Report Card: Grades From Packers’ 30-14 Win Over Titans

The Green Bay Packers won again without Jordan Love, as Malik Willis made big plays through the air and the defense delivered a dominating performance at Tennessee. Here are the grades from the Packers’ victory over the Titans.

Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt (95) celebrates one of his two sacks at the Titans on Sunday. / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

What if I told you the Green Bay Packers were going to lose their starting quarterback at the end of a 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles?

You’d probably be worried, right?

Now, what if I told you that the quarterback they traded for less than a month ago was going to win two games in a row?

You’d probably think I was crazy, right?

Well, that’s exactly what happened.

The Packers were victorious again without Jordan Love, winning 30-14 over the hapless Tennessee Titans on Sunday in Nashville.

Their defense was punishing. Their offense, while not firing on all cylinders, was able to put up more than enough points to run the Titans out of their own building.

Matt LaFleur and Jeff Hafley earn high marks for this week, as does the rest of the team.

Here is our report card from the Packers’ dominant victory over the Titans

Passing Offense

Prior to last week, Love’s replacement, Malik Willis, had never thrown for more than 100 yards in a game.

He did get to 122 last week, but it was clear the Packers were trying not to put too much on the young quarterback’s plate in his first start with the team.

This week, the Packers knew they weren’t going to be able to just line up and run the ball 50 times.

Willis started the game with a 30-yard completion to Jayden Reed. He had big completions to Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, as well.

He looked much more comfortable and, perhaps most importantly, did not turn the ball over for a second straight week.

While Willis insists this week was not any different for him, it would have been easy for him to think otherwise and try to put on Superman’s cape against his former team.

Instead, Willis stayed within himself and threw for 202 yards and a 30-yard touchdown pass to Emanuel Wilson.

Ultimately, if you told anyone in Green Bay’s organization that they’d win both games with Wills starting, they might not have believed you.

A big day for Willis earns him high marks.

Grade: A

Rushing Offense

Wilson and Josh Jacobs combined for 93 yards on 26 carries. That’s not exactly the historic performance Green Bay’s ground game put together a week ago.

The reality is, the Titans are a much more difficult team to run against than the Colts.

Thankfully for the run game, Willis was able to make some plays with his legs.

He opened the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown on a zone read that gave the Packers a 7-0 lead.

Whether it was designed runs or escaping pressure, he finished with 73 rushing yards on six attempts.

That made the running game look better than what it was but, when a backup is running the offense, all you can ask for is just enough.

The Packers got just enough.

Grade: B

Passing Defense

There was nothing wrong with the Packers’ pass rush that the Titans and their putrid offensive line could not fix.

After getting three sacks in the first two games while preoccupied with the athletic Jalen Hurts and Anthony Richardson, the Packers had eight sacks, their most in two decades.

They got contributions from practically everyone, including a game-changing play by Kingsley Enagbare, when he strip-sacked Will Levis with the Titans in Packers territory.

Cornerback Jaire Alexander had his first career pick-six and Xavier McKinney became the first player since Courtland Finnegan with the Rams in 2012 to intercept a pass in each of his first three games with a team.

McKinney’s three interceptions would have led the 2023 Packers.

Three more turnovers, eight sacks and a touchdown? There’s no other grade to give.

Grade: A

Rushing Defense

With Levis’ propensity to turn over the ball, there was some concern the Titans could simply take the air out of the ball and make the Packers’ defense stop the run. That’s something the Packers have not done since the Reagan administration.

Partially due to the two-score deficit they faced most of the day, the Titans never got their run game going.

Tony Pollard finished with 14 yards on six carries and the Titans finished with 11 runs for 33 yards. Their long gain was just 8 yards.

Some credit goes to the offense for scoring early and often, but the defense had to make the plays.

It did, and now it has a much bigger test with Aaron Jones having his eyes on revenge as the Minnesota Vikings head to Lambeau Field.

Grade: A

Special Teams

Aside from an early touchback, punter Daniel Whelan was excellent again, though his best kick of the game was wiped out by an illegal-formation penalty by Arron Mosby.

Brayden Narveson was perfect on the stat sheet, but that does get a bit of an asterisk. Narveson missed a field goal from 48 yards, but the miscue was wiped out by a seldom-called defensive holding penalty on the Titans’ star defensive tackle, Jeffery Simmons.

Mosby’s penalty cost the Packers 20 yards in field position, and Lukas Van Ness was flagged for holding on a punt return that cost the team another 10 yards. Those penalties were the only real blemishes.

The kick coverage was solid. Jayden Reed had some odd moments as a punt returner and Keisean Nixon didn’t get any chances on kickoff returns.

With a performance like the Packers were having on defense, that’s about all you can ask for from the third phase of the game.

Grade: B

Coaching 

Every time LaFleur has been praised, there has been a bit of an asterisk next to it.

Sure, LaFleur won a boatload of games early in his career, but he had league MVP Aaron Rodgers at the controls.

The questions, fair or not, were always about who was truly responsible for that success.

Willis was acquired for the equivalent of a ham sandwich at the end of training camp.

The Titans did not want him, and it’s hard telling if anyone else would have been knocking down their door to secure his services if they had just cut him.

Brian Gutekunst swung a trade, anyway, and LaFleur has been brilliant in helping him along the last two weeks.

Last week, it was a game plan that some might call conservative, but LaFleur called it smart. He leaned into a ground game that pounded the Colts into submission.

Earlier this week, Simmons boldly proclaimed that nobody was going to run the ball on his team. The Packers did not run for 250 yards, like they did a week ago, but they got enough from their run game.

They also drew up enough plays in the passing game for Willis to make things easy on him.

Willis did not eclipse 100 passing yards in two seasons with the Titans. He’s done it twice in two starts in Green Bay. A career that looked like it was trending downward has been resurrected.

The story of the day, however, is Hafley’s defense.

Hafley did a good job speeding up Levis and forcing him into mistakes. Levis threw two interceptions and coughed up a fumble on a vicious hit by Enagbare.

Outside of two touchdown drives, the Titans rarely threatened in what was a dominant performance from Hafley. He’s been a proven upgrade from his predecessor the last two weeks.

Grade: A 

More Green Bay Packers News

The #Packers' defense dominated the Titans on Sunday with eight sacks and three takeaways. @JoeyVZ_ has the story on a unit that's "all playing together." ⬇️https://t.co/XNyYsAEePG

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 23, 2024

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