GREEN BAY – Well, last year's narrative got put to bed quickly. In five days, to be exact.
After the 2024 season wrapped up, the Packers were pegged as the team that couldn't beat the NFC heavyweights. They lost twice each to the Lions, Vikings and Eagles (including the playoffs) while going 11-1 against everybody else.
So when the 2025 schedule began with two of the last four standing in the NFC – Detroit and Washington – coming to Lambeau Field back-to-back for a Sunday-Thursday two-fer, it provided an opportunity to move on from last year in a definitive way.
Mission accomplished, and in impressive fashion. The final scores: 27-13 over the Lions and 27-18 over the Commanders on Thursday night.
"Obviously, new year for us," QB Jordan Love said.
"It feels great. Couldn't have started the season off on a better note."
Love is certainly off to a great start, with a sparkling 120.0 passer rating through two games. The defense, which the QB said is "killin' it so far," has pressured the quarterback like mad and kept both opponents out of the end zone until the fourth quarter.
The special teams has experienced some letdowns with penalties, explosive returns and a missed field goal, but the other phases have picked up the slack as the Packers have controlled both games.
The shoe was on the other foot last year in these types of matchups. As running back Josh Jacobs put it, "We kinda didn't come over the hump," but the Packers looked at these first two opponents as mortals rather than mountains and took care of business.
"That's important for when it gets deeper in the season, you head into the playoffs, to be battle-tested against good teams," Jacobs said.
Plenty of additional challenges await. First off is a stretch of four road games out of five (with the early Week 5 bye mixed in). Plus seven games remain against playoff teams from a year ago.
Head Coach Matt LaFleur was already promising no complacency would set in. He spent more of his postgame media address lamenting the missed chances on offense than relishing a pair of TD drives that covered 90-plus yards each.
These victories have not been flawless, and those are the type coaches love best. First up is a well-deserved three-day weekend after running this early gauntlet, but the Packers will be back to work soon enough.
"There were opportunities to really put this game away tonight and I don't think we did that," LaFleur said, referring primarily to a trio of three-and-outs in the second and third quarters when the offense stagnated for a stretch. "So that gives me a lot of ammo when we get with the guys on Monday to kind of get after them a little bit.
"There's opportunities we need to capitalize on if we want to become the team I think we can become."
What exactly that is, time will tell, and several injuries must be navigated for the Packers to hopefully be full strength later on.
But LaFleur has had nothing but praise for his team's effort, energy and play style, three things he harps on repeatedly as facets of the game totally within a team's control.
So far, that part of the vision has become reality on the field.
"Man, I think you can just tell this team's hungry," Lukas Van Ness said. "And we're playing with passion right now and that can be scary. We're a hungry team, we're coming out here ready to go every week and that can be dangerous."
To steal a line from a famous baseball movie, the Packers have "announced their presence with authority" in 2025. Imperfect, but awfully promising.
"I think it's great," LaFleur said. "But it's just the start. There's a long season ahead of us."
