Titans fans should be praying that the Packers make this mistake
By Will Lomas
What NOT to do
How do you stop the Titans offense? I genuinely have no idea unless you are a roster stacked with elite talent on defense.
However, Peter Bukowski had the idea that a lot of teams have had against the Titans.
Obviously it’s not this simple but just once I’d love to see Mike Pettine say “Jaire’s got AJ Brown, we are putting 8 in the box and if Tannehill/Corey Davis beat us, god bless ‘em.”
— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) December 21, 2020
On paper he is right, it makes sense to load up the box against Derrick Henry and then to match up your best cornerback against the most dynamic receiver. But there are two big reasons why that simply doesn’t work.
I’ll start with the first and most obvious reason, but stacking the box vs Derrick Henry isn’t a new idea. In fact, last year Derrick Henry had more rushes vs an 8-man box than any running back in the NFL, and the margin wasn’t small.
Comparing Derrick Henry to the runner with the second-highest stacked box rushes (Dalvin Cook), Henry outdid him by a score of 244-166. That is nearly 150% of what Cook had to face.
So sure, loading up the box is a great idea, but that doesn’t guarantee success. Instead, you have to consider that the starting point on defense because if you put seven men in there, you are going to end up as one of the teams on his list of 200+ yard rushing games.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about the second reason why that strategy isn’t working for other teams and why it probably wouldn’t work for the Packers.