Titans vs. Packers Odds & Prediction: Bet on the Cold-Weather Team on TNF

Both teams are coming off victories at home last week after overcoming double-digit deficits.

Green Bay (4-6 straight up/4-6 against the spread) snapped a five-game losing streak with a 31-28 overtime triumph over Dallas after crawling from a 14-point hole in the fourth quarter. The Packers were 3.5-point underdogs.

Tennessee’s comeback was less dramatic, a 17-10 victory over Denver after trailing by 10 in the second quarter. The Titans (6-3 SU/7-2 ATS) were 2.5-point choices.

The weather could be an issue in this night game at Lambeau Field. For the first time in the league this season, the forecast calls for a freezing temperature at kickoff: 24 degrees with a wind chill of 13 thanks to winds estimated to be 12-13 mph.

Two years ago, in Week 16, the Titans also visited frosty Lambeau and lost 40-14 in which the game-time temperature was 28 degrees (16 wind chill). It was the most lopsided loss of the season for the AFC South champions, with eventual rushing champ Derrick Henry “held” to 98 yards.

In that meeting, Packers QB Aaron Rodgers and league MVP had perhaps his best game of the year. He completed a season-best 84% of his throws (21-for-25 for 231 yards), with four of his passes going for TDs. By contrast, Titans QB Ryan Tannehill had by far his worst outing of 2020. He had 33 TD passes and only seven INTs that year while being ranked the league’s No. 5 passer, but in this game had a passer rating of 40.5 (11-for-24 with two interceptions).

Tannehill and the Titans haven’t played in such freezing conditions since.

Speaking of cold-weather play, last season there were 10 games with a freezing temperature at kickoff with the home team going 7-3 straight up and 6-3-1 against the spread. But one of those home losses occurred at Lambeau in the divisional round of the playoffs when San Francisco beat the Packers 13-10 as a 5.5-point underdog. That game-time temp was 14 (zero wind chill).

Point totals went over five times in those 10 games.

With regard to last week’s play, in Green Bay’s comeback victory, Rodgers had the second-best passing day of anyone this season (based on his 146.7 passer rating). And he may have found a new favorite receiver in Christian Watson, a rookie from North Dakota State.

Until last week, Watson was probably best known as the receiver who dropped Rodgers’ first pass of the season while sprinting wide-open down the sideline. Now he’ll also be remembered for catching three TD passes, his first as a pro, versus Dallas and totaling 107 yards.

Tannehill might have found a new favorite target as well. Against the Broncos’ touted defense, third-year WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine caught five passes for 119 yards and had both of Tennessee’s TDs. Previously this year, he had seven receptions and no scores.

Both teams have stout running games. Three times this year, Green Bay has run for more than 200 yards, including 207 against Dallas. Henry, the rushing champ in 2019-20, leads the run attack for the Titans with 923 yards this season, eight shy of Saquon Barkley’s league-leading total.