If you have any Green Bay Packers fans in your life, please, give them their space during these trying times. That is, after you launch a couple of Brandon McManus jokes their way. Then you can leave them alone.
The Packers are one of the blue chip organizations in the NFL, so when they lose like that, it’s a bigger deal than usual. They were up 21-3 and ended up losing 31-27.. To a division rival.. And that division rival was the Chicago Bears. It just doesn’t get any worse than this in cheese country.
Wisconsin will be in mourning for their Packers this week. And many will also be thinking that the little town of Green Bay (population: 107,000) may be overpopulated by one person after that second half debacle.
The front office will already be switching gears into 2026 offseason mode, and we could see a mass exodus of stars out of Green Bay. However, there is one person they can cut right away that would be the best and most obvious first move of the offseason: kicker Brandon McManus.
Brandon McManus missed three kicks during Packers loss
There is a lot of blame to go around for this Packers loss.
Jordan Love’s inexplicable non-chalance during that final drive. Head coach Matt LaFleur’s baffling use of timeouts and insanely (and unnecessarily) aggressive play-calling on that second-last drive. The defense’s utter inability to stop the Bears in the fourth quarter, when Chicago scored 25 points.
But even with all of that, the Packers could have sent this thing to overtime with a field goal if kicker Brandon McManus had simply hit the extra point after Green Bay’s final touchdown made the score 27-16 with six minutes left.
Instead, the Packers had to go for a touchdown on that final drive, which forced them to get desperate.
And if that was the only miss, we wouldn’t be coming after McManus like this. But that was far from the only mistake he made on the day. And this is a 12-year veteran we’re talking about here.
He also missed a 55-yarder right before the half that would have put the Packers up 24-3. Now, that was a tough one, but he made it the first time he took it before Ben Johnson iced him with a timeout. If those three points are in the bucket, the Packers are up 30-16 in the fourth quarter even with that missed extra point.
But still, a 55-yarder is never a guarantee. And he would get another chance.
After the Bears made it a 27-24 game, the Packers drove down the field trying to score a TD while wasting no time at all (thanks coach LaFleur). In the end they fell short, instead setting up a much more makeable 44-yard field goal.
McManus missed that one too. If he had made that one, it would have been 30-24 with about three minutes left. The Bears would have been starting their drive from further back in their own end, and there would have been more of an air of desperation during their final drive.
And even if they scored to go up 31-30, Green Bay could have won it with a field goal in the dying seconds as they’d driven it all the way to the 25 of the Bears.
McManus missed three crucial kicks in a playoff game at home. And it’s not like he was even that reliable during the regular season, going 24-for-30. That’s as obvious, sensible, and easy a scapegoat as you’re going to get.