“The Packers Look Like a Super Bowl Team”: Mina Kimes Gives Her Take on Week 2 TNF Matchup Between Green Bay and Washington

In this promising year of 2025, it’s time for the Green Bay Packers to get back down to business. They were already expected to be at least a playoff team this season. But after trading for All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons and thoroughly outplaying the Detroit Lions (who went 15-2 last year) in a 27-13 Week 1 victory last Sunday, their sights are set on much more than just the playoffs.

And many believe they have every right to aim higher after the way they dominated Detroit at home. The Packers traded away defensive tackle Kenny Clark in the Parsons deal, and if Jerry Jones is to be believed, that should have weakened Green Bay’s run defense. It did not. The Lions, boasting one of the NFL’s best running offenses last year, were completely stonewalled at Lambeau.

Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery combined for 20 carries for 44 yards, marking one of their worst games as a tandem. The bigger question now is whether Green Bay can sustain this level of dominance. ESPN’s Mina Kimes is high on the Packers, but she sees this Thursday Night Football matchup against the Washington Commanders as the true litmus test for whether they can seriously contend for the Lombardi this year.

“The Packers look like a Super Bowl team, right? But in Week 1, it’s hard sometimes to know how good these teams are without putting them in the proper context. And the Commanders are gonna be a true challenge for them [this Thursday]. Particularly, the run defense. That’s the key that I’m so interested in… The Packers’ run defense looked phenomenal against a Detroit team,” Kimes said on The Rich Eisen Show.

Despite trading their presumptive RB1 just days before the start of the season, the Commanders’ running game had a big day at the office against a New York Giants front four that was supposed to be arguably the best in the league this season. Well, maybe just not against the run? Because they gave up 220 yards on 32 carries against the Commanders.

What we have here on Thursday night is a matchup between the second-best rushing team from Week 1 against the team that tied for the fewest rushing yards allowed (46) in the league last weekend. As Kimes puts it, it’s a “strength-on-strength matchup.”

“They held them to 1.5 yards before contact per carry, which was 27th in the league. On the flip side, the Commanders were third in rushing yards per contact last week, against New York. So, this would be a strength-on-strength matchup and I think we’re gonna learn a lot about both teams. But I’m really interested, is that Packers run defense as good as they looked Week 1? I think we’re gonna find out tonight.

Two of the most exciting teams will clash at legendary Lambeau Field in Green Bay on Thursday night at 8:15. By the stroke of midnight, we should know which of these units is for real.