We likely will see NFL history tied tonight when the Atlanta Falcons (0-2) visit the Green Bay Packers (1-1) on Thursday Night Football to kick off Week 3. It is the first-ever Thursday meeting between the franchises, and the Pack have won 13 straight home openers. That is tied with the Miami Dolphins from 1976-88 for the longest streak ever. It's a typical 8:15 ET kick on Prime Video.
This marks the first of five scheduled weekday games for the Packers and first of five scheduled home primetime games, both the most in franchise history. Green Bay opened with back-to-back road games for only the fourth time (1924, 2016, 2023) and is lucky to not be winless like Atlanta, rallying from down 17-7 in the fourth quarter Sunday to beat the New York Jets, 20-17 in OT.
In doing so, Green Bay avoided its first 0-2 start since 2006 and became the first team in the Super Bowl era to win a game with under 200 total yards of offense (199), at least 10 penalties (14 for 133 yards) and zero takeaways. Teams previously were 0-38 in that scenario.
Teams to start 0-2 rarely make the playoffs regardless, but throw that type of bad loss in and it might already have been curtains, especially considering the Pack will remain without two Pro Bowlers in running back Josh Jacobs (off-field issue) and pass-rusher Micah Parsons (PUP list) for at least a couple of more games each.
The big story for the Falcons here under new coach Kevin Stefanski is the season debut of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. It will be the 2024 first-round pick's first start since Week 11 last November, when he tore his left ACL. The southpaw was cleared to practice fully in late August but told the team before Week 1 he was not ready for live game action.
It's pretty much now or never for Penix to show the Falcons if he's the future under center. The answer is no so far, as he has a 4-8 mark and mediocre numbers -- and coming off a third career major knee injury. Things can only get better considering Atlanta is the lone offense in the league to not have an appearance in the red zone yet.
We'll take you through every aspect of the Falcons vs. Packers game that you need to know before you lock in your bets, including SportsLine expert picks, props, trends, DFS, injury information and everything else that will help you know which plays are worth making for the prime-time matchup.
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