GREEN BAY — Jeff Hafley wasn’t about to bellyache about how inconvenient and problematic is it to prepare a game plan for “Thursday Night Football” when his players are the ones with the far greater challenge.

“Look, it’s easier for us as coaches than it is for the players,” the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator said earlier this week, as the Packers shifted from their season-opening win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday to their “Thursday Night Football” matchup with the Washington Commanders.

“For us [coaches], it’s not sleeping. For our players, it’s making sure their bodies feel well. I always say this on a Thursday game: I give these guys a ton of credit for how hard they play and how physical they play, to go and do it again in such a short period of time.

“I have a ton of respect for them, and for that I’ll stay up and do everything I can possibly to help them play their best and win the game.”

While the NFL has long loved the financial windfall it reaps from playing games on Thursdays — beginning with an eight-game slate of Thursday contests in 2006 before expanding to 10 in 2016 and eventually to having at least one Thursday game in each of the first 17 weeks of the regular season — players have long hated the quick turnaround and the difficulty of getting rid of their soreness from a Sunday game in time for another game to kick off four days later.

For the Packers, at least their prime-time Thursday game comes in Week 2, although they will play on another Thursday this season — on Thanksgiving Day against the Lions in Detroit on Nov. 27.

“I think it’s good to have it earlier in the season,” Packers running back Josh Jacobs said. “I would say [on Monday] I was a little sore. But the thing that I always try to tell myself [is], if I’m sore coming into Thursday, I know they got some players who are sore, too. We’ll figure it out.”

The quick turnaround is only one aspect of Thursday night’s matchup that will make the battle between the two 1-0 teams interesting. Here are three other aspects of the game to keep an eye on:

1. A NOT-SO-SECRET WEAPON

Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels led his team to an NFC Championship Game berth as a rookie No. 2 overall pick last season, and he did so because he was equally adept at throwing the ball (3,568 yards, 69% completion percentage, 25 touchdowns, nine interceptions, 100.1 passer rating) and running it (891 yards, six TDs) on his way to the Associated Press NFL offensive rookie of the year award. 

In Washington’s win over the New York Giants on Sunday, Daniels was 19 of 30 for 233 yards and a touchdown (98.3 rating) while running 11 times for 68 yards.

“This guy, you’ve got to be super disciplined in your approach, because if you give him an edge or give him a gap up front, he can take off,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said. “There’s too much evidence over the course of all of last season and then obviously one game this year of just him beating people with his legs.

“And. he’s a guy that’s not necessarily going to just go out and get what he can and get down and slide. He might continue on and go. So he presents a real challenge for our defense.”

There’s no disputing the value of Daniels’ legwork, but the Packers now have the guy who seems like a pretty good answer for it: Micah Parsons, who accounted for 4.5 of the 47 sacks Daniels absorbed last season by getting him twice in their first meeting and adding 2 1/2 more sacks in the regular-season finale — his last game for the Cowboys.

Which is why Daniels said he will locate Parsons before each snap he plays.

“You don’t let game-wreckers wreck the game,” Daniels said. “You’ve got to keep an eye on him. He got paid a lot of money for a reason.”

And while Commanders coach Dan Quinn, who coached Parsons as the Cowboys defensive coordinator for three seasons, joked about Parsons not playing — “Are you asking what would I do if I were coaching him? I’d sit him this week,” Quinn told Washington-area reporters — he knows his offensive coaches must have answers for Parsons or he’ll dominate the game.

For his part, Parsons said the typical rules of defending a mobile quarterback like Daniels go out the window because of his own athletic ability.

“I don’t see nobody outrunning me from the edge. And I’ve played him a bunch,” Parsons said of Daniels. “He knows it’s different. It’s different. He’s used to them [bigger] D-ends. This thing is 245, 250 [pounds]. [My] engine’s a little bit different than them.”

2. LINE DANCING

The Packers head into Thursday night unlikely to have starting right tackle Zach Tom (oblique) and starting left guard Aaron Banks (ankle, groin) because of injuries they sustained in Sunday’s win over the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field.

If Tom and Banks can’t go, the Packers are expected to go with Darian Kinnard at right tackle and 2024 first-round draft pick Jordan Morgan at left guard, just as they did when Tom and Banks departed against the Lions.

“I thought they did a good job. They went out there and competed,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich replied when asked how he thought the two performed. “They kept us going, kept us efficient and did a nice job.”

Asked if the offensive game plan has to change if Banks and Tom are out, Stenavich replied, “Yeah, you always alter it a little. It could be more of one thing or the other. If that’s the case, we have a plan for that. Definitely.”

Morgan had been sharing time at right guard with starter Sean Rhyan before Banks’ injury but worked at left guard during camp and started the preseason finale there when Banks was sidelined by a back issue.

Kinnard came over in an end-of-camp trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, and the 15 snaps he played against the Lions on Sunday marked just his fourth regular-season action since entering the league as a fifth-round pick in 2022 by the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Just got to be ready and stay ready for whatever happens,” Kinnard said. “I feel like I stepped up when I needed to [but] I didn’t really even get to go over the film because we’re getting ready for Washington.

“Every team I’ve been on and every year, I’m approaching it like I’m getting ready to always be playing. Opportunity finally arose and that’s all it was.”

3. PROTECTION RACKET

Running backs’ ability to protect their quarterback has always been at a premium in Green Bay, dating back to 1996 Super Bowl XXXI-championship team in Mike Holmgren’s West Coast offense (when Dorsey Levens and Edgar Bennett were adept at protecting Brett Favre) and the 2010 Super Bowl XLV-championship team under Mike McCarthy (when Brandon Jackson kept Aaron Rodgers safe).

As luck would have it, Jackson and McCarthy were in attendance for Sunday’s game against the Lions for a halftime celebration of the 15th anniversary of the 2010 team, and what they got to see from the Packers’ running backs (Josh Jacobs and Chris Brooks in particular) was an absolute clinic.

“That was the best that I’ve seen in my time here. Those guys saved a lot of plays,” LaFleur said. “And it’s going to be the same thing this week when you look at [Commanders linebackers] Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu.

“Those guys, they are hard to block and I think Washington does a really nice job of running a lot of different pick games and stunts and putting their ‘backers on your backs, so we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

If Jacobs and Brooks can replicate their performance against the Lions, though, quarterback Jordan Love could go a second straight week without being sacked — and next week’s film review will once again feature a stop-the-tape moment to celebrate the backs’ protection work.

“Oh yeah, we made a big point about it and just how good of a job they did,” Love said, recounting the offensive meeting after the win over the Lions. “Those are the plays right there that allow us to go out there and execute those third downs and keep staying on the field and getting points. And it’s one thing that we’ve got to keep going, keep building on that. They did a great job.”

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