The Tennessee Titans brought the Green Bay Packers back down to earth after their overtime win against the Dallas Cowboys. The quarterback duel also went clearly to Ryan Tannehill, who had his best game of the season.

Munich – The Tennessee Titans have stealthily made themselves the contender for first place in the AFC again. Head coach Mike Vrabel’s team celebrated its seventh win from the past eight games with a 27-17 victory over the Green Bay Packers.

The Packers, on the other hand, were unable to carry over the small momentum from the previous week and remain mired in a completely messed up season.

Titans buoyant, Packers powerless

The Titans made a big play on their opening drive, with rookie Treylon Burks setting the stage for the first touchdown with a 43-yard catch. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill found Dontrell Hilliard for his only catch in the end zone. In all, Tannehill completed 22 of his 27 pass attempts for 333 yards and two touchdowns.

Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers led the Packers into the end zone for the first time shortly before the end of the first quarter – rookie Christian Watson cut the deficit to 6:7, but the subsequent extra point was missed. In the second quarter, nothing came from the home team offensively, instead the Titans played out their running game with Derrick Henry, who increased the lead to 14:6 before the break.

Christian Watson Green Bay’s only bright spot

After halftime, Rodgers seemed to get going, but his receivers let him down several times. In addition, the Titans’ defence almost completely shut down the Packers’ running game, with Aaron Jones the most effective Packer with 40 yards on the ground. Rodgers again found rookie Watson in the end zone – his fifth touchdown in the past five days – but only after the Titans had already extended their lead through Austin Hooper.

The Titans put the lid on with the first play of the fourth quarter. Once again Hooper was in the end zone. The Packers were unable to make up the ten-point deficit, partly because they failed on fourth down in each of their last two drives. A 51-yard catch by Burks finally put the game away and the Titans ran out the clock.

With a record of 7-3, Tennessee clearly leads its own division AFC South and is also on the heels of the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins to take the lead in the conference. The Packers, on the other hand, have a 4-7 record and are in danger of missing the playoffs altogether.