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The Green Bay Packers beat the Washington Commanders 27-18 on Thursday Night Football in a game that felt like there was a much wider gap between the teams than the score showed. Overall, the Packers had 404 total yards compared to the Commanders’ 230 on offense, and Green Bay nearly doubled Washington’s yards per play on the night.
Ticky tack penalties helped narrow down the game, as the Packers were penalized 10 times for 77 yards compared to the Commanders’ 5 for 30. Beyond just yardage walked back, penalties in crucial situations also bailed Washington out, like when rookie right tackle Anthony Belton was flagged for holding on a Jayden Reed touchdown.
Reed ultimately ended up leaving the game with a shoulder injury that was suffered on that play in the early first quarter.
Speaking of Belton, he received the majority of the snaps at right tackle today, a bit of a surprise since Darian Kinnard was Zach Tom’s preferred replacement in Week 1. Both Tom and starting left guard Aaron Banks were held out of action for injuries today, along with backups cornerback Bo Melton and safety Zayne Anderson.
Players who made their Packers debuts today were cornerback Nate Hobbs, defensive end Barryn Sorrell and offensive lineman Donovan Jennings. Hobbs rotated in as an outside cornerback with Carrington Valentine, while Sorrell and Jennings both served as backups. Sorrell did not get on the field until Green Bay’s final defensive drive, when he recorded a half-sack.
The standout performances of the game on defense were defensive end Micah Parsons, who has to be accounted for on every play at this point, and cornerback Keisean Nixon, who had five pass breakups after a tough showing against the Detroit Lions last week. We love a bounce-back performance.
On offense, head coach Matt LaFleur continued his success against his former head coach, Dan Quinn, in head-to-head matchups. Quarterback Jordan Love was 19 of 31 on the night for 292 yards and two touchdowns. Love’s 214 passing yards in the first half set his career high. Tight end Tucker Kraft’s game-long 124 receiving yards were also a career high for him.
On defense, the Packers surrendered just 34 rushing yards beyond Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels’ seven scrambles for 17 yards. In the air, Daniels was held to just 4.8 yards per attempt, not including the four sacks for 21 yards that he took.
According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, the first 11 blitzes that Green Bay called resulted in just one completion for nine yards and two sacks for Washington.
It only ended up being a nine-point game, in part due to penalties and special teams, but the Commanders were never really in this one.
