Even though the Green Bay Packers are inching closer to the NFC’s number one seed in the playoffs, there were still questions. How would they fare against another playoff worthy opponent? When would they put together a complete game? Will it ever snow at Lambeau? Resounding answers were delivered Sunday night in the home finale as the Packers routed the Tennessee Titans 40-14 to improve to 12-3 with one game to earn that top seed looming in the regular season’s final week in Chicago against the resurgent and playoff hopeful Bears.
Under a blanket of white, the Packers put together a masterful prime time show, Aaron Rodgers firing four more touchdown passes, three to Davante Adams, his first to Equanimeous St. Brown and rookie running back A.J. Dillon had a coming out party for the ages, outrushing the NFL rushing leader Derrick Henry to the tune of 124 yards and two touchdowns. The defense held Henry to 98 yards on 23 carries, his longest run was but 10 yards. Playing with a lead, they harassed Ryan Tannehill into an 11 for 24 performance, good for just 121 yards with a pair of sacks and two interceptions. Darnell Savage with his team best fourth of the year and Christian Kirksey with the other.
The only blemish for the Pack’s D came in the final two minutes of the first half and the first three minutes of the second when Tannehill found Jonnu Smith for a 12 yard score before intermission and then raced 45 yards untouched on the opening drive of the third quarter on a 4th and 1 read option when the entire Packer defense bit on the play fake to Henry.
The Packers quickly regained control when Aaron Jones got the corner turned on a 59 yard run that replays showed he stepped out of bounds but no challenge came and two snaps later, Rodgers found Adams in the back of the end zone for his hat trick touchdown that made it 26-14. Dillon finished off the night with a 30 yard score on 4th and 1 for is first NFL touchdown and added a 7 yard tally with just over 2 minutes left in the game.
Rodgers opened the contest with another first series touchdown, five yards to Adams who slipped a tackle and dove for the goal line. The second drive was capped by EQ’s 21 yard catch and after Savage’s interception, Rodgers and Adams connected again for a 7 yard strike on a fade route. That built the lead to 19-0 as Mason Crosby pushed his first PAT wide left, his fourth miss of the year and a two point conversion run by Jones was stopped short.
Rodgers finished 21 of 25 for 231 yards, pushing him over 4000 passing yards for the ninth time. He’s now up to 44 TD passes, one off his team record while Adams now leads the NFL with 17 touchdown receptions, one more will tie Sterling Sharpe’s single season record. Adams had 11 receptions for 142 yards on 12 targets, the one miss was a late throw over the middle that Malcolm Butler picked off, just the fifth of the season thrown by the MVP favorite.
The defense played more base 4-3 than they have in weeks, even using a five man front at times. That kept Henry bottled up most of the night and the pass rush pressure on Tannehill was steady. Kirksey and Za’Darius Smith record sacks on the same series in the second quarter. The secondary was credited with 10 pass break ups as the top receivers of A.J. Brown (4 catches, 43 yards a long of 12) and Corey Davis (0 receptions on 2 targets) were non factors. Tennessee was held 16 points below their 30 point per game average and to 260 yards, 140 off their per game standard.
The Packers denied the Titans a shot at clinching the AFC South after the Colts lost to Pittsburgh while Green Bay knew before they kicked off the number one seed will go to the final week after Seattle defeated the Los Angeles Rams to reach 11-4 on the year.
Matt LaFleur’s post game opening statement summed up the effort and resolve of his team.
The milestones just keep piling up for Rodgers. It was his sixth game this year with at least 4 touchdown passes, breaking the record he shared with Brett Favre. He finished with a passer rating of 128.1, the ninth game this year above 120 breaking the NFL record shared by Tom Brady, Phillip Rivers and Matt Ryan. Not bad for a game that honestly, had little bearing on the playoff picture based on earlier results Sunday, but Rodgers said afterward, we needed that much debated “complete game.”
Dillon’s performance was phenomenal considering he 24 carries for 115 yards for the season. The fact that he missed a month battling the coronavirus made the effort even more noteworthy. The second round pick from Boston College helped the Packers pile up a whopping 234 yards on the ground with Jones contributing 94 on just 10 carries. Even Rodgers had his longest run of the season at 14 yards and on a five yard scramble in the second half, somebody tracked his scramble to the left sideline and then all the way across the field to the right sideline covered a total of 77 yards.
Adams continues to dominate, in 13 games played, he’s now up to 109 receptions for 1328 yards and 17 scores. 4 more catches and 2 more touchdowns and he’ll break both single season franchise records.
The Packers were penalty free on the night, just another example of how focused they were. The Titans had only three but two proved large. On the Pack[s second series, Rashan Evans was called for illegal hands to the face on a third down stop that kept the scoring drive alive. The second came when Mason Crosby’s 35 yard field goal attempt in the second quarter was blocked and returned deep into Green Bay territory but the play was wiped out by an offside penalty. LaFleur decided against a 30 yard kick, going for it on 4th and 3 but Rodgers suffered his only sack covering 17 yards which led to Tennessee’s first touchdown drive.
The inactive players were Jordan Love, Will Redmond, Jamaal Williams, Jonathan Garvin, Simon Stepaniak, Anthony Rush and Jace Sternberger.
There were two injuries of note. Jones left early with a lower leg injury but returned and Rick Wagner got knocked out with a knee injury. Billy Turner moved from right guard to right tackle to finish the game with Lucas Patrick stepping in at guard.
The season wraps up in Soldier Field next Sunday and the NFL pushed that game to a 3:25 PM Kickoff to coincide with Seattle’s finale against San Francisco out west as those three teams have playoff berths and more importantly, seeding on the line. A Packer win regardless of what happens elsewhere will mean the NFC road to Super Bowl LV in Tampa will have to go through Lambeau Field and after the show put up by the Pack on a cold, snowy and pretty evening, it will be a daunting task for any foe.
