Acme Packing Company
The other day, I broke down the Green Bay Packers’ touchdown to Romeo Doubs against the Chicago Bears and the play that set it up. As you may recall, the Packers scored four touchdowns in this game, so we’re going to break down those other three. Because they’re fun and we can.
The Packers are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) in a condensed formation. Christian Watson [9] is originally split out five yards on the left, but he shifts to an in-line position pre-snap. The Packers are running Keep Slide, a part of their Movement series.
At the snap, the Packers show a Wide Zone run to the left, then Jordan Love [10] boots back to the right to find 3 receivers running parallel on different planes. Watson releases on the slide route under the line, Luke Musgrave [88] is on the Low Cross from his in-line position on the left, Romeo Doubs [87] is running the High Corner and Jayden Reed [11] is on the Down Flat route from his in-line position.
The idea is to get the defense flowing on the Wide Zone run (something they would have seen on the film and also in this game), then get the passing game flowing in the opposite direction.
It’s a simple concept, and we’ve seen it hundreds of times over the years, but it can still be wildly effective. Love gets out on the edge and finds the defender to that side scrambling to pick up Watson on the Slide. Watson has a head full of steam, so Love flips it out to Watson, who turns the corner for 6.
Sure is nice to have someone with the speed of Watson who is also a legitimate blocking threat on the line.
This was the same concept (and personnel group/formation) that Watson almost scored a TD on later in the game. He didn’t, of course, but that led to us getting the TD to Doubs, which was also fun.
The Packers are in 11 personnel, but this time in an empty spread look. It’s 3rd & 9, after all. Watson and Reed are in a stack on the left, and they’re showing releases consistent with Bow as they push down the field. Bow – or “Spin” as I’ve also heard it called – is a two-man concept that consists of a hitch route from the inside and a dig route from the outside. (In the parlance of the Packers playbook, those routes would be Arrow and Basic.)
It’s a concept designed to attack the middle of the field. The Arrow pins down a defender, and the Basic wraps over the top to find room in the middle. On this play, Reed is on the Arrow, and Watson is on the Basic.
That’s what they sell, but it’s not what they run. Watson’s...
