Marcus Mariota’s performance has the Titans, Packers moving in opposite directions

The Green Bay Packers never really had a chance. It only took Marcus Mariota and a dynamic Tennessee Titans offense 15 minutes to roll up a 21-0 lead in Nashville.

Tennessee hit all of Green Bay’s weak spots in an impressive Week 10 upset. The 2014 Heisman Trophy winner was a big part of that equation in a 47-25 victory.

Mariota threw for 295 yards and tied a career high with four touchdowns in one of the most impressive outings of his budding career. The University of Oregon product poked holes in the Green Bay secondary and moved the ball efficiently in a much-needed victory. The Titans are now 5-5 and two games behind Houston in the AFC South. This is the latest the team’s been .500 or better since 2011.

With the Tennessee victory, one of the NFC’s powerhouses looks like it will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2008. The Packers came south as a 3-point favorite and left the Volunteer State as a sub-.500 team.

2008 is also the last time the Titans extended their season past Week 17. If Mariota can keep his team’s offense trending upward, he could put an end to that undignified streak.

Since the Titans started the season 1-3, Mariota has lived up to his billing as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. In the five games leading up to Sunday, the former Oregon quarterback completed more than 67 percent of his passes for 252 yards per game. He’d thrown 13 touchdowns and only two interceptions in that stretch.

He was even better on Sunday. In the first half of his Week 10 showdown with the Packers, he threw for 216 yards, three touchdowns, and a nearly perfect passer rating. His output waned as the team protected its lead, but his ability to avoid mistakes helped Tennessee cruise to victory.

Mariota even looked good when plays fell apart. He found open windows through which to carve up the deficient Packer secondary, but when targets were covered he protected the ball rather than forcing passes downfield. Through three quarters, half of his incompletions were the result of throwing the ball away rather than taking a chance throwing to covered men.

Of course, Mariota also had moments where he’s looked every bit the second-year player he is. He single-handedly derailed comeback efforts against the Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers with turnovers returned for touchdowns late in the fourth quarter.

Before Sunday, his revival had come against teams with spotty resumes. His three wins in the five-game stretch before Sunday came over Miami, Cleveland, and Jacksonville — three teams with a combined 6-20 record heading into Week 10.

While there are plenty of caveats, Mariota has Tennessee where it hasn’t been in five years — a playoff race. The Titans face an uphill battle to make their first postseason appearance since 2008, but their young passer certainly looks like the kind of player who can get them there.

Aaron Rodgers has broken out of his early-season slump, but it hasn’t mattered thanks to the failures of his defense. Rodgers threw for season-high 371 yards and two touchdowns while adding a 20-yard scoring run, but it wasn’t enough on Sunday.

The Packers made Mariota look like he was back in college and carving up the Tennessee Volunteers with little resistance. Green Bay has given up 30+ points in four of its last five games. The lone holdout was a 26-10 victory over a hapless Chicago Bears offense with Matt Barkley behind center.

Getting sliced through the air has become an ignominious Packer tradition this fall. Dak Prescott, Matt Ryan, Sam Bradford, and Mariota all posted passer ratings of 117 or higher against Green Bay. Matthew Stafford sprang for 385 yards and three touchdowns. Blake Bortles found the space to throw for 320 in the season opener.

Since winning the Super Bowl in 2010, the Packers have gone just 3-5 in the postseason despite having Rodgers in his prime and a scoring offense that has never slipped into the bottom half of the NFL. A mediocre defense is the weakness head coach Mike McCarthy has failed to address in the offseason, and now it’s threatening to end his postseason streak.