Washington Commanders vs Green Bay Packers Week 2: Five Questions with Acme Packing Company

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 but the Packers mostly match the offense’s personnel. So if you play with three receivers, they’ll play nickel. If you play with two or fewer receivers, they’ll play that 4-3. Nothing too fancy. It’s not the personnel packages that make Green Bay tick, but the disguising of coverages and blitzes. You won’t see a lot of true man, but corners and nickels and linebackers will be blitzing or bluffing frequently with zone coverage behind them. With Micah Parsons in the mix, the Packers are now running this “Cheetah” package where he, Rashan Gary, and Lukas Van Ness are on the field together, though.

2) Speaking of defense, Micah Parsons is now a Packer. What were your observations of him in his debut against the Lions, how was he used, and do you expect anything different in his usage Thursday night?

Well it looks like I just hit on a little of that! I thought he was impressive. He beat Penei Sewell quickly a couple of times. He forced the pressure that made Jared Goff throw the interception in the red zone to safety Evan Williams. Head coach Matt LaFleur said that they didn’t expect Parsons to play as much as he did on Sunday. I think part of that is that Barryn Sorrell was inactive due to a knee injury and Brenton Cox Jr. dropped out of the game with an injury. Parsons mostly played in the team’s nickel defense in Week 1 and was on the bench in their 4-3 base. That continue this week.

3) What do you think of head coach Matt LaFleur, his strengths and weaknesses, and in what ways (if any) does his offense deviate from a standard Shanahan offense?

He doesn’t run as much zone schemes as those guys. He sort of did when he got the job, but they’ve really gone away from outside for the most part. It’s a lot of gap scheme runs like counter, be it under center or in the shotgun. Because of the runs, there’s a lot more in the pocket play action, too, instead of just bootlegs.

4) Who is one Packers player on offense and one player on defense that Washington fans probably don’t know much about, but should?

It’s tough on the offensive side, because Josh Jacobs is already well known and Jayden Reed puts up crazy numbers for a slot-only receiver. I guess I would say Dontayvion Wicks, if I’m not allowed to pick Tucker Kraft here. Kraft is a complete tight end and I need him to sign a 10-year extension this offseason. Wicks is REALLY good at getting open but struggles every-other-year with actually catching the football. It’s a wild ride. Good news for the Packers: 2025 is an odd year.

On defense, I think Quay Walker is playing a lot better football than he did early on in his career and Edgerrin Cooper, the other linebacker in nickel sets, is one of the best in the league. I think that pairing is pretty surprising to people who haven’t kept close attention to Green Bay.

5) How should Washington go about gameplanning this matchup on both sides of the ball?

The Packers sort of do a pick your poison thing on offense. LaFleur will feed anyone if the defense isn’t respecting them. I guess I would try to force Jordan Love to throw with pressure flushing out of the pocket, because he’s not as quick as you’d think he would be as a long guy who can run pretty well in a straight line once he gets going. On defense, their line is really thin right now because of injuries (Sorrell, Cox, rookie draft pick Collin Oliver), Parsons not being ready for a full share of reps and DT4 Nazir Stackhouse basically being a short-yardage only player. They’re having to play three guys each at end and tackle a LOT of snaps right now. If you can control the ball and wear them out a little bit, I can see you guys having more success than Detroit did versus our defense.

A companion article to this with my answers to Justis’s questions will be linked here when it is available.

Thanks again to Justis Mosqueda for taking time out of his day to answer our questions about the Packers.

Click here to read article