With Eight Sacks, Packers’ Pass Rush Dominates Titans

The Green Bay Packers had their most-productive pass-rushing performances in two decades in demolishing the Tennessee Titans.

Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis (8) is sacked by Green Bay Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper (56) as defensive ends Kingsley Enagbare (55) and Rashan Gary (52) arrive on the scene. / Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After a 30-14 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Elgton Jenkins uniquely summed up the power of the Green Bay Packers’ pass rush.

“Man, them boys were on their ass like a back pocket.”

The Packers recorded eight sacks. Since sacks became an official stat in 1982, it was the team’s second-most sacks since recording nine against the 49ers in 1998 and the Bears in 2004. Those are the team’s only games of eight-plus sacks since 1993.

Provided by Lukas Van Ness, Green Bay had only one sack in the first half. However, with the Packers up 20-7 at halftime, the Titans were forced to pass and it became a race to quarterback Will Levis.

On the opening possession of the second half, Devonte Wyatt sacked Levis on first down and Quay Walker and Isaiah McDuffie shared a sack on Levis’ failed fourth-and-2 bootleg.

“It was just all off anticipation. We pretty much thought that they was going to do that rollout to his right,” Walker said.

On the second-to-last play off the third quarter, Kingsley Enagbare beat right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere cleanly at the snap and crushed Levis for a sack/strip that Van Ness recovered.

The fourth quarter turned into a feed frenzy.

On the Titans’ opening possession of the period, Levis on third-and-7 dodged Enagbare but was sacked by Preston Smith.

“A lot of people were getting sacks,” Smith said. “I was almost like, ‘Oh, man, when’s my turn coming?’ Everybody was rushing hard, playing hard. Our defense played really well.”

On the Titans’ next possession, Wyatt sacked Levis on second down and Edgerrin Cooper and Enagbare shared a sack on third down. Cooper was free on a well-timed blitz and was first on the scene.

On the Titans’ next possession, they picked up one first down before Smith collected his second sack of the game. One play later, safety Xavier McKinney grabbed his third interception in as many weeks to put a bow on a dominating defensive performance.

Given that dominance, coach Matt LaFleur put the game in the hands of the defense – a luxury even with Malik Willis exceeding expectations.

“That’s why we kind of took the air out of the ball a little bit,” LaFleur said. ‘The way we were flying around, getting after the quarterback, putting pressure on him, hitting him, that’s tough on a quarterback. We’ve got guys on the back end that have great ball skills, and I think that was pretty evident.”

Willis had only 3 passing yards in the fourth quarter, but it didn’t matter as Green Bay’s defense took up residence in the Titans’ backfield.

“Oh, my goodness, they went crazy,” Willis said. “That was amazing. Eight sacks, right? Oh, my goodness, that was super. They won the game for us, if you want to say that. Them guys did great.

“Everybody deserves a game ball. I’ll pay however much money out of my pocket to everybody if they keep doing that. I’ll add to their salaries. Oh, my goodness. That was amazing. It was good to see. Those guys work hard all week. You just love to see it come to fruition out on the field.”

McKinney joined linebacker John Anderson (1978) and defensive back Doyle Nix (1955) as the only players with an interception in each of his first three games with the Packers.

“Man, that s** make it so easy for u,” he said. “The pass rush was ridiculous. Sometimes, we're not even rushing real. We're just contain rushing. They still getting back there, so it's lovely for us. I think it ties in, coverage and the rush, but when they rushing like that, man, those guys up front, we got a special group.

“I just know that every time, every play, they going to make something happen and they going to be able to cause chaos and that's going to speed up the quarterback's process, and it's going to make it a hell of a lot easier for us as DBs to go out there and cover because we know that pressure going to get there, so we get more opportunities to go make plays on the ball. So, it's been special.”

The final tale of the tape:

Wyatt had a career-high two sacks, Enagbare had a career-high 1.5 sacks and Van Ness had one sack. McDuffie, Walker, Cooper had a half-sack apiece.

Wyatt had three of the 12 quarterback hits.

Worried about the scrambling ability of the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts and the Colts’ Anthony Richardson, the Packers had only three sacks in the first two games. There were fewer concerns with Levis, with the Packers rallying to the ball to limit the damage when he did get out of the pocket.

“It’s freedom,” Enagbare said. “We knew what we’re capable of. Last two weeks, we was just following the game plan and pretty much this just showed how dominant we could be.”

It was the NFL’s first eight-sack game since the Commanders collected nine sacks against the Giants on Nov. 19, 2023.

“It just comes down to executing and everybody doing their job, everybody playing as one and everybody executing their assignment,” Smith said. “You’re rewarded once you do that. We had two interceptions today, a pick-six by Ja(ire Alexander), a fumble out, eight sacks. That’s just a testament to everybody on this defense playing well together. We’re meshing well together. A lot of guys doing their assignment and we’re making plays.”

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