Packers' short week creates tough test with Dolphins looming on Thursday
The Green Bay Packers beat the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, and the game was in the second afternoon window. Now, the next challenge is right around the corner. The Packers have three days to prepare before Thursday's matchup against the Miami Dolphins. It helps that both games are at Lambeau Field, but on the […]
The Green Bay Packers beat the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, and the game was in the second afternoon window. Now, the next challenge is right around the corner. The Packers have three days to prepare before Thursday's matchup against the Miami Dolphins.
It helps that both games are at Lambeau Field, but on the other hand the Packers won't have the usual benefit of a Thursday game — there won't be a minibye next week, as Green Bay will play on two consecutive Thursdays. The minibye will only come before the Seattle Seahawks game, a Sunday Night Football matchup in Week 15.
For now, it's extra hours to put a plan together and recover the players' bodies.
How Matt LaFleur operates
During the bye week, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur watched everything about the Miami Dolphins. After the 49ers game, he spent most of the night in his office to finish up that preparation. Before noon on Monday, the initial plan has to be in place.
"These guys gotta be able to process the plan. It feels like it's midnight already. It's gonna be a late night, let's put it that way," LaFleur said on Sunday night after the game. "Quick turnaround, we're gonna have to make a lot of quick decisions moving forward, because we got our players coming back in the morning. We're gonna present them with an initial plan. These guys gotta do whatever they can to try to get their bodies right back. That's a physical football team that we just played. So I'm sure some of the guys will be pretty sore. But they are already doing recovery right now."
Quarterback Jordan Love mentioned how challenging it is to have the body in good shape after just a few days.
"It's always very challenging to turn it around, just get your body right back. It's gonna be a very quick, short week," Love stressed. "Trying to get all the film in and the gameplan in order. It's always tough. The Miami Dolphins are in the same boat as us, so there's no complaining about it. Everything gets condensed down, but I think the biggest thing is getting our body right back. We get a couple guys banged up. We'll see who we got, but just trying to get that body back."
Even though Matt LaFleur has notes and a part of his plan in place, it's important to update everything with what happened over the weekend. The Dolphins, for example, had a convincing win over the New England Patriots.
"We have to look at everything. You have to take the time to look at it and make the corrections, the adjustments off the tape," LaFleur added. "Certainly, Miami will look at that tape, you better know what you did and the areas where you may be susceptible to getting exposed, make those corrections and move on."
Now, the Packers have a curious sequence of primetime games. They have only had one primetime game this year (Friday night in Week 1, against the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil). Now, they have four in a row coming up:
- TNF vs Dolphins in Week 13
- TNF at Lions in Week 14
- SNF at Seahawks in Week 15
- MNF vs Saints in Week 16
It's time to define the regular season. And all eyes will be on the Packers over the next month.
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