Week 2 Takeaways – Washington Commanders at Green Bay Packers

By: Sam Myer 9/16/2025

The Washington Commanders travelled to face off with the Green Bay Packers on Thursday Night Football and lost 27-18. The Packers dominated the game in all three phases, as Washington did little to help themselves climb out of the hole. The first half was almost certainly the worst in the Dan Quin era, and the second half wasn’t much of an improvement. The final score makes this game looks significantly closer than what it felt like and you could see it all over Jayden Daniels face every time the broadcast cut to him. The defense of the Green Bay Packers had an absolute field day with the Commanders offensive line even if it doesn’t show up in the box score. Jordan Love was surgical all game long and could’ve had a much bigger performance if he connected on multiple deep balls that were narrow misses. All in all, it was a wildly disappointing performance from the Commanders that, in addition, announced to the league that the Packers are legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

The offense had glaring issues from the first series all the way through the final possession. The game on Thursday night was without a doubt the worst game that Kliff Kingsbury has called in his tenure as the Washington offensive coordinator. Washington dominated on the ground in Week 1 against the Giants but only called two running plays in the entire first half. Bill Croskey-Merritt, who led the team in carries and rushing yards in Week 1, only had four carries in the entire game on Thursday night. In the first series of the game Washington started off with three pass plays and this set them back from the jump. There was absolutely no effort to establish the run game and take control of the line of scrimmage. Because of the lack of effort to establish the run game, Jayden Daniels was constantly pressured and was forced to release the ball quickly all night long.

Speaking of Jayden Daniels, this may have been one of the worst games of his career. On the very first series, Jayden made the incorrect read on a read option and the play was blown-up at the line of scrimmage. This happened twice in the week one matchup as well, so Jayden will look to be more aggressive on these plays moving forward. Daniels has also been struggling with accuracy issues in the first two weeks of the season in two specific areas. Balls on crossing and out-routes have consistently been behind his receivers, and his deep ball accuracy looks markedly worse than his rookie year. While both of these issues can certainly be corrected mid-season, it was a problem in both games to start the season.

As for the defense, there are significant concerns that Washington may not be able to correct. First being that the nickel corners and linebackers were absolutely gashed by Tucker Kraft and the other two Packers tight ends. Bobby Wagner may not have the speed to keep up in coverage anymore and Mike Sainristil simply does not have the size to matchup with a bigger tight end in open space. Both are key players on the defensive side of the ball and have plenty of time to get better in these situations; however, it was their biggest weakness in week two. The other weak link in the chain on defense on Thursday night was last seasons star acquisition at cornerback, Marshon Lattimore. Lattimore committed three penalties and was consistently getting beat by the Packer receivers. If Lattimore can return to his quality of play from week one then the Commanders can still recover, but if not, then there is a major hole to be filled by rookie Trey Amos. Amos has had a very promising start to his career and backed it up again on Thursday night.

Finally, the Commanders are leaving Green Bay with injuries all over the lineup. In fact, the only position group to not experience an injury during the game was the linebackers. Jayden Daniels came up limping in the 4^th quarter and an MRI on Friday revealing a minor knee sprain. He is questionable for week four against Las Vegas. At receiver, Noah Brown left the game in the first half and is questionable for week four. Tight end John Bates also left the game and is questionable to play on Sunday. Guard Brandon Coleman and rookie cornerback Trey Amos also suffered injuries but returned to finish the game. Defense tackle Deatrich Wise went down in the first half and ended being carted off the field with his leg in an air cast. An MRI revealed that he tore his quad and will be out for the remainder of the year. Finally, running back Austin Ekeler went down on a non-contact injury with only a few minutes left in the game. Further tests revealed that he suffered a torn Achilles and will miss the rest of the season.  

Washington is lucky that they have a mini bye week between Thursday and their week four matchup back home against the Las Vegas Raiders. Between the injuries and the on-field issues in all three phases, the Commanders coaching staff and players have a big week of preparation ahead of them.