Packers FanPulse, Week 3: Confidence keeps climbing, but offense holds back total buy-in

Another stellar performance from the Green Bay Packers’ defense down the stretch in week two earned the team a second straight victory to start the 2019 season. The 2-0 Packers have that record thanks primarily to that defense, which should have an opportunity to get after a quarterback once again in week three thanks to the Denver Broncos’ struggling offensive line.

As for Packers fans, confidence continues to grow in this team, albeit at a bit of a slow pace. The manner of the team’s victories is probably the reason why the growth in APC’s FanPulse confidence index is gradual rather than coming in big jumps, but the number jumped up by another eight percentage points following the victory over the Vikings. That effectively matched the increase from week one to week two, which saw a seven-point bump:

• Week 1: 61 percent
• Week 2: 68 percent
• Week 3: 76 percent

Here’s a look at the trends since the end of the 2018 season:

Meanwhile, fans of all NFL teams were asked a nationwide question this week: which coach will be fired first in 2019? Results were pretty mixed across the five options, but Washington’s Jay Gruden narrowly earned the highest portion of the vote, beating out (in order) Doug Marrone from Jacksonville the Panthers’ Ron Rivera, and Pat Shurmur of the Giants. Houston’s Bill O’Brien was also an option, but he got just a few percent of the vote. Here’s the visual breakdown:

After last season, it’s nice that the Packers are not represented on questions like this any more, and a 2-0 start for a rookie head coach is a great way to begin.