Hogs Haven
It’s week 2 of the NFL season, and the Washington Commanders will be facing the Green Bay Packers on the road at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI this Thursday at 8:15 pm EDT. The Packers are a deep and well-rounded team with good players on offense and defense, though many thought they lacked a true blue chip player until their trade for Micah Parsons. They finished last season with an 11-6 record and made the playoffs as a wildcard, but lost 22-10 to the Eagles in the Wildcard round. Their regular-season success was remarkable considering QB Jordan Love suffered a knee sprain in week 1 against the Eagles that forced him to miss multiple games and visibly hampered his mobility in the games he did play throughout the season. The Packers crushed division-rival Lions 27-13 in their week 1 opener in a game that didn’t look competitive, dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.
On offense, the Packers are coached by Matt LaFleur, who comes from the Shanahan tree and features a heavy emphasis on running the ball, with the 3rd highest run rate in the NFL last season. The run game is focused primarily around talented veteran RB Josh Jacobs, who ran for over 1,329 yards last season at a 4.4 YPC rate. The Packers passing attack is multi-headed, with a talented and deep group of WRs in Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks, and rookie 1st-round pick Matthew Golden, as well as talented pass-catching TE Tucker Kraft. This is a passing attack that spreads the ball around rather than focusing on one or two receivers, with each of the aforementioned pass catchers receiving between 2 and 5 targets in their week 1 debut against the Lions. The Packers also have a mostly homegrown OL that was ranked 6th in the NFL by PFF last year, though two starters (RT Zak Tom and LG Aaron Banks) will be game-time decisions to play Thursday due to injury.
On defense, the Packers greatly improved last year after replacing former DC Joe Barry with Jeff Hafley. For the 2024 season, the Packers defense was 5th in the NFL in total yards allowed and 6th in total points allowed. A key part of the defense is 1st-team All Pro safety Xavier McKinney, who left the Giants to sign with the Packers in 2024 free agency. Prior to the acquisition of Micah Parsons, the best pass rusher on the team was Pro Bowler Rashan Gary, who will likely thrive now that Parsons will be drawing the most offensive attention.
I asked Justis Mosqueda of Acme Packing Company five questions to better understand the state of the Packers and what to look for in this game.
1) DC Jeff Hafley has seemed to be an upgrade over former DC Joe Barry since taking over last season. What kind of defense does Hafley run and what has he brought to the table as a DC?
He’s running a 4-3 defense...
