Looking at some plays the Packers could run against the Eagles in the Wild Card round
Earlier this week we took a look at some plays the Packers could potentially use against the Eagles on 4th & short this week. It was a really fun piece to research to write, so I thought we’d keep it rolling. Today, we’re looking at plays that have worked against the Eagles in the red zone this year and giving them to the Packers to run.
Against this Eagles defense, the Packers are going to need to score touchdowns when they can. In their first match-up (a lifetime ago), the Packers made 4 trips to the red zone and only scored one touchdown. That wasn’t enough to beat the Eagles then and it won’t be enough to beat them now.
It’s going to be tough, though. Per TeamRankings, the Eagles are the 5th-best red zone defense in the league, only allowing touchdowns on 50% of opponents’ drives into the red zone this season. After a rough start to the season, the Packers offense ended up as the 10th-best red zone offense, scoring touchdowns on 59.4% of their trips to the red zone (they’re scoring on 72.7% of their trips over the last 3 games).
NFL Pro has the Eagles as the 5th-best red zone defense, with an EPA per play of -0.19. They have some interesting splits in that regard. They’re the best red zone defense against the run (-0.55 EPA/play), but they’re 21st against the pass (+0.10 EPA/play).
On offense, the Packers are the 13th best rushing offense in the red zone (-0.02 EPA/play) but the 7th best passing offense in the red zone (+0.07 EPA/play). Since I naturally gravitate toward the passing game anyway, this fits my agenda nicely.
So let’s get to it. We’ve got 4 plays we’re pitching to the Packers this week: 1 run, 3 passes. We’ll start with the run.
Play 1: Pin-Pull
Not only did this play find success against the Eagles, it’s a run concept the Packers have loved this season. They haven’t run it as much over the last few weeks, but I’m sure they can dust it off here.
The name describes the action. We’re pinning down towards the line with an outside blocker, then pulling someone off the line to add muscle at the point of attack. We’re putting Jayden Reed in motion and faking a jet sweep right, then pitching left. We’ve got Dontayvion Wicks – our best blocking wide receiver – as the pinner, then we’re pulling Rasheed Walker around. (I drew it up this way because this is the direction the Bucs ran it, but the better option is flipping the play and using Zach Tom as our puller.)
Play 2: Arches
I love this concept in the low red zone and it’s one that has worked against the Eagles this year, so I’m adding it in. The idea behind Arches is simple: we’re creating space in a small area. The outside man runs a slant while the inside man initially pushes outside to widen his defender, then cuts back over the slant. With the slant clearing the middle and the initial outside release on the Arches route giving the receiver inside leverage, you can create a nice little pocket of space.
In the above image I have Kraft on the receiving end of this, but you can easily condense the split and have Kraft & Wicks swap places, giving Wicks the Arches route. It’s one he has run and he runs it well.
In the next clip, we’ve got the Commanders scoring a TD with Zach Ertz running the Arches route.
Play 3: Stalk and Release
If you’re a team that runs a lot of WR screens – either on their own or as part of your RPO package – this is a great tendency breaker to that. The inside receiver releases to the flat while the outside two receivers release off the line as if they’re going to be blocking the man across from them. But it’s all a trick. A ruse. The blockers release into routes, with the outside man running a fade and the inside man running a slant.
The above clip shows the Commanders running this, but another team had a touchdown off of this as well: the Green Bay Packers.
If you’re looking for WR screen variations (and the Packers should be), you could do a whole lot worse than to watch the Washington Commanders this season.
Play 4: Dusty (Double China)
I’ve seen a handful of names for this concept, but Dusty is my favorite, most insecure name for it, so that’s what I’m going with. It’s a concept that has deep roots in Packers lore, with Greg Jennings scoring a touchdown off of something like this in the Super Bowl.
From the trips side, the outside men run in-cutters while the inside man runs a corner route. It’s a kind of souped-up high-low concept to the boundary. My favorite version of this against the Eagles this year involved the two receivers on the outside running pivot routes under the corner.
But that wasn’t the only version that had success. In fact, of all the concepts that had success against the Eagles in the red zone this year, Dusty was the one that turned in the most touchdowns.
To be fair, I’m being a bit liberal with my tagging of the concept, but the principal still holds in all of them: I’m looking for a corner route from the #3 and shorter routes by the #1 and #2. Typically I’m looking for anything away from the boundary by the #1 & #2, but something designed to pull the boundary defender up to the line works as well.
The Bucs ran it off a spacing concept. In fact, this passing concept is the exact same one they had on the backside of their zone read concept we looked at in the last column as part of our 4th & short package, so I have to assume this would be a packaged play with a “Can” call.
The Saints ran it from a little deeper and it looks like the most standard version: two in-cutters and a big corner route.
Lastly, we saw the Commanders have success with this by have the #2 run the corner route off a switch-release at the line.
Albums listened to: M83 – Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts; Angelo Badalamenti – Soundtrack from Twin Peaks