Packers suffocate Titans in culture-setting win
This was not "survive without Jordan Love" effort from the Packers. This was an ass-kicking of the Titans, all while playing a backup quarterback.
Good morning!
Now we’re talking. The Green Bay Packers smacked the Tennessee Titans 30-14. Malik Willis, filling in for Jordan Love for a second week in a row, looked locked in with the offense. Meanwhile, the pass rush showed up in spades, and Packers head Matt LaFleur put his stamp on a potential Coach of the Year campaign.
Today's edition of The Leap digs into this masterful performance from Willis, the arrival of Green Bay’s pass rush, and where the Packers stand as Love nears his return.
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Malik Willis.
Peter Bukowski: After Sunday, it’s a complete sentence.
“I just cannot articulate the job that he’s done in a short period of time,” LaFleur said after the game (articulatingly).
“People can’t fathom that. I promise you. You guys don’t get it. I know you think you’ve got it but you don’t get it. What he’s been able to do, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
A week ago, LaFleur gushed about Willis after the new Packers quarterback managed the game against the Indianapolis Colts. That day, Green Bay ran the ball 53 times and did whatever it wanted on the ground. Against the Titans, LaFleur walked a precarious line, empowering Willis to play quarterback without guard rails while making the game as straightforward as possible.
On the very first third down of the game, a third-and-6 at the Tennessee 36-yard line, LaFleur called a slot fade for Christian Watson. It’s exactly the kind of call LaFleur would make if Love had been the quarterback; Green Bay loves to attack deep on third down, a carryover from the Aaron Rodgers days.
Yes, Watson goes up and makes a contested catch. But unlike a similar play last week against the Colts where Romeo Doubs had to react to an underthrown ball and Moss the defender, Willis tossed a dime. Watson had to gather momentarily but then elevated over the cornerback with the ball high and outside, away from danger. It’s a perfect throw, in rhythm.
Willis also completed a seed to Doubs on third-and-14 on an in-breaking route and found Watson again to convert third-and-18. Willis added a scramble first down on third-and-7 just for good measure.
The Ringer’s Danny Kelly had this great stat: Malik Willis is 12-of-17 for 190 yards, one touchdown, and 11.2 yards per attempt on third down over the last two weeks. He added five rushes for 55 yards with a 56% success rate and an absurd 0.68 expected points added per dropback, easily the best in the league.
Sure, the Packers averaged 5.1 yards per rush despite Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons insisting no one runs on Tennessee’s defense, but none of these third-down rips were schemed-up, play-action throws. It’s big-boy quarterbacking in must-pass situations.
The offensive line held up against a dynamic Titans front. The Packers’ ground game kept the offense on schedule. A group of receivers that knew it wouldn’t get many chances blocked their tails off. Still, none of it works if Willis doesn’t play above the level that too many quarterbacks exhibited elsewhere on Sunday.
And that is also a commentary on LaFleur. As my astute colleague at Locked On Bears pointed out, the gap between the elite play-callers and everyone else is as big as the gap between the elite quarterbacks and the average ones. This, of course, as the Chicago Bears can’t score with what was supposed to be a preposterous collection of skill talent. LaFleur evolved a game plan from last week that needed evolving but didn’t try to reinvent the forward pass in the process.
If LaFleur can have the run game cooking like this when Love returns, there’s no telling what this offense can do.
Green Bay's pass rush came to play
PB: The question worth asking is: How much of what happened in Weeks 1 and 2 was a product of the game plan for two mobile quarterbacks, and how much was a Week 3 offensive line that was the worst in football avoiding pressure?
Well, after eight sacks -- the most since Jim Bates was the defensive coordinator back in 2005 -- the answer is somewhere in the middle.
The Packers’ front played contain against Jalen Hurts and Anthony Richardson, and the unit did it quite well. New defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley even acknowledged how bizarre it must have been for the beat writers to watch Week 1 and have the front not firing off the ball trying to get upfield and wreak havoc in the backfield.
This week, that changed.
And not only that, but Hafley also had a handful of designer pressures and personnel looks to create one-on-one opportunities. He would overload one side with three rushers while isolating Rashan Gary on the opposite side so that the Titans couldn’t slide their protections his way. Hafley also likes to send cross-dog blitzes where both linebackers rush one after the other so the first gets occupied by the back in pass protection while the other one runs through unblocked.
The paradigm shift under Hafley stood out on one late possession in the fourth quarter. With 8:55 left in the game, the Packers clung to a 27-14 lead with the offense sputtering after three consecutive punts. On first down, Jaire Alexander steps up on the offense’s right side and manhandles a receiver at the line of scrimmage. On second down, he does the same thing, leading to a sack from Devonte Wyatt.
On third down, Hafley has Gary isolated to one side of the formation and in a “NASCAR” look with Preston Smith, Lukas Van Ness, and Kingsley Enagbare in a clump on the opposite side. Van Ness dives inside and Edgerrin Cooper, as if shot out of a cannon, fills around behind him. Titans guard Peter Skoronski can’t get there in time which also opens up a free lane for Enagbare to get a clean shot on quarterback Will Levis.
In these sorts of situations last year, the Packers would be rushing four, playing soft zone coverage, and daring Levis to make enough plays to beat them. Maybe that would have worked, but Hafley wasn’t going to find out.
All we truly learned was this group coached by this new regime could beat the crap out of an already-crappy offensive line. We have no idea if the coach is any good.
That changes next week against the upstart 3-0 Minnesota Vikings who Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores have rolling to open the season. If Hafley and this crew can disrupt the well-oiled machine of the Vikings offense -- no, you don’t have a head injury, we are talking about a Sam Darnold offense that has been spectacular through three games -- then we’ll have a better idea of their true quality.
Are the turnovers personnel, coaching, or both?
PB: Finally, a question. They’re both, but consider for a moment who is responsible for the interceptions in particular. Xavier McKinney has three in three games; he’s the new face on this defense. Evan Williams may have received a gift with a Hail Mary interception, but that one counts as part of the tally of seven interceptions through three games, matching the entire 2023 count.
Alexander has a pair and we already knew he was one of the best in the NFL. He may not have loved the Barry defense, but he played well enough in it to be an All-Pro. In fact, the first pick-six of his NFL career even came in zone coverage on Sunday!
And the seventh pick came on a terrific individual effort by Eric Wilson, a player Hafley loves and has been given more regular playing time this season than he received last year. Reasonable people can disagree about how much Wilson ought to be playing over the rookie Cooper, but Hafley empowered him to make a handful of crucial plays already this season.
We can’t tell the story of the turnovers without the crucial additions in the secondary, nor can we ignore the Hafley imprint on this defense.
Green Bay will play a variance game on defense this season, willing to trade some big plays allowed for some big plays of its own. It’s hard to win a Super Bowl that way, but it’s not unheard of by any means -- ask the 2009 New Orleans Saints -- and the Packers defense only gave up 4.5 yards per play to the Titans. Play to play, Alexander and Co. put together a dominant performance that also featured splash plays.
Kind of nice, right?
Parting shot
PB: Levis just cannot stop being memed for his absurdly bad plays. And this one wasn’t even really his fault. Still funny though.
