Titans Have Fun, Beat Packers 26-20
By Michelle Manson, December 16, 2001

A new, laid-back attitude for the Tennessee Titans this week led to an impressive offensive performance and confidence-boosting win over the Green Bay Packers at Adelphia Coliseum.

Coach Fisher said after last week's loss to Minnesota that for the last four weeks of the season, his team would focus on improving and simply having fun. Fisher's players echoed his sentiment.

'We wanted to come out, have fun, and play Titans football,' running back Eddie George said.

The different mentality was a breath of fresh air for Tennessee, both for the players and the coaching staff.

The Titans defense got started early, after a Craig Hentrich 70-yard punt was downed at the Packers' one-yard line.

Titans defensive end Kevin Carter sacked Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre on the very next play to give the Titans a 2-0 lead.

Green Bay came back and took a 3-2 lead with five and a half minutes left to go in the quarter on a Ryan Longwell 33-yard field goal.

Green Bay added on seven more before the end of the first quarter, after Titans quarterback Steve McNair was sacked by the Packers Vonnie Holliday who subsequently recovered the McNair fumble.

Three plays later, Favre hit wide receiver Donald Driver with a seven-yard touchdown pass to give the Packers a 10-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Titans had dismal offensive numbers in the first quarter, with only ten yards of total offense and no first downs.

The second quarter of play brought better offensive numbers for the Titans, although their lead at the half was only two.

Mike Green had a five-yard touchdown reception from McNair on the Titans first drive of the quarter, to cut the Packers lead to 10-8. The Titans two-point conversion attempt failed after the touchdown.

The tables turned in the second quarter, as Favre and the rest of Green Bay's offense struggled mightily, thanks in large part to some stellar defense by the Titans.

Tennessee took their first lead of the game at 15-10, when a Jevon Kearse sack led to a Favre fumble that was recovered by Darryl Porter at the Packers' 32-yard line.

With his sack, Kearse become the only player in NFL-history to have at least ten sacks in each of his first three seasons.

On the next play, McNair found wide receiver Derrick Mason in the endzone for 32 yards, on a brillant play by Mason as he literally took the ball out of Packer cornerback Tyrone Williams' hands for the catch.

Mason finished the game with eight catches for 107 yards and a touchdown.

With less than a minute and a half left to go before halftime, linebacker Eddie Robinson picked off a Favre pass that gave the Titans excellent field position.

However, Tennessee sqandered a golden scoring opportunity after numerous sacks and penalites by the Titans offense.

After a Craig Hentrich fake punt, Green Bay took over with 55 seconds left to go in the half. The Packers took advantage. Longwell made good on a career-long 55-yard field goal with two seconds left on the clock.

The third quarter proved relatively quiet, as the only score was a 24-yard field goal by Titans kicker Joe Nedney with just over a minute left.

The Titans only score in the fourth quarter came almost single-handedly on the work of running back Skip Hicks. On the scoring drive alone, Hicks had over 50 yards, capped off by a 22-yard touchdown run.

Hicks finished the game with an impressive 142 yards on 17 yards. Hicks' performance marked the first 100-yard rushing game by a Titans' back in the 2001 campaign.

Tremendous blocking by the offensive line was key to Hicks' ability to find some room and run for big yardage on multiple plays.

'The line did a great job,' Hicks said. 'The holes opened up, I tried to be patient, and took what they gave me.'

When asked if he saw his role expanding for the remaining four games, Hicks was quick to point out that Eddie George is still the Titans number-one man.

'I'm here to help out Eddie,' Hicks said. 'Hopefully with me and Eddie, we can run the tables for the rest of these games. You never know what's going to happen.'

Head coach Jeff Fisher made sure to acknowledge that there would be no competition between George and Hicks for the starting job.

'We don't have a running back contraversy,' Fisher said. 'We have a compliment of running backs.'

Green Bay made things interesting down the stretch, after cutting the lead to six at 26-20 with less than seven minutes to go in the game.

Favre picked apart the Titans secondary on the driving, marching 90 yards down the field, culminating in a 16-yard touchdown reception by Bill Schroeder.

A combination of great running by Hicks and a short amount of time left in the game allowed the Titans to hang on to a 26-20 win to improve their record to 6-7.

Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz offered his analysis of the game.

'Everybody in America knew it was Favre against us and us against the world,' Schwartz said. 'Our defense took that to heart and they played hard.'

After the game, Schwartz credited not his defensive unit, but the Titans offensive players and special teams as the keys in the win.

'Here's a couple of keys to the game,' Schwartz said. 'Craig Hentrich punting the hell out of the ball and Steve McNair completing for almost 300 yards and Skip Hicks running for almost 150.'

'It (offensive effort) didn't keep us out there all the time and they (Titans offense) controlled the clock. Our guys were able to stay fresh and play.'

McNair once again played a stellar game, and once again proved that he is fast-becoming one of the premier quarterbacks in the National Football League.

McNair finished the game with 283 yards on 25 of 35 passing and two touchdowns. McNair has now thrown for a touchdown pass in ten straight games.

Offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger harked on McNair's performance against the Packers.

'Steve was tremendous,' Heimerdinger said. 'I thought he made some great decisions and made some big throws. For the second week in a row, he was outstanding.'

While McNair and his offense shone throughout most of the game, the Titans defense gave Favre and the Packers all sorts of fits during a large portion of play.

Favre was only 21 of 39 passing for 201 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. The Packers were held to just 29 total rushing yards, and the Titans had almost 200 more yards of total offense (423 to 225).

Overall, Fisher was very pleased with his team's perfomance this week, especially considering the Titans players had a miserable couple of days to start last week after the loss to Minnesota.

'It was a fun game for our team,' Fisher said. 'To come back after the embarrassing loss last week and win at home, it was a great effort all the way around.'

The Titans only significant injury during the game was an ankle sprain suffered by offensive lineman Joe Salave'a. The sprain is listed as severe, and Salave'a is expected to miss at least one game.