We broke down how the Denver Broncos took advantage of some of the schematic tendencies that Jeff Hafley and the Green Bay Packers defense rely on in a previous article. Here, we briefly want to cover
some of the other ways head coach Sean Payton dissected the Packers’ defense.
Payton and the Broncos offense relied on a lot of “formation into the boundary” to create mismatches and negate what the Packers defense does well. On some of the other explosive passes and intermediate gains, Payton took advantage of 1-on-1’s with his receivers on the outside against the Packers’ corners as well as isolating weaker linebackers over the middle.
Both Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine had subpar days in coverage. The Broncos receivers proved to be too much for them in a game where Bo Nix was finally deadly accurate as an NFL passer at the intermediate and deep ranges.
Here, Keisean Nixon is matched against Courtland Sutton on the outside to the bottom of the screen. Sutton is running an out-and-up route, and the Packers, to this point, have already seen a few hitch routes in the 5-7 yard range.
Nixon jumps the out cut, but Sutton is actually running a double move out and up. He gets inside leverage with Nixon out of position and makes the catch for a 42-yard gain.
Sutton had a big game, finishing with seven catches for 113 yards and one touchdown against the Packers’ defense.
Here, he’s one-on-one with Carrington Valentine on the outside to the bottom running a go route down the sideline.
Sutton gives him a stutter move inside before taking off outside, “runs the redline,” and never breaks stride on a pass Nix dropped into the bucket. Valentine couldn’t adequately cover him after the double move.
Valentine was also beaten a couple of other times deep, including the touchdown pass in the last article and another play where the receiver didn’t actually catch the ball.
There were a few intermediate pass completions over the middle, where Payton found match-ups to isolate linebackers and put the coverage rules in conflict.
Early in the second quarter, Kingsley Enagbare was the first victim. Here, the Packers are showing a mugged pressure front but are dropping Micah Parsons and Enagbare into underneath zones while running a 5-man pressure.
In the underneath zone, Enagbare is the hook/seam “hot to #2” defender. Enagbare goes to jam Lil’Jordan Humphrey in the slot but misses completely as Jordan dodges the jam and releases inside before pushing up the seam. He sits in the zone as Enagbare races to get back and gains 16 yards.
Later in the fourth quarter, the defense is playing quarters here to the Broncos 3×1 formation strength into the boundary. The Broncos have a double-dig play call on, and this should be easy money for the middle hook linebacker Quay Walker.
But Walker, inside the boundary hash, never feels the dig develop behind him and gets stuck in cement with vision on the quarterback as Sutton runs past him over the middle at the logo.
The single receiver side runs off the corner and safety backside so the safety is never a factor on Sutton’s route either. Nix just waits until Sutton clears the linebacker before he throws it.
Final thoughts
It’s not going to be easy to find answers in a Parsons-less world, but the defense, at a minimum, cannot have the mental errors they had versus Denver in the final stretch here as they approach the playoffs. With the Bears this weekend, the test only gets tougher as they’ll have to find ways to generate pressure and avoid the explosive passes that Chicago loves.
