A Nashville Blowout: Why Green Bay Packers lost to Tennessee Titans
By Kenn Korb
Delanie Walker goes off
While Green Bay had been struggling most of this season before this game, the defense had somehow managed to continue cutting down on what had been a defensive weakness for years: tight end production.
Since 2013, the defense has slowly gotten better at defending against tight ends; per Football Outsiders’ DVOA statistics, the Packers have risen from being #25 against them to #14 (2014), #4 (2015), and sticking at #6 this year.
The ranking for 2016 is despite starting a trio of young and/or limited linebackers — the usual guys who would get stuck covering tight ends in most formations — and facing a handful of decent-or-better threats at that position across the season. After giving up TDs in the first two weeks to Julius Thomas and Kyle Rudolph, Green Bay hasn’t given up much of anything to the tight ends since:
- Eric Ebron/Cole Wick: 6 catches, 82 yards combined
- Will Tye/Jerell Adams: 4 catches, 64 yards combined
- Jason Witten: 4 catches, 42 yards
- Zach Miller: 2 catches, 40 yards
- Austin Hooper/Jacob Tamme/Levine Toilolo: 7 catches, 60 yards combined
- Jack Doyle/Dwayne Allen/Erick Swoope: 7 catches, 83 yards combined
Combine those totals: across the past six games, that is 30 catches for 371 yards (per game average: 5 catches, 61.8 yards, zero TDs. Even add in the production from those first two games, and it is still a pretty strong showing: 41 catches, 514 yards, 2 TDs (per game average: 5.2 catches, 64.3 yards, 0.25 TDs).
Though the Titans were coming in with by far the best individual tight end of any team Green Bay had faced so far, their overall play to this point pointed to them managing to hold down the Titans’ efforts in this category.
Much like how both Dallas and Tennessee blasted through the veneer of Green Bay’s usually stellar run defense however, Delanie Walker obliterated this staple of their defensive efforts from the outset.
Walker caught more passes (9) and put up more yardage (124) on his own than any full tight end group had managed on Green Bay throughout 2016. He was everywhere for them, accounting for five different catches which gained at least 10 yards.
On the second drive for Tennessee, he followed a 41 yard catch-and-run with a 10 yard reception on a Demarco Murray pass to garner his TD and put Tennessee up 14-0. the very next Titans drive, he made two 14 yard catches and a 19 yard reception as Tennessee finished off their 21-0 first quarter barrage.
Walker was integral to not only the early lead the Titans built up, but giving Marcus Mariota — someone who has had struggles with consistency and turnovers during his young career — a highly reliable option who could not only make tough catches but bust open plays through the coverage.
On Sunday, Green Bay could do nothing to stop him.