL for the 53 are currently on the roster.
LambeauPlain
August 17, 2025 at 08:39 am
What are the OL depth issues? Is back up OL talent staffed with prospects who cannot play consistent, disciplined NFL football? Is it that the Packer OL coaching is substandard? Bit of both? Hard questions and not easy answers for the team to decide.
Who will sort all these things out in 13 days? The Football Committee?
Guam
August 17, 2025 at 09:24 am
Monk, Telfort and Jennings have all been with the team for more than a year now with little progress. That puts Gute and the offensive coaching staff squarely on the hook for this situation. LaFleur loves his status quo so I have little confidence he will fix it. I'm hoping Gute has the fortitude to see his mistake and fix it during cut downs.
13TimeChamps
August 17, 2025 at 10:00 am
"I'm hoping Gute has the fortitude to see his mistake and fix it during cut downs."
Jacob Monk, 5th round
Donovan Jennings, undrafted
Kadeem Telfort, undrafted
Without checking, I highly doubt Gute is any worse than other GMs when taking players this low in the draft, especially Jennings and Telfort, who went undrafted. These are projects you hope work out. Unfortunately, most don't. I don't see it as a mistake. It happens on every team in the NFL.
Guam
August 17, 2025 at 12:26 pm
Apologies 13TC, I wasn't very clear in delineating my "mistake" reference (which refers to some of my recent posts in other threads). I have no problem with Gute drafting folks and they don't work out - you are correct that that happens to every GM. The mistake I was referring to was Gute not drafting enough new OL talent in 2025. He had to know that there were serious question marks around his OL depth (Monk, Jennings, Telfort) and yet he only spent 2 draft choices on the OL this year. I was rooting for three draft choices on the OL and thought he should have spent his 5th round choice on another center prospect rather than Oliver.
13TimeChamps
August 17, 2025 at 01:37 pm
No worries, it's all good. I misunderstood your intent.
Hopefully, Belton, who was a high draft pick works out in the long run. I've already put his performance yesterday in the rear view mirror. Better to have it happen in camp and learn from it moving forward. He seems to have a pretty decent upside. Time will tell.
Guam
August 17, 2025 at 07:41 am
The Colts played their starters for most of the first half whereas the Packers played none of their starters which may have accounted for some of the first half problems for the Packers. That still does not excuse the bonehead pre-snap penalties or the unnecessary roughness call, but the talent differential may have caused some of the other penalties. Guys get grabby (on both sides of the ball) when they are getting beaten.
I think the Packers had only one penalty in the second half when both sides were playing their reserves. Much better.
Kind of an ugly game, but the Packer reserves are much better than the Colt reserves and demonstrated the Packers do have some depth on this team. Still lots of work left and Belton needs to bring his brains to a game - his second quarter was just ugly and most of it was completely unnecessary mistakes.
NFLfan
August 17, 2025 at 11:30 am
Cesar Millan can instill discipline in a canine.
Discipline needs to be instilled by careful, consistent coaching-- with consequences. I can't believe Belton hasn't shown signs of lack of discipline and awareness before this game. I know I keep beating this drum, but I think the weak link in the Offense is a critical mass of sub-par positional coaches who do not instill consistent discipline and repetitive focus on fundamentals. Butkus had an undisciplined OL last year as well.
GregC
August 17, 2025 at 11:52 am
Really? An entire article about the penalties in a preseason game?
NFLfan
August 17, 2025 at 11:55 am
Yes. The Packer's OL has 2 weeks to take a crash course in discipline.
TarynsEyes
August 17, 2025 at 11:58 am
The final score in preseason doesn't matter, what does matter is the actual play of the players, and the coaching of coaches, and the overall sense of how the HC is getting the team ready for the real games.
Nitpick the good or bad from any viewpoint, and I find it hard to see this team as coherent, cohesive, but rather lacking in too many aspects to take as serious contenders.
Can this change, sure, but thinking the #2 squad is good against bad #1's of bad teams is ignoring issues. Yes, when the starting roster is on the field, it will look better, but so will the other teams, especially those teams that will be good, and those growing faster than the Packers seem not to be.
We really don't know what the starting lineups will be, and most likely many of those positions will be by default, and not awarded by true merit.
I'm keeping as open an outlook as possible, at the moment, but will the sun begin to shine come September, I don't know, but I'd like better odds than a coin flip.
Preseason can be a very deceiving time, but sometimes it is what it is.
NFLfan
August 17, 2025 at 02:37 pm
Frequent penalties are a result of lax coaching.
GregC
August 17, 2025 at 04:04 pm
I always look up team penalties at the end of each season, and I've yet to find a correlation between penalties and win/loss record--unless maybe it's an inverse correlation. Last year the Ravens had the most penalties, and they were one of the best teams in the league. The Eagles had the eighth most penalties. The teams with the fewest penalties were the Cardinals, Colts, and Raiders--all non-playoff teams. The Packers had the tenth-most.
NFLfan
August 17, 2025 at 04:34 pm
It often takes 4-5 games for the Packer's penalties to subside-in that time, much yardage has been sacrificed.