Acme Packing Company
Finding fun plays at Bowling Green
I love draft season, in part because it gets me to watch a ton of college film I might not otherwise watch. There’s a ton of fun, creative stuff happening at all levels of football, and the draft allows me to find some of that cool stuff while watching a prospect. I inevitably end up thinking about how the Green Bay Packers could steal some of those plays and incorporate them into their offense.
This happened recently while I was watching Harold Fannin Jr., a tight end out of Bowling Green. Fannin is a fascinating prospect who I could see fitting nicely into this Packers offense, but I’ll get into that at a later date. Today, we’re stealing a specific play from the 2024 season.
This play is from the Bowling Green Falcons Week 14 game against the Miami University (Ohio) RedHawks. It initially caught my attention because it features a post-snap RPO off a counter run. As someone who believes the Packers should work more post-snap RPOs into their offense, my ears were immediately up. But it’s how they get there that takes it up a notch.
The Falcons are in 22 personnel (2 RB, 2 TE, 1 WR) shotgun. Harold Fannin Jr. [0] is aligned wide to the left while a receiver and a running back are in a stack on the right. Before the snap, the inside man (RB Jamal Johnson [6]) in the stack fast-motions toward the formation, looking like he’s running jet motion. At the snap, he pulls up in front of the QB to get the ball, where the Falcons have a counter run back to the right. The right side of the line blocks down, while the left guard pulls to kick out the EMOL (End Man On Line). The in-line TE pulls and leads through the hole.
On the left side, Fannin is running a Glance route while the RB releases under to the flat. The QB - Connor Bazelak [7] - is reading the overhang/slot defender to that side. If he crashes hard to the flat, there’s a nice throwing lane to Fannin, so Bazelak will pull and throw the Glance. If that defender slow-plays it or stays in place, Bazelak will give the ball to Johnson.
The defender so plays it, so Bazelak gives the ball to Johnson.
This is a creative way to get to a core run. I watched the Packers run Counter out of a 2 RB set dozens of times this past season, so I immediately started thinking of the best way the Packers could incorporate this. I didn’t want to mirror the same personnel grouping, as the Packers didn’t run a single play out of 22 personnel in 2024. So we’re rolling with our Pony Package (21 personnel). That allows us to work this into the Packers regular offense.
The trickiest bit for me was settling on the Jet player. I needed someone who could threaten with speed on...
