GREEN BAY — Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love knew what was coming. Jared Goff most definitely did not.

For the first 3 1/2 quarters of the Green Bay Packers’ 27-13 opening-day victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday, their new superstar pass rusher Micah Parsons’ contributions had been more subtle, although still undeniably important.

He’d registered three quarterback pressures, one of which had led to an Evan Williams interception and another having helped Lukas Van Ness get home for a sack.

But with just over 4 minutes left to play, Goff, the Lions quarterback, found the pocket collapsing around him and took off running to his right, seeking safe harbor.

Unbeknownst to Goff as he was sprinting toward the Packers’ sideline, Parsons was closing in fast behind him. But Love, the Packers quarterback, and LaFleur, the head coach, knew what was about to happen.

“Oh man, it’s insane,” Love recounted afterward. “I saw Jared breaking right, and I don’t even know if he knew Micah was coming. But we all saw him, so I was hoping that he would hold onto the ball right there and Micah would be able to get to him.”

Remembered LaFleur: “It looked like shooting star just coming out of the sky and closing ground fast. That’s why he’s here, right? That was really exciting to see.”

Once Parsons took Goff down for a 4-yard loss, the Packers sideline — and the Lambeau Field crowd of 77,239 — erupted.

“You can tell people are excited to have Micah here,” Van Ness said. “I’m excited to have Micah here.”

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Parsons was running at 18.47 miles per hour as he chased Goff — the fastest he’s ever run on his 53.5 career sacks.

“I didn’t even get to really burst out yet,” said Parsons, who outplayed Lions All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell for much of the day. “I’m going to keep getting better. There’s a lot of things that I want to fix. I feel like I didn’t have a complete game, and obviously that’s going to happen not playing [since January]. But I can take this and build on it.”

Given that Parsons had just four practices with his new team after not practicing at all during the offseason and training camp with the Dallas Cowboys before the Aug. 25 trade that brought him to Green Bay, it wasn’t surprising that the coaches limited him to just 29 of the defense’s 65 snaps.

In fact, that was even higher than LaFleur and the coaches were aiming for, as defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington kept Parsons on the field during the fourth quarter hoping to administer the knockout blow with the score at 27-6.

Instead, the Lions got a garbage-time touchdown and LaFleur could see Parsons had given all he had.

“That’s definitely higher than what we anticipated,” LaFleur admitted. “[We] really wanted to end the game right there, and we had a couple opportunities. [But] I could tell. He looked like he was gassing a little bit. That’s when we took him out.”

With another game on Thursday night against the Washington Commanders at Lambeau Field, Parsons wasn’t sure how much his workload would increase in a four-day span.

But given that he didn’t need an anti-inflammatory injection for his sore back in order to play against the Lions, Parsons is hopeful that he can handle even more snaps.

No matter how much he plays against the Commanders — Parsons had 4.5 sacks in his two games against them last season — his teammates now know he can have a meaningful impact without registering a stat.

“His presence, just being Micah Parsons, when you get a guy like that, of that talent, you can put him out there and tell him to just stand there, and before the play is snapped, they’re going to be looking for him,” Packers All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney explained. “Because if you’re not prepared for him, it’s not going to be good for you.

“So, I think just his presence out there alone is intimidating for offenses and he didn’t even play the whole game. So once he gets kind of in his groove and he starts getting more reps under his belt, it’s going to be great.”

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