GREEN BAY -- Sure, it's a rip-off. For the same price as a regular-season ticket, NFL fans generally get only a glimpse of their team's starters, a mere cameo appearance in the final dress rehearsal before the games start to count.

But one play? One stinkin' play?

At least Aaron Rodgers and Greg Jennings made sure the Lambeau Field crowd of 69,744 got its, ahem, money's worth.

The Green Bay Packers' first-string offense was on the field for all of 16 seconds of Thursday night's 23-21 exhibition season-ending loss to the Tennessee Titans, as Rodgers hooked up with Jennings for a 68-yard touchdown just after the opening kickoff -- then called it a night.

"I didn't think it was going to be one play," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "I thought about putting them back out there, but our No. 1 priority for the first group was to come out of the game healthy."

The Titans (3-1), whom the Packers face in regular-season play Nov. 2 in Nashville, played their starters into the second half, as per their custom.

The Packers closed the preseason 1-3, having also gone 1-3 in the exhibition seasons of 2006 (8-8 in the regular season) and 2004 (10-6).

McCarthy, who had said earlier in the week he intended to play his starters roughly 10 plays before using the rest of the game to evaluate the backups competing for final roster spots, decided that was enough and pulled the plug on the starters, focusing instead on the team's Sept. 8 regular-season opener against the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau Field.

"We felt like our body of work to this point was enough information to answer the questions that we have," McCarthy said. "This game for us was about evaluation of a number of our younger players."

The singular play gave Rodgers a perfect passer rating (158.3) for the night, and he finished the preseason having completed 37 of 54 passes (68.5 percent) for 436 yards and three touchdowns with one interception for a 103.6 rating. Rodgers spent the rest of the night wearing an earpiece and a baseball cap, and playing catch with backups Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn on the sideline between series.

The one-play drive completed a preseason in which the No. 1 offense scored 40 points (four touchdowns) in 16 possessions.

"We're definitely ready," Rodgers said. "We had a good performance last week (at Denver), one-and-done this week. We'll have a good week of practice. We've got 10 days and then we're ready to play Minnesota."

On the touchdown, Jennings found himself open in a seam down the right sideline between cornerback Nick Harper and safety Michael Griffin, and Rodgers floated the ball over Harper's outstretched hands. Jennings caught the ball at the Tennessee 48 and coasted from there.

"Greg made a great play. I put it in a spot where I thought only he could get it, and it worked out," Rodgers said. "Anytime you throw a hole-shot,' as you call it, a go-route against cover-2, it's always a dicey throw. High-risk, high-reward."

The quick-strike performance and subsequent shift to the second team also prevented the Packers from getting a look at starting halfback Ryan Grant, who was making his preseason debut after missing all but six practices and the previous three exhibition games because of protracted contract negotiations and hamstring tightness.

"I was supposed to get about 10 plays," Grant said. "It just worked out that I got that one play."

The Packers' No. 1 defense didn't get off the field so quickly -- mainly because it couldn't get off the field on third down for the second straight game after allowing the Denver Broncos' No. 1 offense to convert four of six third downs (and one fourth down) a week ago.

Playing without veteran corners Al Harris and Charles Woodson (rest), defensive tackle Ryan Pickett (hamstring) and will linebacker A.J. Hawk (chest), the Packers had Tennessee facing third-and-3 from its 27 when Justin McCareins got behind safety Nick Collins and reeled in a 50-yard pass from Vince Young.

Three plays later, the Titans were facing third-and-8 from the Packers' 21 when Young escaped the rush and cut back to the right for a 13-yard gain and another first down. Tennessee was forced to settle for a field goal when Young overthrew Bo Scaife on third-and-goal from the 4.

"Our job is to get off the field on third down," defensive coordinator Bob Sanders said, "which we didn't do a good enough job of."

From there, the night belonged to the backups, with the final cuts from the current 75 players to the NFL mandated 53-man roster set for Saturday by 5 p.m.

Brohm and Flynn suffered from horrendous protection problems, but Flynn still nearly rallied the Packers to victory. His 6-yard TD pass strike to Brett Swain and the ensuing 2-point conversion run by Kregg Lumpkin with 3:47 left in the third quarter pulled Green Bay to within 23-15, and his Houdini escape and 22-yard TD to Jake Allen as the game clock struck 0:00 cut it to 23-21.

Johnny Quinn caught Flynn's 2-point conversion pass but was forced out after getting only one foot in bounds, and because of the new NFL rule eliminating force-outs, the game was over.

"We almost pulled it out there," said Flynn, who made a strong case for the No. 2 job behind Rodgers. "I was proud to be out there with those guys, never giving up."