We’ll be dissecting the film on the overall Green Bay Packers offense & passing game later (we already did a little of it with numbers), but, for now, I just wanted to take a few minutes and talk about the game Christian Watson had.
With only the Monday Night game left to play, Watson currently has the 3rd highest EPA of the week at 13.98 (behind Chris Olave’s 15.42 and Zay Flowers’ 14.06). Per SumerSports, he primarily aligned as the outside receiver (75% of his snaps were outside), and 100% of his targets
came when he was the outside receiver. He had an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 15.9 yards and had 73 yards of YAC (Yards After Catch). He is currently tied with Zay Flowers for the lead in YACOE (Yards After Catch Over Expectation) with +49 (per NFL Pro).
If you want to talk just regular stats, he caught 6 of his 8 targets for 147 yards (18.4 YPA) and 2 TDs. With those numbers, Jordan Love posted a QB Rating of 156.3 when targeting Watson.
Let’s take a look at his two TD receptions.
Play 1: 2nd & 10, 7:54 remaining in the 1st quarter
The Packers are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR), starting in a 2×2 shotgun spread look. Tucker Kraft [85] is initially wide on the right, but he slow-motions pre-snap and ends up under the left tackle, leaving Christian Watson [9] as the lone skill player on the right side of the field.
The Vikings have 7 bodies at the line and are showing a completely open middle of the field. With Brian Flores calling the defense, you can’t be sure if he’s blitzing everyone at the line or dropping some back into coverage.
At the snap, Watson is running a deep in-cutter. On the other side of the field, Jayden Reed [11] is running a flat route while Matthew Golden [0] is running a big post route over the top. That works effectively to clear out some space on the left.
Theo Jackson [26] – one of the Vikings’ safeties – starts this play on the edge, opposite of Watson. Blake Cashman [51] is the linebacker who is originally walked-up over the center. At the snap, both of them drop back to the middle. Cashman is more of a straight drop, while Jackson is buzzing back at an angle.
Love takes a quick glance at Jackson off the edge and sees the drop. He then moves his eyes back to the middle and sees Cashman. He holds Cashman in place long enough to pry the window open.
Love hits Watson just in front of the buzzing Jackson, and Watson does the rest, erasing angles all the way to the end zone.
Play 2: 2nd & 2, 00:18 remaining in the 2nd quarter
With 18 seconds left in the first half, the Packers trot out 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR) at the 2 yard line. They’re in an under center, YY Wing formation (both TEs in-line on the same side). Watson is in a condensed split on the right, while Golden is split wide to the left.
Watson motions pre-snap into an insert position. In this YY Wing formation, that puts him under the line between the two TEs. This is something the Packers do a lot as part of their run game, and Watson’s strengths as a blocker put him in that position quite a bit. It’s a way to give the offense an extra blocker at the point of attack. As we’ll see here, it’s also a useful tool in the passing game.
The Packers play action to the Wing side, then Love continues with a sprint-out to the right. The Vikings are biting on the play action, so the defender over Watson is expecting to meet him in the hole for a block. Instead, Watson slips right by him and finds a ton of open space.
Love flips it out for the easy TD.
I love this playcall. I’m always a huge fan of releasing the insert blocker through the line, especially when you can sell the play action.
Albums listened to: Karina Rykman – Joyride; Beach House – Depression Cherry
