Tennessee running back Derrick Henry on Thursday ran for a touchdown and threw for one too, as the Titans handed Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers another frustrating NFL defeat, 27-17.
Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw for 333 yards and two touchdowns as injury-depleted Tennessee notched their seventh win in eight games.
For the Packers it was a sixth defeat in seven games, as they were unable to build on their come-from-behind overtime victory over the Cowboys on Sunday.
Photo: AFP
“I don’t even know what to say,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “It was nothing like a few days ago and that’s why you’re only as good as your last game. Give credit to the Titans, they came ready to play. They made a lot more plays than we did.”
Rodgers connected on 24 of 39 passes for 227 yards with two touchdown passes to rookie Christian Watson, but said he was off-target too many times.
While the Packers limited Henry to 87 yards, he proved plenty dangerous.
He scored on a four-yard sprint in the second quarter to give the Titans a 14-6 lead and in the third he faked a run, but delivered a three-yard jump-pass to Austin Hooper for a touchdown that put Tennessee up 20-9.
“We hit it a couple of times in walk-through every week,” Hooper said of the tricky play. “When it got called in the huddle I was like: ‘All right, it’s time!’”
“Luckily, it worked just like it does in walk-through,” added Hooper, who also caught a 16-yard scoring pass from Tannehill to cap the scoring in the fourth quarter.
Tannehill also connected with Dontrell Hilliard with a 14-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter, when Tennessee went up 7-0 on the way to the wire-to-wire victory.
“We played the way we wanted to play,” Tannehill said. “We talked about it all week — we wanted to be the more physical team and I thought we did that. We had ball control the whole game, established the run, took advantage of some opportunities in the passing game and the defense came up big all night.”
Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, who was questionable to play with an ankle injury, came up big on the Packers’ final drive, sacking Rodgers for a 12-yard loss and later stopping Aaron Jones.
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