Thoughts on Week 2 (2025): Green Bay Packers vs. Washington Commanders

Hope all of you who are reading this are doing well. For the second time this week, I am glad that the Green Bay Packers won at Lambeau Field. This time, it was against the Washington Commanders, who made it to the NFC Championship game last year. Entering this game, both of these teams were looking to improve their record to 2-0. It was a bit dramatic at times, but the Packers were able to get the win in the end, and in their special “Winter Warning” uniforms to boot. Let’s get started with going over how this game went down.

The Commanders won the coin toss, but they elected to defer to the second half. Thus, the Packers started this game on offense after the kick return by Savion Williams (which thankfully didn’t get pushed back due to penalty). After two Josh Jacobs runs to start the drive, the Packers faced a third and 3 from their own 35. On that third down, Jordan Love found Dontayvion Wicks for a 6-yard pass completion that kept the drive going. On the next play, Wicks caught a pass that went for 13 yards and another first down. Two plays later, the Packers got a free first down thanks to a defensive holding penalty on Marshon Lattimore. After a false penalty on Josh Jacobs and an incomplete pass to Wicks that would have been a huge play, Love connected with Romeo Doubs for 6 yards to set up a third and 9 at the Washington 39 yard line. On that play, Jordan Love connected with Jayden Reed on what would have been a great touchdown had it not been for a holding penalty on rookie Anthony Belton. To make matters worse, Reed ended up breaking his collarbone on the play, probably forcing him to miss at least two months. Because of the penalty, the Packers faced a third and 19 at the Washington 49 yard line. Chris Brooks caught the pass on that play and went 16 yards to set up a fourth and 3 from the Washington 33 yard line. Rather than settle for the field goal, the Packers decided to go for it. Love had Matthew Golden open but underthrew the pass. Due to the underthrow, Trey Amos was able to break the pass up at the last moment, denying the Packers any points on their first drive. Thankfully, the Packers defense was able to deny the Commanders of any points on their first drive as they forced a three and out. The Packers started their next drive at their own 4 yard line after the punt return by Matthew Golden went for negative 2 yards. There should have been a penalty after his leg was grabbed intentionally, but the refs didn’t call it. Even with the bad field position, the Packers were able to move the ball down the field on this drive. The first play was a 15-yard catch and run by Tucker Kraft. Two plays later, Kraft caught another pass and ran it all the way to the Washington 20 yard line. 3 plays later, Jordan Love ran it in for the first down while trucking Trey Amos in the process. On first and goal from the 5 yard line, Love found Romeo Doubs for a touchdown pass that, with the extra point by Brandon McManus, gave the Packers a 7-0 lead with 4 and a half minutes left in the first quarter. The Packers defense was able to force a second straight three and out. However, that was partly due to the Commanders committing a hands to the face penalty on a play that would have set up a fourth and 1. The Packers stopped the Commanders offense on third and 12 and forced them to punt. The Packers started their next drive at their own 24 yard line after only a three yard punt return. The drive didn’t go far thanks to Jordan Love getting sacked for a loss of 10 yards on second and 4 from the Green Bay 30 yard line. A 10 yard pass completion to Chris Brooks was basically done to set up a better punt for Daniel Whelan. During the punt return, Ty’Ron Hopper was called for a facemask penalty. Due to that, the Commanders started their next possession at their own 45 yard line. Once again, the Packers defense was able to hold the Commanders to no points on their drive and forced them to punt. After the punt, the Packers started their next possession at their own 8 yard line. Love missed Matthew Golden on what would have been a 92-yard touchdown pass due to overthrowing the pass barely. Even with that mistake, the Packers were able to move the ball down the field during the drive. Malik Heath made a fantastic catch down the sideline for a 37 yard gain. It was initially ruled incomplete, but Matt LaFleur challenged that ruling. Very quickly, it was decided that the catch was ruled as complete. Heath was able to keep both feet inbounds while maintaining control of the ball. After two 17-yard pass completions (one to Romeo Doubs and one to Tucker Kraft, who managed to get some good YAC during that play), the Packers got themselves in a goal to go situation. The drive concluded with a 2-yard touchdown run by Josh Jacobs. The extra point was once again good, increasing the lead to 14-0 midway through the second quarter. The Commanders were able to get into scoring range, but the Packers defense made them settle for a field goal after a couple of incomplete passes (including a pass breakup by Keisean Nixon). The kick by Matt Gay was good from 51 yards out, decreasing the lead to 14-3 with 4 and a half minutes left in the half. The Packers’ next possession started at their own 27 after the kickoff return by Emanuel Wilson. The drive stalled when a Josh Jacobs first down run was nullified due to a holding penalty that was called on John Fitzpatrick. Two plays later, including an incompletion on third and 11, the Packers punted it back to the Commanders. The punt by Whelan went to the Washington 19 yard line, but it was returned to the Washington 43 yard line, setting the Commanders up in great field position. Once again, the Packers defense was able to force them to settle for a field goal. Matt Gay’s attempt from 58 yards out went wide left, setting the Packers up in great field position with 14 seconds left. Green Bay’s offense got into field goal range, but Brandon McManus’s kick hit the left upright and bounced out, keeping the score at 14-3 heading into halftime.

The Commanders started their second half by moving the ball down the field into field goal range. However, their kicker had to join in the fun and hit the upright on the field goal attempt, which was hilarious to see. That missed field goal set the Packers up at their own 42 yard line. On the first play, Jordan Love found Luke Musgrave for a 23-yard pass completion that got Green Bay to Commanders territory. They were able to get close to the goal line, but they couldn’t get a touchdown and had to settle for a chip-shot field goal. The kick was good, increasing the lead to 17-3 midway through the third quarter. After two straight drives that ended in a punt (one by each team), the Commanders were able to march down the field and score their first touchdown of the game. Zach Ertz caught a pass from Jayden Daniels and went the distance from 20 yards out, reaching the left pylon to score. The extra point was good, decreasing the lead to 17-10 a few minutes into the fourth quarter. Thankfully, the Packers were able to get a touchdown on their next drive to make things a bit less stressful for the Packers fans in attendance (kudos to the fans for responding well to the whiteout). During the drive, Savion Williams took a direct snap and ran for 16 yards to the Washington 19 yard line. On the next play, Matthew Golden took an end around play for a 9 yard gain. 2 plays later, Tucker Kraft caught an 8 yard touchdown from Jordan Love and celebrated with a Lambeau Leap. The extra point was good, increasing the lead to 24-10 with under 9 minutes left in the game. After the kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback, the Commanders started their next possession at the 35 yard line. The Packers defense was ably to force the Washington offense to a turnover on downs thanks to a pass breakup by Keisean Nixon on fourth and 4 from the Washington 41. Green Bay was able to get three more points thanks to a Brandon McManus field goal from 56 yards out. The Commanders were able to get another touchdown to make the score closer, but the Packers were able to get the win in the end by a score of 27-18. With this win, the Packers improve their record to 2-0 on the season.

(Here are the highlights of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on “Watch on YouTube” if you’re interested.)

On offense, the Packers were efficient at times, but there were some missed opportunities for points. Jordan Love missed two throws to Matthew Golden that could have resulted in a touchdown, and a few penalties messed up some drives. Anthony Belton’s holding penalty was the most painful one due to it nullifying a Jayden Reed touchdown catch that would have been awesome. Reed suffered a broken collarbone on that play and will miss a couple of months due to it. I’m hoping that he recovers fully from that and the Jones Fracture in his foot. Even with that injury early on (and the misses to Golden), Jordan Love was able to complete passes to 6 different receivers on Thursday night. Tucker Kraft led the way with 6 catches for 124 yards and a touchdown. Romeo Doubs caught the first touchdown of the night thanks to a great slant route he ran from the Washington 5 yard line in the first quarter. Malik Heath helped set up a scoring drive with an amazing sideline catch that was initially ruled incomplete. Thankfully, Matt LaFleur made a successful challenge there. Josh Jacobs had a more productive game than last week, rushing for 84 yards on 23 carries. He also extended his regular season streak of scoring a touchdown to 10 games, dating back to last season (11 if you count the playoff game against the Eagles). On that touchdown run, he ran over Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu, which was great to see. Savion Williams added 24 yards on two carries, including 16 on the direct snap. Jordan Love helped set up the Romeo Doubs TD pass with his own scramble and trucking of Trey Amos the play before. Even though the offensive line was missing Aaron Banks and Zach Tom (who now is diagnosed with an oblique injury) and Love was sacked a couple of times, I give credit to the linemen for doing the best that they could given the circumstances. Hopefully the extra time off can give everyone on offense (and on the whole team) more time to rest for the following game.

On defense, the Packers did a great job limiting what was one of the top offenses last year. For one thing, the defense held the Commanders to 51 rushing yards total. As a whole, the Commanders were held to 230 total yards of offense. Jayden Daniels, who won offensive rookie of the year last season, was held in check throughout the night. He didn’t have many rushing yards and he didn’t throw a touchdown until the fourth quarter. There were a couple of close calls, but the Packers defense wasn’t able to get a pick on Thursday night. However, there were some key pass breakups, including 5 by Keisean Nixon, who got a game ball from Matt LaFleur after the game (Tucker Kraft got the other one). Micah Parsons was once again a key player on Thursday night, generating 8 pressures on his 37 snaps. He was constantly being held against a Commanders offensive line that was hoping not to have their QB sacked a bunch of times. In the end, Jayden Daniels was sacked 4 times, with Parsons sharing a sack with Edgerrin Cooper and Rashan Gary & Devonte Wyatt getting one solo sack each. Karl Brooks and Barryn Sorrell also shared a sack of Daniels. Obviously, the defense wasn’t perfect against Washington, but the unit once again got the stops when they were needed the most and they attacked the football well again. Hopefully that keeps up throughout the whole season. I’m sure Jeff Hafley and the rest of the defensive coaching staff will make sure that happens time and time again.

(Before I go on, I want to give my thoughts and prayers to Commanders running back Austin Ekeler, who hurt his Achilles during the game on Thursday night. I wish him all the best in his recovery. The same can be said for Commanders defensive end Deatrich Wise, who suffered a season ending quad injury on Thursday night.)

On Special Teams, the Packers were not perfect on Thursday night. The punt returns were not that great, there were a couple of penalties, and Brandon McManus missed a 48 yarder by hitting the left upright. Still, they avoided major mistakes like turning the ball over and messing up the onside kick near the end of the game. McManus made every other kick, including every PAT and a 56-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. Daniel Whelan averaged 53.3 yards per punt attempt. No kicks or punts were blocked on Thursday night, which is always a sigh of relief. What is also good to see is the Packers not allowing a kickoff or punt return for a touchdown. Hopefully the Packers can get a TD return on special teams that isn’t nullified by a penalty. There’s plenty of time in the season for it to happen. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Overall, I am happy that the Packers are now 2-0 to start the 2025 season. The fact that the wins were against two teams that were in the playoffs last year indicates that the Packers are a much better team than last year. Micah Parsons has been a great addition not just to the defense, but to the whole team. Everyone deserves credit for this 2-0 start. Now they get to rest for a couple of extra days before their next game. On September 21st, the Packers will be taking on the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland. Anything can happen in the NFL, so the Packers need to be ready for any challenge. I’ll be back after the Browns game to recap it regardless of the outcome. For now, I am celebrating a Victory Friday and weekend. Have a great weekend, everyone. Go Pack Go!