Acme Packing Company
Back in Week 11, I wrote about Christian Watson’s two-touchdown game against the New York Giants. The Green Bay Packers wide receiver followed that up with a 5-catch, 49-yard game against the Vikings and a 4-catch, 80-yard, 1-TD game against the Lions on Thanksgiving. With Watson fully integrated into the offense after returning from his injury — and the Packers going up against a Bears defense that loves to give up explosive plays through the air — what would Watson do in Week 14?
As it turns out, he would score touchdowns. In the game, Watson caught all 4 of his targets for 89 yards and 2 TDs. His +9.6 EPA was the 3rd-highest among receivers in Week 14 (per NFL Pro), behind Tee Higgins (+10.9) and Puca Nacua (+10.0). The crazy thing is Watson posted his +9.6 on 4 targets, while Higgins and Nacua each had 11 targets on the day.
We’ll get to the full passing breakdown in the next day or two. For today, we’re just taking a look at both of Watson’s touchdowns.
The Packers are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR), in a 3×1, Trips Left Nub alignment (“Trips” indicates 3 receivers spread to a side, while “Nub” indicates the lone receiving option on the other side of the field is a TE aligned either on the line or tight to the line). The Bears are in a 3 safety alignment with a lot of bodies at the line. The Bears had shown looks like this already in the game and had been unpredictable with the post-snap picture. Sometimes they’d bring heat, sometimes they’d drop bodies back into coverage.
On this snap, they bring heat, with the defender over Jayden Reed [11] blitzing off the edge. They’re playing Cover 0, with the players aligned at safety each picking up one of the Trips receivers in Man coverage. The man in the middle picks up Reed, the man just inside the numbers picks up Christian Watson [9] and the man on the outside picks up Romeo Doubs [87].
The Packers have a perfect call dialed up, provided they have time to get it off. They’re running something that looks an awful lot like their Shadow concept. Watson is running a Thru route while Reed is running a Shallow Cross. Against this coverage, the Thru route becomes a deep over route. Reed cuts off his route to sit in the middle of the field, pulling his defender up and providing an ocean of space over the top for Watson.
Watson’s defender is backpedaling and the cut across the field gives Watson the separation he needs.
The line does a tremendous job up front and Jordan Love [10] puts the ball up for Watson. Watson does a nice job of coming back and attacking the ball and runs in for a touchdown.
The Packers kick the extra point to take a 7-0 lead....
