Once again, let's take a look at the snap counts, which bounced around considerably this week.  The Packers had 53 players signed to its 53-man roster and elevated RB Dexter Williams and DT Brian Price from the practice squad.

Sternberger, Stepaniak, Redmond, and Jamaal Williams were inactive due to injury.  Love, Garvin and Arden Rush were healthy scratches.  Elevating Dexter Williams made sense because he plays special teams and RB Jamaal Williams was out leaving just Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon available.  Elevating Price from the practice squad is more interesting.  The Packers elected to make DT Arden Rush, who is on the 53-man roster, inactive and to make a Practice Squad DT (Price) active for the game.  Indeed, Price got 9 defensive snaps.  Price was a Packer back in 2018.    

With the return of OC Linsley, the Packers moved Elgton Jenkins to LG and played Turner and Wagner at RG and RT.  That made Lucas Patrick a backup.  However, Wagner got hurt (and was carted off the field) with 9:23 left in the third quarter.  The Packers slid Turner to RT and inserted Patrick at RG.  Someone in the game thread thought the Packers should have played Jon Runyan, but as far as I know he has played exclusively at LG and mostly practiced there as well.  That would have required either Jenkins or Runyan to play RG, an unfamiliar position.  That brought to mind one of Josh Sitton's quotes on the difference between playing LG and RG, though I decline to repeat it here.

The offensive line protected well, allowing one sack and two quarterback hits in the first half.  The run blocking was good enough.  Dillon, one of the stars of the game, ran for 51 yards on 10 carries and Aaron Jones ran 4 times for 17 yards in the first half.  Dillon had a long of 14, so he averaged a respectable 4.0 yards on his other 9 carries, though I kept thinking he might break one for a long run soon.  Jones had a long run of 12 yards, meaning he gained 5 yards on his other three carries.  Still, I always think Jones might break a long run.  Dillon finished with 124 yards on 21 carries, a 5.9 yard average, and added in the second half 2 touchdowns.  Jones finished with 94 yards on 10 carries.  Yes, the officials missed him stepping out of bounds on his 59-yard run, which should have been a 30-yard run.

Aaron Rodgers was sharp, completing 15 passes on 18 attempts for 140 yards and 3 touchdowns, good for a passer rating of 138.7.  In the first half, 8 different players caught passes, three of which went for touchdowns.  Rodgers completed 6 of 7 pass attempts in the second half for 91 more yards and another touchdown, though he did throw an ill-advised pass while being flushed to his right that was picked off.  It should be noted that in the second half Aaron Jones caught one pass for 5 yards and all the other completions in that half were by Davante Adams.  Rodgers finished with 21 completions on 25 attempts for 231 yards, 4 touchdowns and one interception, good for a 128.1 passer rating.  Dillon and Jones ran for 150 rushing yards in the second half, providing the Packers with a very balanced attacked and plenty of offense.  Tavon Austin had 2 receptions for just 5 yards, but he played far more snaps (17) than the 4 he got in each of the last two games.  Dillon got more snaps than Aaron Jones, though Jones left the game for a time with an injury, but returned later.  

The tight ends were quiet, with Tonyan catching one of two targets for 17 yards and Dafney catching his only target for 13 yards.  However, Dafney saw a large increase in his snaps, mvoing from a dozen or so to 26 against the Titans.  For contrast, Jon Lovett never sniffed 26 snaps, receiving just 46 snaps altogether in 9 games.  Marcedes Lewis and Valdes-Scantling were not targeted all game.  Taylor and St. Brown missed some blocks on running plays.

The Packers played 2.85 traditional wide receivers on average per play, easily a season high.  Counting Austin as a wide receiver, the number increases to 3.11.  The team played 1.45 tight ends on average, which includes Dafney as a TE, which is a normal number.  The Packers played 1.0 running backs per play (1.26 if Austin is counted as a running back).  

The first thing to note is that the Packers played 2.4 true defensive linemen on average per play, a season high. They played 2.16 OLBs, a perfectly normal number for the Packers.  That suggests that Zadarius Smith and/or Gary only slid into the interior of the line for 9 plays or so.  They played 1.45 ILBs on average, a fairly normal number.  The team played 4.98 defensive backs on average, a low number for the team. 

I conclude that the Packers had more beef on the defensive line than normal.  Moreover, it appeared to me that even if there were at times only 6 or 7 players "in the box" strictly speaking, much of the team was playing close to the line of scrimmage.  At any rate, Derrick Henry ran 11 times for 35 yards in the first half, a 3.2 yard average.  He had a long of 10 yards (meaning on his other 10 carries, he averaged 2.5 yards per carry).  Mission accomplished.  Tannehill completed just 6 of 10 pass attempts for 66 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.  The Packers had just 2 quarterback hits in the first half, but I thought the pressure overall was good.  The Titans scored just 7 points and were down 19-7.

The Titans got the opening half kickoff and scored on a 45-yard quarterback draw of some sort to move within 5 points.  The Packers responded on their next drive with a touchdown, pushing the lead back to 12 points.  After forcing a 3 and out (incompletion, 3-yard run by Henry, and another incompletion), the Packers scored another touchdown to push the lead to 19.  Tannehill completed just 5 of 14 attempts for 57 yards in the second half, a paltry 4.07 yard per attempt average.  It seemed to me that the Titans could not move the ball without the threat of the run, so they continued to hand the ball off to Henry.  It is true that Henry ran 12 times for 63 yards in the second half, a healthy 5.25-yard average,  However, he ran 4 times for 20 yards on one 10-play (3:35 long) drive that ended in the Kirksey interception at the Green Bay 35 yard line.  The Titans then had another 10-play (4:07 long) drive with Henry running 4 times for 28 yards, with a long of 8, which ended on downs when Alexander broke up a pass at the Green Bay 9-yard line.  The Packers were willing to trade some rushing yards if it used up the clock. 

The Packers had 10 passes defensed, with only one being a tipped ball (Preston Smith), and that one led to the Kirksey interception.  The secondary was excellent with 9 passes broken up, including a bunch by Jaire Alexander. 

Once again, Krys Barnes played almost all the snaps at the "mike" position, with Kirksey (12) and Martin (13) splitting the "will" spot.  No matter how much fans (and some of CHTV's authors) think Martin should be a starter, he has not been able for force getting more than a dozen or so snaps per game in the absence of injuries.  Gary continues to get significant snaps, but he also has not been able to displace Preston Smith.  Gary had another fine game, with several pressures and run stops on his way to 5 tackles (3 solo).  It was also interesting that the Packers decided to give the 322-pound Price, a practice squad elevation (but a member of the team in 2018), 9 snaps while making Anthony Rush, who is even bigger and is on the 53-man roster, inactive.                

J.K. Scott did not have to punt.  Crosby made 4 of 5 extra points and had a field goal blocked, though that was negated by a penalty.  It might have been a trifle low, but there was excellent interior penetration.  Crosby had one touchback.  6 kickoffs were returned for a 24.5 yards average, with a long of 31.  The Packers returned 2 kickoffs for a 17.5 yards average with a long of 24.  an important 51-yard field goal.  He kicked off 5 times.  3 reached the end zone and two were touchbacks.  The Panthers returned three kickoffs for a 24-yard average with a long of 28.  The Panthers' kicker kicked off 5 times and had 5 touchbacks, meaing there were no kick off returns by the Packers.  Ty Summers had 3 tackles on special teams.  Once again the special teams failed to shine.