Green Bay Packers: Strengths and Weaknesses of the Titans

The Green Bay Packers host the Tennesee Titans for the final regular-season game in Lambeau Field in 2020. Here are the Titans’ strengths and weaknesses.

Last week I started my weekly opponent preview article by reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the Carolina Panthers. When looking at the Titans, I notice a lot of very similar strengths and weaknesses. The only difference is that the strengths are greater for the Titans, and the weaknesses are not as potentially glaring even though there are certainly some weaknesses for this Titans team. The part that makes this really interesting is seeing how the Green Bay Packers matchup up with these strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths

This one, just like last week, is pretty obvious but also a broad strength of the 2020 Tennesee Titans, that being the offense, and Derrick Henry is a big part of that. He has been one of the best backs in the league this year and over the last few seasons. Henry currently leads the league in rushing yards this season by 195 yards going into Week 16 action in the NFL.

Henry and Cook are the only two backs in the NFL that have averaged over 100 yards per game this season. He is also tied with Cook for the lead in rushing touchdowns with 15. Henry also has the most rushing plays of over 20 yards and the second-longest run (94 yards) of the 2020 NFL season. Not only has he been dominating the stat sheet, but PFF ($) and Football Outsiders DYAR metric also have him as the best running back in the league. Per Football Outsiders DVOA metric, he is the second-best running back only behind Nick Chubb.

This does not bode well for the Green Bay Packers, even though I do believe that the Packers defense has been trending up as of late. Henry will provide a much tougher test for the Packers; however, the last top tier running back they faced in Dalvin Cook ran for 163 yards and three touchdowns. I feel like this has been overstated for the Packers, but the best way to stop Henry is to make the Titans throw the ball early and often by creating a big lead early on.

With that said, making the Titans throw is not necessarily a great thing for this Green Bay Packers defense either. Ryan Tannehill has been a very good quarterback for the Titans this year; he is fourth in the league in passer rating while throwing for 31 touchdowns, which are fifth-most in the NFL. He has done all of that while throwing just one more interception than Aaron Rodgers.

Tannehill does have some great weapons that have made it easier for him during this 2020 NFL season. Corey Davis and A.J. Brown have been great for the Titans this year; in fact, among receivers, Davis is 15th in receiving yards while Brown is 18th. Brown is also tied for fifth in the league with 10 touchdown catches.

What does this mean for the Packers? It means that the defense will be tested this week against the Titans. It also means that the Packers need both a good game plan and they need to execute at a high level. I am no defensive coordinator, but my strategy to defend this offense would be to have three down linemen — Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry, and maybe even Anthony Rush — two outside linebackers, and two off-ball linebackers. That leaves you 7 box defenders to slow down Derrick Henry, and that is where the players need to execute and tackle.

I would then have Kevin King play man on Corey Davis with safety help over the top while putting Jaire Alexandar one-on-one with A.J. Brown, which, admittedly, is not a great matchup due to the size, but I have faith in Alexandar. This clearly is not something that can happen on every play, but I feel this is a way that the Green Bay Packers could potentially slow down this league-leading offense.

Weaknesses

Similar to last week, the weaknesses for this Titans team are on the defensive side of the ball. The Titans rank 21st in scoring defense this season. Football Outsiders ranks this Titans defense at 28th, which is one spot lower than the Carolina Panthers. And according to Football Outsiders, they especially struggle against the pass where they are 30th is pass defense DVOA.

This could be important for the Packers, knowing the offense they are facing will have to score points to win this football game. The Packers moved the ball at will on the first three drives in the Panthers game; I expect we will see that for the majority of this game due to the Titans’ struggles on this side of the ball.

The difference is the Panthers were able to get to Aaron Rodgers on a consistent basis during the middle part of that game. I do not believe the Titans will have the same fortune, however. Football Outsiders has a metric known as adjusted sack rate to determine the quality of a team’s pass rush, and the Titans rank dead last in this category, while the Packers offensive line is a top-five unit by adjusted sack rate. PFF also grades teams for their pass rush and ranks the Titans at 29th.

This means that if the offensive line does not have another bad game, which they shouldn’t against a pass rush like the Titans, the Green Bay Packers should be able to move the ball at will against this defense. The hard part for the Packers is that the Titans will likely be able to do the same against the Packers’ defense. All of this should make for a very fun and interesting game for fans of both teams and general football fans alike.