Good evening, everyone. On Thursday night, the Green Bay Packers took on the Tennessee Titans at Lambeau Field. The Packers were looking to keep the momentum going after they won against the Cowboys in Week 10. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as the Packers fell victim to the Titans. Let’s get into detail on what exactly occurred in this game.
The Packers won the coin toss, but elected to defer to the second half, giving the Titans the ball to start the game. The opening kick return would’ve gave the Titans the ball at their 37 yard line, but a holding penalty forced them to start at their own 17 instead. It didn’t matter because the Packers defense was not able to keep Tennessee from scoring a touchdown anyway. On the third play of the drive, QB Ryan Tannehill connected with WR Treylon Burks for a 43-yard pass play that got the Titans into Green Bay territory. 5 plays later, Tannehill connected with Dontrell Hilliard for a 14-yard touchdown that was way too easy. The extra point was good, giving Tennessee a 7-0 lead with 10:31 left in the first quarter. The Packers’ first drive not only started at their own 12 due to a holding penalty on the kick return, but ended with a three and out after an incomplete pass by Aaron Rodgers intended for Robert Tonyan on third and 6. After Pat O’Donnell punted, the Titans started their next drive at their 39 yard line. This time, the defense forced Tennessee to go three and out thanks to a sack of Tannehill by Preston Smith, whose birthday was on Thursday. Randall Cobb was the punt return guy on the ensuing punt, and he returned it 5 yards to the Green Bay 22 (without fumbling the ball). From there, the Packers had a much better drive than the first one. Randall Cobb made a couple of key plays during this possession. The first one was his 24-yard catch that got Green Bay into Tennessee territory, and the second one was a fumble recovery after Aaron Jones lost the ball during a run. 4 plays after the fumble recovery, Aaron Rodgers caught the defense with too many men on the field and found Christian Watson, who made a great leaping grab for a 14-yard touchdown. That touchdown would’ve tied the game had the extra point kick not been blocked by the Titans. As a result of the block, the Titans still had a one-point lead at the end of the first quarter. After the kick return, the Titans started their next drive at their 33 yard line. What followed was an 18-play drive that lasted just over 10 minutes of game time. During this drive, the Titans were able to keep the ball by converting several short yardage situations into first downs. One in particular that I need to mention due to the weirdness of it is a fourth and one at midfield. Before the snap, Ryan Tannehill was walking back and forth yelling out audibles until Derrick Henry got the direct snap and jumping for the first down and moving the chains. A number of short first downs later, the Titans faced a fourth and 1 from the Green Bay 4 yard line. Rather than kick the field goal and take the points, they decided to go for it. Derrick Henry was stuffed short of the first down and for a loss of 2 yards by Quay Walker and Preston Smith, giving the Packers the ball with 4:54 left in the first half. The offense, however, did absolutely nothing with this opportunity and went three and out. To make things worse, Pat O’Donnell had to punt from the back of the end zone with lesser room than usual. The punt gave the Titans great field position at the Green Bay 41 yard line. Tennessee’s offense was able to take advantage of the great field position and score a second touchdown just before halftime. The 9-play drive that lasted nearly 3 and a half minutes concluded with a 4-yard TD run by Derrick Henry that (with the extra point) gave the Titans a 14-6 lead at halftime.
During the halftime break, LeRoy Butler’s name was revealed at Lambeau Field after he was recently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He obviously celebrated the occasion by doing the Lambeau Leap, which he came up with on December 26, 1993 when he scored a touchdown during a 28-0 win against the (then called) Los Angeles Raiders. I kinda wish that Amazon Prime would’ve shown that ceremony instead of their iffy halftime talk.
The Packers’ first drive of the second half started at their 28 after a decent kick return by Keisean Nixon. They were able to convert a couple of short third downs and move the chains as they got into scoring range. The Packers were forced to settle for a field goal after Aaron Jones was tackled for a loss of 4 yards on second and 7 from the Tennessee 17 and Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete on the next play. Mason Crosby made the field goal from 39 yards out, cutting the Titans’ lead to 14-9 with 8:25 left in the third quarter. The Packers defense then allowed a touchdown drive in which they got burned on two big chunk plays. The first one was a pass completion from Ryan Tannehill to tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo for a 31-yard gain to the Tennessee 43. The second one occurred two plays later when Derrick Henry caught a short pass and took it all the way to the Green Bay 9 yard line. 2 plays after that, Derrick Henry took a handoff and then threw a touchdown pass to Austin Hooper that gave the Titans a 20-9 lead with 5:17 left in the third quarter (the extra point kick hit the right upright). After Keisean Nixon returned the ensuing kickoff to the Green Bay 31, the Packers offense responded with a touchdown drive to make it a one-possession game. During this drive, Aaron Rodgers found Randall Cobb for a 28-yard pass completion that got the Packers into Tennessee territory. 3 plays after that, Allen Lazard caught a pass from Rodgers and took it to the Tennessee 8 yard line. Two plays later, Christian Watson caught his second touchdown of the night and did a Lambeau Leap. Rather than kick the extra point, the Packers went for two points. Aaron Jones ran it in to get the two points and cut the Titans lead to 20-17 with 2:04 left in the quarter. Once again, the Packers defense was not able to stop the Titans from scoring a fourth touchdown. The touchdown, though, had a bit of controversy because of Austin Hooper losing the ball after he fell down. The refs gave him a touchdown anyway and the Titans took a 10-point lead following that drive. The next drive for the Packers ended in a three and out, although the Titans should have been called for defensive pass interference when the defender intentionally kept Christian Watson from attempting to catch the pass on the first down play. Rasul Douglas intercepted Ryan Tannehill, giving the Packers another shot at a comeback attempt. Once again, the offense went three and out. It didn’t help that Yosh Nijman was called for a holding penalty and gave the Packers a first and 20. The drive ended with a punt after Aaron Rodgers missed a wide open Sammy Watkins on third and 12 from the Green Bay 32. The punt was downed at the 13 yard line by Rudy Ford. From there, the Packers defense forced a three and out, giving the offense yet another try. Unfortunately, they messed up yet again with a turnover on downs, which was a result of an awful pass by Aaron Rodgers that was basically thrown into the air and hit nobody on fourth down. Another three and out by the Titans followed after a second sack by Preston Smith. After the punt, the Packers tried to do a hurry up drive with no timeouts remaining. They got a couple of first downs during the drive. Things were going well until Aaron Rodgers took an awful sack after holding the ball too long (just throw the ball out of bounds if you need to, Aaron). Rodgers connected with Watson to make it a fourth and 1, but Aaron Jones was stuffed on the fourth down, ending the game. To throw salt in the wound, Ryan Tannehill connected on a deep pass to Treylon Burks that was almost a touchdown. After that pass, the Titans kneeled the rest of the clock out and got out of Lambeau Field with a 27-17 win. With this loss, the Packers are now 4-7 on the season (so much for the all-white uniform luck at Lambeau).
(Here are the "lowlights" of the game, provided by the NFL's YouTube page. Click on "Watch on YouTube")
On offense, the Packers had some issues with the run game. After running for over 200 yards on Sunday against the Cowboys, the duo of Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon only combined for 53 yards on the ground. I give credit to the Titans defense for keeping Jones and Dillon in check for most of the game. As a result of that, Aaron Rodgers had to air it out more than on Sunday. He threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns (both to Christian Watson), but he was off on some throws, especially in the fourth quarter throws to Sammy Watkins and Allen Lazard that both hit the dirt. It did not help that a few of the passes were dropped by the receivers and that one deep pass should have resulted in a pass interference penalty. Rodgers only got sacked once, but it was on a play in which he held the ball for far too long as he was waiting for a shot play when the Packers were trying to come back from a 10-point deficit. The offense was booed at times by the crowd in this game, and rightfully so (I wouldn’t do that personally). They did not play consistently good on Thursday night, even though the defense gave them chances to come back. A couple of positive things are this: Christian Watson and Randall Cobb. Hopefully the offense plays much better given that the team has a mini-bye before their next game.
On defense, the Packers played well against the run game. Derrick Henry was limited to 87 yards on 27 rushing attempts. However, the defense played awful against the pass, allowing Ryan Tannehill of all quarterbacks to throw for more than 300 yards on Thursday night to a cast of wide receivers that would be on a different team’s practice squad. There were too many instances where the receivers had easy catches due to the defense playing Charmin-soft zone yet again. I know that the worst thing to allow is a deep shot touchdown, but there is no reason to constantly play zone. The defense also allowed a couple of trick plays involving Derrick Henry, one a direct snap and the other a RB TD pass. At least the defense got a turnover thanks to Rasul Douglas’s pick that should’ve been followed by points on offense. Preston Smith and Quay Walker played well, with Smith getting 2 sacks and both players helping stop Henry on the fourth down conversion near the end zone. Hopefully the Packers use this mini-bye to send Joe Barry packing and have Jerry Gray be the substitute defensive coordinator for the rest of the season.
On Special Teams, the Packers had some bad moments. For one thing, Mason Crosby didn’t have a great game. One of his kicks (the first extra point try) was blocked and none of his kickoffs went for a touchback and were returned for some good chunks of yardage by Tennessee. There should have been someone else doing the kickoffs, like Pat O’Donnell. O’Donnell punted good against the Titans, although one of his punts didn’t pass midfield. To be fair, he had to punt from his own end zone with lesser room than usual. I’m just glad that he didn’t get blocked on that punt. Keisean Nixon did well on a couple of kick returns and didn’t fumble on any return attempts, which is always a good thing. At least the Special Teams unit didn’t have any turnovers that would’ve given the Titans more chances to score points. I think that Rich Bisaccia is safe with his job for now.
Overall, this loss was a let down after the OT win against Dallas in Week 10. I thought that the Packers were going to turn their season around after that win. Now, I think that the Packers could be in trouble. They have some tough opponents left on their schedule, including in their next game at Philadelphia against the Eagles. Hopefully the Packers use this mini-bye to rest up and get themselves ready to take on the Eagles (with Thanksgiving dinner in between). More on that game later. Stay tuned for my Lambeau Field trip report. Go Pack Go!
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