​The Titans' Demolition of the Packers Means the Future is Now

Aaron Rodgers has a lot of great football left in his arm, and Marcus Mariota has a long way to go before he's one of the league's best. But watching the Tennessee Titans' effortless demolition of the Green Bay Packers, it felt like the dawn of a new era—and the end of another.

One week after I proclaimed it wasn't one thing with the Packers, but everything, they seemed to go out of their way to prove my point.

The Packers' vaunted run defense allowed a 75-yard touchdown run by plodder DeMarco Murray on the Titans' first offensive play:

DeMarco Murray!!! Going offf!!! #demarcomurray https://t.co/COosI65rFi
— Stacy Smooth (@YOTheBestTweets) November 13, 2016

After the Packers' second straight punt, Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota led (and finished) a seven-play, 85-yard touchdown drive that took just 3:26 off the clock. Then another Packers punt, then another quick Titans touchdown. When Rodgers took over for the fourth time, in the dying seconds of the first quarter, the Titans were up a shocking 21-0.

It didn't get better.

Mariota called his shots all day, completing 73.1 percent of his 26 passes for a massive average of 11.3 yards per attempt, four touchdowns, no turnovers, and just two sacks. Rodgers threw almost twice as many times (51), but completed only 60.1 percent of them for 7.3 yards per attempt, two touchdowns, two picks and five sacks.

Murray and Derrick Henry ran for 154 yards and a score on 26 carries, while Packers tailbacks ran only 10 times for just 42 yards. Rodgers ran for the team's only rushing score, and just five fewer yards (27) than tailback James Starks (33).

Coming into the game, the Packers were ranked sixth in yardage defense; the Titans 24th—yet you'd have thought it was the other way around by how the Titans stymied Rodgers and the Packers couldn't stop anything the Titans did. Even the Packers' special teams woes continued, with Mason Crosby missing an extra point.

Of course, that hardly mattered to the final score.

The Titans are now 5-5, suddenly just a game and a half behind the AFC South-leading Houston Texans. With the offense finally opening up for Mariota, and underdogs like Rishard Matthews and Tajae Sharpe making explosive plays, the team everyone tagged as a sleeper this spring is waking up.

For Rodgers and the Packers, it's time to face reality: They have a losing record in the middle of November, are looking up at both the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings and neither of those teams is a juggernaut.

The fact is, Packers head coach Mike McCarthy can't just roll out of bed and lead this talented squad deep into the playoffs anymore. Despite the nucleus being intact on both sides of the ball, neither unit is producing like they ought to be. This, flatly, is just not good enough, and it hasn't been good enough all year long.

If McCarthy has a switch to flip, a glass case to break, a button to press, now's the time he's got to do it—or at the end of the season, the McCarthy Era may be over in Green Bay.

No matter what happens with the Packers, though, it's clear that Mariota's time has finally arrived.