Packers Start Fast – Outplay Titans 30-14

The Packers offense scored on their first two possessions and the defense followed suit, taking an interception to the house on Tennessee’s second possession to build a first quarter 17-7 lead. Malik Willis had a homecoming to remember, leading the Packers to victory over the Titan team that let him go for a seventh-round draft pick on August 27th.
Matt LaFleur designed another gem of a game plan.

After last week’s early run emphasis, LaFleur had Willis throw passes on three of the first four plays. The best throw of the first drive was his 30-yard deep pass to Christian Watson. Watson had been quiet on the stat sheet without Jordan Love, but his catch delivered early momentum and opened up the Titan defense.

Tennessee came out focused on stopping Josh Jacobs. Most of his early runs were met with contact in the backfield. Jacobs’ 14 touch sacrifice proved fruitful for the rest of the offense. Jayden Reed had 69 yards on six touches.

Malik Willis totaled 73 yards on six carries, a 12+ yard average. Willis connected on 13 of 19 passes for 202 total yards, including one touchdown screen pass to Emanuel Wilson that rambled for 30 yards.

That long screen play exemplified how the Packer offense found success at Nissan Stadium on Sunday. Most of their positive yards happened with runs and passes outside the hash marks. Short throws peppered with a few outside runs and deep passes with just enough inside run calls to keep the Titan defense honest.

The Packer defense gave Green Bay fans a couple of uncomfortable moments, but for most of the game played with aggressive brilliance. The eight sacks by the Packer defense were the most in 20 seasons. To put that in perspective, the last Packer defense with eight sacks in a game had KGB as their sack leader. Add on three interceptions and you have a dominating statistical performance.

The defense struggled on the first Tennessee drive, giving up a tying touchdown on the Titans ten play drive. But with the score 10-7, Jaire Alexander took advantage of young Titan QB Will Levis, sitting on an out route and taking the interception back for a touchdown.

Then, with the score 17-7, the defense forced two punts and then got off the field on a great tackle of Levis by Quay Walker and Isaiah McDuffie on a fourth down and two at the Tennessee 37. That led to a 5-play drive capped off by Wilson’s 30-yard screen pass for the touchdown.

The offense sputtered for two quarters as offensive penalties set them back repeatedly. Rasheed Walker and Elgton Jenkins seemed to trade off on successive drives, both being tagged for multiple holding penalties.

Green Bay was still able to score in each quarter putting up 3 in the second, 7 in the third and three in the fourth. But after the Titans scored a quick touchdown in the third quarter, the Green Bay lead was cut to 27-14.

Green Bay was playing with a second-string quarterback and their rookie kicker had already missed a 48-yard field goal. The offense then took that moment to have their only three and out of the game. Tennessee had some momentum. Packer fans went from comfortable to concerned.

But the defense shut down the Titan’s hopes. Kingsley Enagbare’s strip- sack and Lucas Van Ness’ recovery snuffed out the momentum. But the defense was not done. They followed that series with four sacks that contributed to two Tennessee punts followed by Xavier McKinney’s third interception in his first three games.

The Packers still have some big questions to answer. Can this rookie kicker Narveson become the consistent weapon the Packers believed he could be?

While his stat sheet will look clean from Sunday’s game, that is only because a cheap penalty was called on the Titans on his 48-yard miss. Three games, three misses. This cannot continue.

Can the offensive line, specifically Rasheed Wallace, reduce the holding penalties? How long will it take for Jordan Love to play at the special level we saw last year? These questions need positive answers by next Sunday. Because next week, it is the undefeated Minnesota Vikings coming to town.