Exhausted from an overtime thriller and missing key stars, the Green Bay Packers face a historic statistical curse on Thursday Night Football.
The Green Bay Packers had just three full days of rest to prepare for their home opener in Week 3 against the Atlanta Falcons.
Playing on a short week is never easy. There isn't a single team in the NFL that enjoys playing on Thursdays, but that's the nature of the game, and it's been like this for quite some time.
Atlanta will come to Lambeau Field with an abysmal 0-2 record. They were just crushed by the Carolina Panthers, a team that looked horrendous against the Chicago Bears in Week 1.
Green Bay's slow start to the 2026 season is a bit alarming, but not as alarming as this statistic provided by Packer Report's Easton Butler.
Teams coming off a game in OT are 3-18 on TNF
In the 21 times that this exact scenario has occurred, teams are just 3-18 on Thursday Night Football when they played a game that went to overtime the week prior.
The silver lining in this is the fact that the Packers defense looked absolutely tremendous in OT against the New York Jets.
Lukas Van Ness was a one-man wrecking crew, and Evan Williams had a huge play on Geno Smith en route to Jordan Love leading this team down the field for the first game-winning field goal of Trey Smack's career.
Regardless, this is still incredibly alarming. It doesn't matter that the Packers are at home for the first time all year; what matters is that they're down a few key players, and there truly is a lot to be worried about, even against this Falcons team.
Head coach Matt LaFleur must find a way to overcome this 16.67% win rate on TNF. To say those aren't great odds would be an understatement, but if there was ever a time for the Packers to prove everyone wrong, it's now.
Packers can't overlook the Falcons
At this point in the season, there are still so many unknowns. Michael Penix Jr. will be making his season debut for Atlanta, and while there's no reason to believe he'll be throwing for 400 yards against this Packers defense, crazier things have happened.
Just because Atlanta gave up all those points in their first two games, it doesn't mean the results will be the same against Green Bay.
This Packers offensive line is arguably the worst it's ever been in the LaFleur era. Without Josh Jacobs, all eyes remain on Love to pull out a crucial Week 3 victory.
