Acme Packing Company
Last week, we looked at Jordan Love’s passing chart and I wrote “Love was absolutely chucking the ball,” because it was true. Love had an ADOT (Average Depth Of Target) of 14.5 yards. That was never going to be the norm, but his Week 1 ADOT of 11.5 yards suggested that the Packers were looking to push the ball vertically as their main mode of attack.
It’s hard to do that when the interior of the line is getting caved in, apparently. The Browns have a very good defensive line – the best they’ll face until the Week 10 Eagles game – but it’s still weird to look at the passing chart this week. It’s like an entirely different quarterback.
Just a single attempt over 10 yards (and that attempt was a beautiful ball that looks like could have gone for a TD, had Matthew Golden been able to stop veering to the sideline).
On the day, Love’s ADOT was 1.9 yards (per RBSDM). The interception was bad (we’ll get to that), but, on the whole, I thought Love played well, given what he was asked to do. His +0.08 EPA per dropback was far below his level from the first 2 weeks, but that’s a number that puts him right around where Dak Prescott has been this season. By no means a great game, but it was a perfectly cromulent one.
Per NFL Pro, Love was under pressure on 38.7% of his dropbacks, despite having an average of 2.56 seconds to throw. As a point of reference, Patrick Mahomes has the quickest time to throw in the NFL this year at 2.51 seconds and is being pressured on 27.8% of his dropbacks. On the day, the Browns defensive line combined for 10 quick pressures (pressures within 2.5 seconds of the snap) on Love’s 31 dropbacks.
Love’s completion % of 72% is solid considering the ADOT. A couple missed swing passes he would certainly want back, and a back-breaking interception he certainly wants back.
Last week I brought up Love’s willingness to scramble this season. We got one of those this week, going for 4 yards on 1st & 10. But we got to see something else from Love this week: he was pulling the ball on read option plays, using his legs to get around the edge. He did this twice against the Browns, picking up 10 yards on a 3rd & 2 and 5 yards on a 2nd & 6 (a shame he couldn’t have kept upright for another yard on that last one, as they ended up getting a penalty on the next play and didn’t convert on the 3rd & 6).
Alright, let’s get to the film and take a look at a few plays. Generally I take a look at a big play or two – or some cool concepts – but there’s time for that later in the week. Today, I wanted to take a look at the biggest play in the game: Jordan...
