Green Bay Packers: 5 Key Questions Prior to Matchup with Titans
By Paul Bretl
Before the Green Bay Packers take on the Tennessee Titans, here are five key questions about the upcoming matchup.
Goodness, talk about a heavyweight matchup. Two of the NFL’s top teams with two of the NFL’s top offenses will meet on Sunday night at Lambeau Field. The 11-3 Green Bay Packers have the opportunity to clinch the NFC’s top seed — we will get to that later — while the 10-4 Tennessee Titans are hoping to clinch a playoff spot sooner than later.
Stopping Derrick Henry won’t be easy, and of course, the Titans’ wide receiver duo of AJ Brown and Corey Davis can’t be overlooked either. However, while many Packers fans are worried about the defense being able to slow the Tennessee offense — and I get it — the Titans defense isn’t exactly robust either. In fact, they’re worse than the Packers in several key areas.
So that should mean another big day for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay offense. But once again, we will get to that in more detail shortly.
As I often do, I’ve come up with my five big questions heading into this week’s game. These questions will be key to the game, and the answers will very likely end up determining who the winner is on Sunday. Let’s dive in.
Can the Green Bay Packers contain Derrick Henry?
Let’s get the big question on everyone’s mind out of the way. Are the Green Bay Packers going to be able to stop Derrick Henry? Probably not. But containing him will be key. Henry leads the NFL with nearly 1,700 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns. Of his 1,679 rushing yards, 1,235 of them have come after contact. None of this bodes well for a Packers run defense that is giving up 4.5 yards per carry and hasn’t been very good at tackling. Although I do want to point out that this unit has been better over the last six weeks.
But with that said, Henry is going to put up yards; however, what Green Bay needs to limit is the explosive plays, and they can’t let him take the game over. An example I used earlier this week was from Green Bay’s 2019 matchup with Carolina. Chrisitan McCaffrey had over 140 all-purpose yards in that game, but the Packers limited the big plays. Somehow, they’ll need a similar performance against Henry.