Packers beat Commanders to maintain winning start

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Ben Collins

BBC Sport journalist

28 minutes ago

2 Comments

NFL 2025 season

Dates: 4 September 2025 – 8 February 2026

BBC coverage: The Whole 10 Yards every Tuesday on the BBC website and iPlayer. Live text coverage every Sunday on BBC Sport website and app, and live radio commentary of selected games on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds, with Philadelphia Eagles at Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday (from 21:00 BST)

The Green Bay Packers maintained their impressive start to the NFL season by claiming a 27-18 win over the Washington Commanders on Thursday.

Quarterback Jordan Love threw for two touchdowns and 292 yards, while Josh Jacobs scored a rushing touchdown in his 11th straight game.

Buoyed by their blockbuster trade for Micah Parsons two weeks ago, the Packers have started the new campaign with successive home wins against teams that also reached last season’s play-offs – and are also in the NFC Conference.

After beating divisional rivals Detroit last Sunday, Green Bay have gone 2-0 for the first time since 2020.

“We couldn’t have started the season off on a better note,” said Love. “It’s a thing we’ve just got to keep building on, but it feels great right now.

“Most importantly for us was to start fast in both these games and to be able to finish it with the defence holding two really good offences to pretty low yards and points, it’s just fun.”

There was one setback for the Packers, though, as wide receiver Jaylen Reed broke his collarbone as he scored a touchdown on the opening drive, only for it to be chalked off for a holding penalty.

Green Bay opened the scoring on their next drive, with Love making a five-yard scoring pass to Romeo Doubs, before Jacobs’ two-yard run gave the hosts a 14-0 lead midway through the second quarter.

The Packers led 17-3 before the Commanders finally found the end zone early in the fourth quarter, with Jayden Daniels making a 20-yard touchdown pass to Zach Ertz, but Green Bay replied with a touchdown from tight end Tucker Kraft.

How much did Parsons play?

Having missed pre-season games at Dallas because of his contract holdout with the Cowboys, Parsons’ game time was again limited.

After playing in 45% of the Packers’ defensive snaps against the Lions, his workload was increased to 67% and he registered half a sack on Commanders quarterback Daniels, who found Deebo Samuel for a late consolation score.

For the first time since 1995, Green Bay have given up fewer than 250 yards in each of their first two games of the season.

“We made them earn everything,” said defensive end Parsons. “J-Love, I think you give us 20 points, we should be able to win the game. It’s all about getting stops and getting the ball back to the offence.

“As you saw with Baltimore and Buffalo [on Sunday], your quarterback can have a near perfect game but still lose because guess what, the defence gave up, what, 40 points? So, defence wins championships.”

Parsons hopes for more game time away to Cleveland next week before facing his former team Dallas in week four.

“Hopefully, they just let me off,” said the 26-year-old. “They can’t hold a dog back forever, man.”