GREEN BAY – There's a lot that goes into these short weeks, and the Packers planned ahead as best they could for this one.
For starters, Head Coach Matt LaFleur revealed after Sunday’s win over the 49ers that he spent a portion of Green Bay's bye a couple weeks ago studying Miami Dolphins game film to begin building a preliminary game plan for the Thanksgiving night matchup.
That left him only two more Dolphins games to review Sunday night before putting the finishing touches on the game plan to present to the players when they came in Monday.
Turns out defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley took the same approach on his side of the ball, using a couple of days during the bye to prep for the Dolphins and put together initial notes and ideas.
But it didn't stop there.
Last week, in the final days leading up to the San Francisco game, the assistant coaches on both sides of the ball did some advance work on Miami, too. Then everyone's thoughts converged Sunday night to finalize the game plan so the players could begin their mental processing of it right away Monday.
It's interesting how it came together, because as the play-callers for their respective sides of the ball, LaFleur and Hafley last week were focused solely on the 49ers. The days leading up to the game are all about last-minute tweaks and working through play-calling scenarios in their heads, anticipating situations, possible adjustments, and the like.
"It would be really hard for me to start looking back at Miami when we're trying to defend the 49ers," Hafley said Tuesday. "Imagine studying for a test all week and then the day before the rest you start studying a different subject.
"I mean that would just … I can't do that."
But with that game plan for San Francisco all set to go, the other assistants who aren't calling plays started digging in on the Dolphins and doing what LaFleur and Hafley were doing over the bye (when the rest of the staff had other projects and self-scouting assignments to complete).
In the end, it's a somewhat convoluted process of divide and conquer within the never-ending, fast-paced grind of an NFL season.
For what it's worth, under LaFleur the Packers are 3-3 in short-week Thursday games, winning last year's Thanksgiving game at Detroit after losing earlier in the season on Thursday Night Football to the Lions at home. (Side note: The win last Thanksgiving pushed LaFleur to 5-0 on holidays, with the other wins coming on Christmas in '21 and '22, New Year's Day in '22, and New Year's Eve in '23.)
Prepping on a short week against a division foe is a little easier, though, because the teams already know each other so well. This year, an uncommon opponent from the AFC is the added challenge, though the Packers did face the Dolphins on Christmas just two years ago.
This is the first time the Packers had their bye so close to the short week, which allowed for so much advance work by LaFleur and Hafley. Back in 2020, Green Bay's bye was three weeks before an approaching Thursday night road tilt at San Francisco, but both the bye and the short week were much earlier in the season, so there wasn't as much film to study.
Whether the way this year's schedule fell works to the Packers' advantage remains to be seen come Thanksgiving night. For those wondering, Miami's bye was in early October and the Dolphins had six more games to play before their short-week challenge arrived.
But however the coaching staffs might've handled things differently, it's all the same for the players on both teams. Game on Sunday, then rest, recovery, cramming and walk-throughs in order to play their best with the whole holiday-celebrating country watching.
"The short weeks are tough," quarterback Jordan Love said, "but (we're) obviously trying to get as much film in as possible and understand who we're going against, and then the game plan."
Which, unlike during more normal times, was several weeks in the making.
"It's a quick turnaround," defensive lineman Lukas Van Ness said. "You've just gotta do what you can to turn the switch, refresh your mind and get ready to go Thursday."
