What a way to kick off the season. Matt LaFleur gets to open the season at home for the first time in his career and the Packers knock off the Lions 27-13, in a game that didn’t even feel that close.
In this space, we look at how the Packers passing game performed the previous week. So let’s start with the NFL Next Gen Passing Chart:
Love completed 72.7% of his passes for a QB Rating of 128.6 with an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 11.5 yards (per RBSDM). Per NFL Pro, Love EPA per Dropback of +0.42
in the game, 3rd highest in the league in Week 1. For reference, Lamar Jackson led the NFL in EPA per Play in 2024 with +0.29. NFL Pro points out that “Love was most successful attacking the intermediate area (10-19 air yards), completing 6 of 8 passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns.”
The Packers used play action on 30.4% of their pass attempts, up from 24.2% in 2024 and 25.7% in 2023. It’s tough to draw any long-term conclusions from a single game with 23 dropbacks, but this is certainly something to monitor as the season progresses.
The talk about this game will revolve around the defense – and rightly so – but Love played really well on a day when the run game didn’t really find its footing until late.
I mentioned the two touchdowns earlier, so let’s take a look at those today.
Play 1: 3rd & 9, 9:31 remaining in the 1st quarter
The Packers are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) in the High Red Zone (between the 11-20 yard line). They’re in a shotgun set, with Josh Jacobs [8] aligned to Jordan Love’s left. They’re in a 2×2 formation, with a two-man stack of Jayden Reed [11] and Matthew Golden [0] split wide on the right. Dontayvion Wicks [13] is in a tight split on the left, with Tucker Kraft [85] in-line.
The Lions are showing a two-high safety look pre-snap, and the two linebackers are shaded to the left (the strength of the formation). Before the snap, Jacobs goes in a quick-motion to the left and the linebackers bump over to that side. Jacobs then returns, but the Packers have picked up a nice little piece of information. It looks like Alex Anzalone [34] is going to be picking up Jacobs out of the backfield, leaving Jack Campbell [46] to take Kraft.
The Packers are looking to split the safeties, sending Jacobs, Wicks and Kraft vertical on the left and Golden vertical on the right. The Lions stay in their two-high look post-snap, and Brian Branch [32] – the safety over Wicks and Kraft – is put in a bind. With Campbell carrying Kraft up the middle and neither Wicks or Kraft declaring their breaks until late, Branch is held in place.
That helps keep the middle clean, giving Love enough room to hit Kraft over Campbell, before Branch can close.
Great pass from Love, putting it up-and-away for Kraft, who makes a nice catch.
Play 2: 1st & 10, 8:39 remaining in the 2nd quarter
This is a really fun concept. Teams around the league started leaning into this last season, and I was hoping the Packers would make it a bigger part of their offense this year. And here we are, looking at a TD pass off of it in Week 1. Life is good. (It’s not just the Packers: I know the Chiefs ran some version of this no less than 4 times in their Week 1 game, so I think we’re going to be seeing this even more around the league this season.)
Just like the previous play, the Packers are in 11 personnel, although for formation is different. They’re in a 3×1 look, with all 3 WRs in Trips on the right. Malik Health [18] is in the #1 spot, Dontavion Wicks in the #2 and Jayden Reed in the #3 (you count the WRs outside-in). Tucker Kraft is in-line on the left and Josh Jacobs is aligned to Love’s left in shotgun.
The Lions are showing a Cover 0 look (no deep safety, man coverage across the board) pre-snap, and that’s exactly what they do post-snap. The concept the Packers are running here is something I’ve been calling Pinwheel (the outside receiver Pins down and the inside receiver Wheels around). It’s essentially a two-man concept, but the Packers pair it with a skinny-post from Health on the outside. You don’t necessarily need that, but it’s a boundary clearing route and works well with this concept.
The outside receiver needs to push hard vertically for a couple steps, then pull up and stay still. The idea is to create a natural rub, but it has to be a natural route so you don’t get called for offensive pass interference. Wicks does a tremendous job, pushing hard, making himself big and staying in place. Wicks really commits to this, too, staying rooted in place even after Reed catches the TD.
Wicks does his job well, forcing Terrion Arnold [6] to duck underneath him, which gives Reed the separation he needs. Reed does a good job setting this up, taking an initial vertical jab-step to push Arnold back. Tremendous attention to detail by everyone on this concept.
The line protects well up front, giving Love the time he needs to set and make a perfect throw to Reed.
Albums listened to: Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile Deviations 1
