The Green Bay Packers offense faced a dilemma in the Tennessee Titans. Regardless of which path the Packers chose on Thursday night, there was likely never going to be a positive outcome. Ultimately, they just aren’t that good, and that’s the real issue.
During the Packers’ win over the Cowboys just a few days ago, it looked like they had found their recipe for success. It involved a heavy dose of the running game, which then helped open up the playbook for Matt LaFleur, play-action opportunities, and the passing game as a whole.
Even after the game, Aaron Rodgers told reporters that the recipe just described was “definitely the formula” that can work for this Packers offense.
However, against this Tennessee Titans defense on Thursday night, that formula was put to the test. The Titans possess one of the best run defense units in the NFL, allowing only 3.9 yards per rush prior to Week 11 and ranking first by DVOA. Their weakness also happened to be their pass defense, which has struggled at defending the big play and is also quite banged up at this time.
It was easy to tell that the Packers wanted to get the run game going early, but repeatedly trying to run against this Tennessee front was like banging your head up against the wall. Overall, AJ Dillon, Aaron Jones, and the Green Bay run game would end up averaging under three yards per rush.
In an effort to counter this, the Packers lined up in more shotgun formations compared to the Dallas game, even handing the ball off from there several times, attempting to spread this Titans’ defense out to create some room to operate. This also resulted in a much more pass-heavy approach, with Rodgers throwing the ball 39 times.
Again, in terms of attacking the weak point of the defense, this wasn’t a bad strategy on paper. The problem, however, is that this led Green Bay further away from some of the core Matt LaFleur concepts that helped this offense flourish against Dallas, which included a consistent rushing attack, playing under center, a lot of play-action, and more condensed formations.
The passing game has also not been the strength of the Packers’ offense this season. While Christian Watson has put together two very good performances and Randall Cobb returned from IR, overall, there is still way too much inconsistency with this group. On top of that, Rodgers has not been anywhere near an MVP level this season – which only compounds the issues.
So you can see where the dilemma comes into play for the Packers. The run game has been the catalyst behind a lot of the success they’ve had this season, but it was very tough sledding against this defense. So option one is to continue picking up two or three yards per rush.
The alternative, and from a pure football perspective what makes the most sense, was to try to spread the Titans’ defense out and attack their secondary. With that said, that approach led Green Bay away from some key LaFleur concepts, and as we saw in the fourth quarter, this passing game simply isn’t good enough to be relied upon that heavily.
Ultimately, the Packers had two paths they could have gone down on Thursday night, and neither was likely going to lead them to a victory. At the end of the day, this is how things are going to play out when you’re just not a good football team.
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