A Nashville Blowout: Why Green Bay Packers lost to Tennessee Titans

Not finishing drives

Even when Green Bay had some semblance of a chance to make something happen in this contest, they continued to come up short of the touchdowns they needed to stay close and compete as their defense was bombarded by Tennessee’s “exotic smashmouth” offense.

That started from the first drive, where they ended up with a quick punt despite starting off inside Tennessee territory; from there, it rarely got any better.

Down 28-7, Green Bay had to settle for a field goal when their second decent drive of the game stalled out. Then down 41-22, yet again Green Bay had to settle for a field goal.

After one of the few stops by their defense — at a point where there still technically could have been an outside shot of making it back into a competitive contest — Green Bay turned the ball over on downs; then, down 44-25 and still not totally out of it, Aaron Rodgers tossed his second INT of the game.

With one last outside possibility to at least get the score to a more passable margin (much less win the game), Green Bay found themselves having to punt quickly despite being down 47-25.

The early hole caused by the incredibly bad first quarter of action undoubtedly hurt what the Packers wanted to do for the rest of the afternoon, but regardless there were still opportunities for the offense to keep the team in the game.

If this were any of the pre-2015 Green Bay offenses led by Rodgers, maybe they would have found a way to keep it competitive.

Unfortunately, this offense is nowhere in the vicinity of those previously dominant units. They just are not equipped for situations where they must score in bunches to win anymore, and this game was a perfect encapsulation of that.