The snowy weather at Lambeau Field on Sunday night may have suggested a big night for the Tennessee Titans, who rely heavily on a rampage led by Derrick Henry. Instead, host Green Bay Packers ran off with the show – literally. With great contributions from Aaron Jones and rookie AJ Dillon, not to mention an almost perfect departure from the supposed favorite MVP Aaron Rodgers, Matt LaFleur’s team had little trouble crossing the AFC South contenders in prime time. With the NFC seed # 1 set in their sights, the Packers scored early and often, so they easily sealed their lead in times of crisis, ensuring a 40-14 victory to improve to 12-3 in the season and take Tennessee down. 10-5 before week 17.
With the victory, the Packers, champion of NFC North, are now a victory away from sealing the seed – and goodbye in the first round – in the postseason. The Titans, for their part, have not yet officially qualified for the postseason with the Colts still alive in the south.
Here are some immediate results of Green Bay’s big win on Sunday night:
Why Packers Won
Aaron Rodgers is the MVP! That’s right. You heard it here. The ageless wonder, inexplicably eliminated by some in 2019, deserves the award. Sunday night was one of many examples of this. Except for a reckless move in the fourth quarter, in which he managed only a greedy touch and turned Tennessee, No. 12 was pure magic under Lambeau’s snow. His signature pocket balance was evident all night, as was his chemistry with a predictably dominant Davante Adams.
It helped that Matt LaFleur’s ground game also celebrated with the Titans, with Aaron Jones running as if he had been fired from a cannon (including in a 40-yard side sprint that Tennessee should have challenged to reverse) and AJ Dillon proving the whole draft The day’s pessimists make a mistake on a painful night, perfect for cold weather. Don’t forget to give credit to Mike Pettine’s defense too, who was particularly aggressive in high school, deflecting a handful of important passes from Ryan Tannehill and hitting two.
Why the Titans lost
Some reasons: # 1, Mike Vrabel’s defense had no answers for Aaron Rodgers and Aaron Jones. Few teams do, but this was an especially ugly display for Tennessee, which yielded many easy shots, including at crucial points, early on. Malcolm Butler had a good choice of diving from an errant Rodgers pitch late, but other than that, the Titans just found themselves playing catch-up all night.
No. 2, on a night when Derrick Henry was fine, despite the snowy weather suggesting he would have a heavy and firmly dominant workload, Tannehill often looked uncomfortable throwing the ball into the field. His 45-yard TD sprint was a clean thing of beauty, but aerial production just wasn’t there, with Jaire Alexander and Green Bay secondary causing him to attack on a night when he needed to be almost perfect to match Rodgers and come out victorious.
Inflection point
You can say it was Tannehill’s first choice, which allowed the Packers to jump to an initial two point lead. But the Titans fought, with Tannehill’s surprise race with the tank destroyer taking Tennessee to five at the start of the third.
Just a few moves later, however, things changed forever: on the first descent, Aaron Jones galloped 39 meters down the left sideline, avoiding all kinds of Titans to put Green Bay back in the red zone. The replay revealed that Jones had gone out of bounds at the start of the race, but the Packers rushed to the line before Tennessee could challenge, kept up the big move and went on to score on an easy Rodgers-to-Adams TD, never looking back .
Game play
It didn’t matter much to the Titans in the end, but Tannehill’s sweet goalkeeper QB was a beautiful display of his underrated athleticism:
What is the next
The Packers (12-3) will close their 2020 season against rival Bears (8-7), who are fresh from a bursting victory over the Jaguars. Green Bay will take first place in the NFC with a victory next week.
The Titans (10-5), in turn, will end up against their AFC South rival, the Texans (4-11), who lost to Bengals in week 16. They are in a battle for the AFC South crown, but can escape the playoffs with a loss, as four other AFC teams also have 10-5 records.