Defense does a number on Henry
Clark finally turns in a strong performance
GREEN BAY – It's not often you can say a running back who rushed for 98 yards wasn't much of a factor in a game.
But you could say that about Derrick Henry in the Green Bay Packers' 40-14 win over Tennessee on Sunday night.
Henry's 98 yards and 4.3-yard average added up to a big nothing for a Tennessee offense in which he has been the key cog the last two seasons. His longest carry was only 10 yards. His next three longest were 9, 8 and 6 yards, and they came in the fourth quarters with the Packers up 33-14 and happy to see Tennessee burn clock by running the ball.
It took a lot of good play to neutralize the NFL's leading rusher, but the standouts in this game were the Packers' defensive linemen in general and defensive tackle Kenny Clark in particular.
Clark has not had the kind of year the Packers were looking for when they signed him to an average of $15.5 million on a new five-year contract in August. But against Henry and the Titans, the 25-year-old showed why general manager Brian Gutekunst ponied up for that deal.
Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine also got strong performances in the trenches from Dean Lowry and Tyler Lancaster, as well as from Preston Smith, Za'Darius Smith and Rashan Gary on the edge. But Clark had his best game of the year.
Tennessee's offense is built around the stretch play, where the offensive linemen come off the ball moving laterally. Gaps naturally open along the line, either from double-team blocks or a linebacker overcommitting in pursuit. When Henry sees a gap to cut back or upfield, he then puts his foot in the ground and explodes through with an uncommon combination of power and speed.
The Titans' offensive line has been stout this season, but Clark helped
blow up Tennessee's zone run game by winning more than his share of plays at the snap. Nothing wrecks a run play like getting push at the line, and Clark consistently got push Sunday night. It showed up less in his stats (three tackles) than Henry's and in the clean-up work he opened for others.
It started on the Titans' first play, when Clark knocked back right guard Nate Davis a good yard, flowed with Henry on a toss left and blocked the cutback back. When Preston Smith defeated tight end Jonnu Smith's block on that side Henry had nowhere to go, and Smith smothered him for no gain.
Lancaster made a similar play later on that drive on a first down. He also pushed Davis back off the snap, maybe not a full yard but close, and it forced Henry to run parallel to the line of scrimmage. By the time he cut upfield, Lancaster's and Lowry's pursuit left them in position to drop him for a three-yard gain. On first down against Henry, that's a win.
Later, in the second quarter, on another first down, Lancaster stood up Davis at the line, which took away any cutback creases. When Henry finally turned up field, Gary cast aside Smith and took down the running back for a one-yard gain on. Only a couple plays later Clark blew past center Ben Jones and dropped Henry almost immediately after the handoff for a two-yard loss.
That was how the game went more often than not. Clark, Lowry and Lancaster consistently won on the line. The Smiths and Gary held the edge down after down, instead of shooting too far up field or crashing too hard down the line of scrimmage, as the Smiths have too often done this season. That denied Henry the big cutback lanes he has exploited the last two years.
And focusing on winning at the line of scrimmage rather than on getting upfield after the quarterback didn't hurt the Packers' pass rush. Clark, for instance, set up the first sack when he put Jones on skates and pushed the center several yards back toward quarterback Ryan Tannehill. That opened a clear lane for inside linebacker Christian Kirksey on a blitz, which he turned into the Packers' first sack on the game.
Overall, it was the Packers defense's finest hour of the season and left you wondering where this has been all year. In a game that seemed primed for Henry and the Titans to pound the ball down the Packers' throat, Pettine's defense instead beat the Titans where it mattered most, in the trenches.
Savage play
Second-year safety Darnell Savage is starting to look like a guy worth trading up for in the first round of 2019 draft.
Gutekunst spent two fourth-round draft picks to move from No. 28 to No. 21 overall in '19 to fill a major hole in his defense at safety. The Packers were looking for Savage to blossom this year, but in the first 10 games he had no interceptions and five passes defensed. In the last five, though, he has started consistently making plays on the ball: four interceptions and seven passes defensed.
That included Sunday, when he had one interception and dropped another that might have gone for a pick-six.
The interception came in the second quarter, when Savage ended up in one-on-one coverage against the Titans' best receiver, A.J. Brown. Chandon Sullivan had lined up over Brown in the slot with Savage helping over the top, but on the snap Sullivan blitzed. That left Savage on Brown, and when Tannehill saw Sullivan blitz he probably figured his man was the guy to throw to. But Savage undercut Brown's crossing route and made the play.
In the third quarter Savage missed on what should've been about a 50-yard touchdown return. Playing the deep half in coverage on a third down he was shading to Brown's side. Tannehill was chased out of the pocket and on the run floated a throw to Brown near the sidelines that Savage broke hard on. The ball hit Savage in the chest but he couldn't hang on or he'd probably have gone down the sidelines for the score. Instead, he had to live with a breakup that got the Packers' defense off the field.
Savage also got the Packers' defense off the field by making back-toback plays in the first quarter. On second down he broke up a throw to Smith on an out route. Then on third-and-7 he had a clean run at Tannehill on a blitz, which forced the quarterback to throw the ball away.
Nobody's putting Savage in the Pro Bowl just yet, but after a nondescript first half of 2020 he's coming on the down stretch.
Extra points
AJ Dillon's emergence against the Titans (124 yards rushing on 21 carries) gives coach Matt LaFleur a bigger option at halfback for the goal line. In the second quarter LaFLeur went for a twopoint conversion and called a run to Aaron Jones, who was stuffed at the 1 and couldn't push his way into the end zone. Dillon has at least 40 pounds on Jones – Dillon is listed at 247 pounds to Jones' 208, though in previous years Jones has said he weighs closer to 200 – and a better chance to power his way into the end zone on a play like that.
Undrafted rookie Dominique Dafney is proving to be a solid blocker as a tight end and fullback in place of Josiah Deguara and Jake Lovett, who were lost to seasonending injuries. At 6-2 and 243, Dafney is thick, stout and finishes his blocks. He's earning himself a niche role in LaFleur's offense.