Acme Packing Company
Let’s take a look at two of the big plays from the Green Bay Packers’ passing game this past weekend’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals, on both ends of the spectrum. We’re starting by looking at quarterback Jordan Love’s interception and ending with his touchdown pass.
On the Packers’ first drive of the game, they go 47 yards in 10 plays, now finding themselves in a 3rd down situation at the Bengals’ 19-yard line. They’re in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR), in a 3×1 look, with Tucker Kraft [85] as the lone receiving option on the line on the right. All 3 of the WRs – Matthew Golden [0], Dontayvion Wicks [13] and Romeo Doubs [87] – in a bunch on the left.
They’re running a spacing concept on the left, but it’s muddled from the jump, with Golden stumbling after contact and Doubs getting hung up as a result.
On the right, they’re running a modified Texas concept, with Kraft running a vertical route and Emanuel Wilson [23] running what looks like an Angle route from the backfield.
Except it’s not an Angle route. With the Bengals dropping Trey Hendrickson [91] into coverage, Wilson takes the route vertical, easily gaining separation from Hendrickson. The safety sees this and buzzes over Wilson, capping the route. A real shame, because it’s an absolute beauty.
The safety vacating the middle of the field leaves Kraft on a crossing route against safety Jordan Battle [27], and a good move at the top of the route gets him some nice separation.
Love is looking to hit Wilson, but when he sees the safety over the route, he works back to the left. He doesn’t appear to even give Kraft a glance.
He doesn’t like what he sees on spacing, and by the time he looks back to Kraft, Cameron Sample [96] is running free at his face. Love breaks the pocket and makes an ill-advised throw to Doubs on the sideline.
The ball is tipped by DJ Turner [20] and intercepted by Geno Stone [22]
The big question here is why the throw doesn’t go to Kraft in the middle after Wilson is ruled out. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that Wilson was likely the Alert, Spacing was the concept and Kraft was a “work back after spacing” option.
Said another way, Love was supposed to work the concept first, unless he liked the look to Wilson. If he likes the look to Wilson, that’s the first read. If he doesn’t like the look to Wilson, he’ll work the concept first, then work back to Kraft as the 4th read.
As it is, he gets stuck a bit. The way the defense is aligned – single-high safety, Hendrickson wide to the RB side – Love likes the look, as he should. Based on this, it looks like he’s either getting Wilson on Hendrickson or...
