Eight observations from Packers’ dominant win over Titans
Eight observations from the Packers’ win.
The Green Bay Packers shone on Sunday night with a dominant 40-14 victory over the Tennessee Titans.
Here are eight observations from the game:
What an awesome game from AJ Dillon. But, Aaron Jones is still the Packers’ best running back. When he’s healthy, he should be receiving a healthy majority of snaps and touches. (Side note: it’s pretty annoying that they can both be referred to as “AJ”).
Was Dillon a smart draft pick? That’s a complicated, perhaps unanswerable question with many different variables involved. But he’s a good football player who will help the Packers win games this year and in future years, and that’s a great thing.
It was great to see Equanimeous St. Brown secure his first-ever NFL touchdown. He had a couple disappointing drops/misses at the catch point against Minnesota earlier this year, but recently he’s had some nice success using his straight-line speed.
Matt LaFleur’s fourth-down aggressiveness is great. And in contrast, Mike Vrabel punting from the 32-yard line (for a touchback) in the first quarter was a hilariously bad decision.
Kevin King is certainly an enthusiastic tackler, but his technique results in too many misses.
Hopefully that won’t cost the Packers in a playoff game. Cornerback currently seems like a top need in the draft next year, with King a free agent and Chandon Sullivan also looking like someone that the Packers can upgrade from.
As many have noted, Darnell Savage is turning into a star. If he played cornerback, he would probably be the second best on the team behind Jaire. And his speed is so valuable not just in coverage, but as a blitzer.
It took about 90 seconds of gametime for Cris Collinsworth to mention the Jordan Love draft pick. It will never stop being annoying how convinced the national media is (despite Rodgers’ own comments) that Rodgers is extremely angry about the Love pick, and that that anger is driving his stellar performance this year.
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but if the Packers make the Super Bowl, this narrative will be reinforced nonstop, and it will be infuriating.
In a great game overall from the defense, the Ryan Tannehill touchdown run was troubling. The Packers haven’t really faced many running quarterbacks this year, and Jalen Hurts had some success in under a half of gameplay.
Hopefully, they can figure it out before potential playoff matchups against Kyler Murray or Taysom Hill in the NFC, and Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen (or Tannehill again) in the AFC.