Taking a look at the passing game from the Packers Week 18 loss to the Bears
While the overall result at the end of the day (the 7th seed in the NFC Playoffs) ended up being the same regardless of the outcome of this game, the path to get there was fraught with pain and madness. But that has already been covered by this very fine website, so we’re going to do what we always do: take a look at the Green Bay Packers’ passing game.
With Jordan Love only playing 35% of the snaps before his injury, there’s not a ton to look at on this front. NFL Next Gen only has Love’s chart for the day, but we’ll talk a bit about Malik Willis before we’re done.
Not a ton to say with Love. He had an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 6.5 yards, his lowest of the year. It makes sense given what he was doing: the Packers were leaning heavy into attacking the middle of the field, then giving Love secondary options if that wasn’t open (TE screens, checkdowns, etc). That’s reflected in Love’s average time to throw when kept clean of 2.81 seconds. He was able to get through his progressions, but it was rare that the first read was open.
PFF charted Packers receivers with 1 drop on Love passes this week, bringing his adjusted completion percentage to 66.7% (77.8% when kept clean). Of his 4 other incompletions, I thought only one of them was a bad throw: a little short-armed throw to Chris Brooks late, that he tried to kind of hop over a defensive lineman. Of the other throws, one was essentially a throwaway, one was a jump ball to Kraft (that Kraft got his hands on but couldn’t bring in) and one had a defender driving through Malik Heath’s back before the ball got there. Not the prettiest day from Love – and the injury certainly contributed to that feeling – but I thought he looked far better than his numbers. The Bears threw a lot of post-snap rotations at him and he consistently found the best answer.
As for Willis, his final line looks pretty good: 10/13 (76.9%) for 136 yards (10.5 YPA). He turned in an ADOT of 9.9, with most of that coming from Willis absolutely heaving the ball under pressure. When kept clean, Willis was 7/10 for 47 yards, with an average time to throw of 2.2 seconds. His ADOT when kept clean was 4.8 yards. They relied heavily on quick hitters and RPOs when Willis came in.
When under pressure, Willis became a man unchained. He went 3/3 for 89 yards with an absurd ADOT of 27.0 yards. Every single one of those plays involved a receiver making a great catch.
On 2nd & 15, he goes back-shoulder to Tucker Kraft off a Stick-Nod route, and Kraft goes up and high-points it for a gain of 20.
On 3rd & 8, he underthrows a ball to Jayden Reed, and Reed does a great job working back and making the catch for 31 yards.
On 3rd & 21 with 4:44 left in the game and the Packers down 21-13, he goes deep to Malik Heath, who makes a great adjustment and comes down with an insane catch for 41 yards.
You can’t build the entire offense out of these, but I like having a back-up QB who comes in and is willing and able to give his receivers chances. Checking down on 3rd & 21 does nothing. Go for gold, buddy.
Before we get out of here, let’s look at a concept I really liked. Even with it being an ugly game there was still fun stuff to look at, which I always appreciate. Today, we’re looking at a Tucker Kraft screen.
It’s 2nd & 8 with 9 minutes remaining in the 1st quarter in a 0-0 game. It looks like the Packers are doing something they like to do a lot: setting up screens to both sides then letting Jordan Love decide which side to throw to based on the pre-snap alignment of the defense. On this play, it looks like a WR screen up top, with Christian Watson [9] and Jayden Reed [11] blocking for Emanuel Wilson [31]. They then have a TE screen at the bottom, with Tucker Kraft [85] initially chipping and then angling under the releasing offensive line.
However, the screen at the top is not a screen. Where that is normally a pre-snap read – with Love seeing if they have more receivers to that side than they have defenders – this is a post-snap read, with Love reading Tremaine Edmunds [49]. They’re faking the screen, with Watson and Reed initially looking like they’re blocking, then releasing into routes: Watson on a slant and Reed on a vertical. Love is looking to hit Watson on the slant.
At the snap, Love reads Edmunds to determine what he should do. Edmunds drops into a zone where the slant is being run, so Love moves off of it and hits Kraft on the TE screen on the other side, which picks up 7 yards.
There are a couple of things I love about this. A screen takes time to set up anyway, so you can’t just set and throw. By building in a quick read to the other side, you give yourself the chance to hit something a little further downfield while also letting the screen get set up organically.
The other thing it does is naturally remove a man from the potential of blowing up the screen. If you’re reading a linebacker on the other side of the field, that holds him in place and doesn’t allow him to get across the field and under the blocks.
On this play, Edmunds ends up making the tackle, but not until a nice little gain. This gave the Packers two offensive linemen blocking two defenders down the field. Nice work if you can get it.
Albums listened to: Tom Waits – Heartattack and Vine; The Beatles – Revolver; Starflyer 59 – Everybody Makes Mistakes; Autolux – Future Perfect; The Clash – The Clash