(Photo: 247Sports)
When offenses zig, Jeff Hafley zags. The Packers defensive coordinator has doubled down on his promising first season in Green Bay by producing his best career performance to date against the Lions on Sunday.
We didn't know what the Packers defense would look like with Micah Parsons on hand, and truthfully we still don't. Parsons played just 11 snaps in the first half and a few additional garbage time reps which still didn't see him surpass 50% of the snap count on his Packers debut.
The Lions rightfully didn't expect Parsons to play much on Sunday and do little more than pin his ears back when he was on the field, so they suitably gameplanned for the Packers defense which conceded a combined 58 points to Detroit over two matchups last season.
So what did the Lions expect? Well, Hafley's Packers blitzed Detroit more than any other opponent last season. They blitzed Goff on 41% of his dropbacks over their 2 meetings last season and got burned by Detroit's quick passing attack.
Lions new offensive coordinator John Morton was an internal hire. He's no stranger to Hafley by now. Morton appropriately showed up on Sunday expecting the blitz. After all, it's what Green Bay's linebacker duo of Edgerrin Cooper and Quay Walker do best. Hafley loves scheming these guys free to get to the quarterback.
Then yesterday came… and it was radio silence from the Packers linebackers… at least on the pass rushing side of things. A 9.1% blitz rate, just 4 total blitzes called by Jeff Hafley on Goff's 44 dropbacks. The Packers defense flipped the script entirely.
Hafley even teased Morton with mugged up looks from Quay & Cooper, only to bail into coverage at the snap. The one time Cooper actually did come on the blitz, Goff found LaPorta in a gaping hole in coverage, gashing the Packers for 32 yards. After all, this is what the Lions had prepared for.
It's why Goff's passing chart looked like coins dropped at the bottom of a swimming pool. The Lions offense thought they could get the ball out fast, eliminate Green Bay's blitzing threat (& whatever was to be seen of Micah Parsons), and use electric speedsters like Jahmyr Gibbs (10 receptions) and Jameson Williams (5 touches) to sting Green Bay's 5 or 6 coverage defenders in open space.
(Next Gen Stats)
Instead the Packers employed a plain and simple 4-man rush, dropping everybody else into coverage and crucially, CRUCIALLY, emphasized rallying to the football in ways we haven't seen from a Packers defense in well over a decade.
The effort levels from Green Bay's defense yesterday was off the charts, both in the run game and the passing game. Countless times we saw Lions skill players taken to the ground by 3, 4, 5 Packers defenders. Almost overkill from a hustle standpoint.
Goff's average depth of target of 4.2 yards was the 5th lowest mark of his 144-game NFL career. It's his lowest ADoT since… the second Packers game last year! Where his offense put up 34 points with the exact same gameplan.
The Lions were naive. They showed up on Sunday with the same approach as last year. New OC John Morton said over the offseason that he wasn't going to stray away from everything that worked so well for Ben Johnson last year, but that may be Detroit's problem:
Nothing ever stays the same in the NFL, and your opponent is going to show up with a gameplan to combat everything that has worked for you before.
Jeff Hafley adapted. The Lions did not.
1-0.
Did this have anything to do with Micah Parsons?
Probably? This was likely a game Jeff Hafley had circled ever since the schedule released in May. Hafley had more time to prepare for this one than any other matchup. The minuscule amount of roster turnover on Green Bay's defense meant less time spent this offseason installing coverages and more time preparing for opponents like Detroit.
I can't help but feel Hafley knew all along though that there was a missing piece to this puzzle. It's all well and good dropping 7 defenders into coverage to gobble up Detroit's horizontal passing attack, but the fundamental problem with constantly rushing four defenders is that you need one of them to get home.
Enter Micah. Green Bay's new superstar acquisition made his presence felt on the smattering of snaps he played. While his 4th quarter sack will be the memorable moment of his Lambeau debut, his biggest impact on the game was forcing Goff to get the ball out quick on Evan Williams' interception.
Packers interception: Cover-3 Buzz
Goff only has eyes for Bullard (nickel) bailing to the Curl/Flat as well as y'know... Micah Parsons in his face.
Evan Williams rotates down unseen & makes an excellent play on the ball. pic.twitter.com/FQDSMrRUp6
— Daire Carragher (@DaireCarragher) September 8, 2025
Beyond that, Parsons commanded a noticeable amount of double teams, opening up pressures and sacks for Colby Wooden, Devonte Wyatt & Lukas Van Ness in 1-on-1 matchups versus Detroit's weaker interior offensive line.
As has been said all along, Parsons is a force multiplier. He makes everybody better. Not just his fellow pass rushers, but the coverage unit as well. We now have clear, irrefutable examples of this playing out in a real game.
The Packers are so back. They are the hottest entity in the NFL right now. They are the talk of national sports media. Enjoy the build-up to an amazing matchup this Thursday. Enjoy the spotlight. Because it wasn't so long ago that the hottest team in the NFL was the Detroit Lions. And as Jeff Hafley has just proven to us: nothing lasts in the NFL.