What a game! Revenge for LaFleur and Willis. The Packers did whatever they wanted for most of the day on offense – in the pass and run game and their defense had its best performance yet under Hafley. It’s an easy day to go over Packers positives.
• As was the case in the first two games, the highlight of the game offensively was the rushing attack. In this one, they had 188 yards on 37 carries. They did that with Malik Willis as the leading rusher with 73 yards. Five players had at least one carry.
• The pass game was no slouch though. Willis went 13/19 for 202 yards and a TD against his former team. He completed several passes on long third downs and looked substantially better than Will Levis on the day.
• Emannuel Wilson had a strong day in relief of Josh Jacobs. He piled up 50 yards on 12 carries and had an explosive 30-yard TD reception on a screen play that was probably the dagger.
• Willis’s performance maybe isn’t something that we need to worry about moving forward but everyone around him should make you excited about this offense, They can run the ball when the defense is going all out to stop the run and multiple receivers are getting separation and making plays even when they’re running the ball a lot more than passing it to them.
• On defense, the line came to play, amassing eight sacks and six more tackles for loss. Preston Smith, Devonte Wyatt and JJ Enagbare all got their hands on the QB multiple times.
• The secondary had a strong showing as well. Jaire had a pick-6, Xavier McKInney got his third int in three games and the team generally looked strong tackling all night.
• You can nitpick this defensive performance like almost any (I remember when of those Twitter coaches doing a 3-hour Youtube about how bad the Packers defense was when they shut out the Seahawks a few years ago) but it was unquestionably a move forward. They turned the ball over, they pressured the QB, they made tackles and for most of the drives they stopped the Titans from moving the ball and scoring. There’s a lot to be excited about with this defense.
Mike Price is a lifelong Packers fan currently living in Utah. You can follow him on twitter at @themikeprice.
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