When a receiver doesn’t run to where he’s supposed to, defenders are able to make plays on the football. The Green Bay Packers benefitted from this on Sunday, when Dallas Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb slipped on one of his routes, leading to a cornerback Brandon Cisse’s interception. Unless you were paying close attention on Sunday, though, you probably missed that Packers quarterback Jordan Love’s interception was in part to blame on his target running the wrong route, too.
Earlier this week, Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed that receiver Matthew Golden was supposed to run a “Lookie” route from the slot, which makes sense considering the motion that the Packers ran, the matchup they got “on” Golden and the outside target to Golden’s side running a mandatory outside release.
What is a Lookie route? Here’s how it’s described in one of the Packers’ playbooks that I have access to. Essentially, a receiver runs vertical, stutters and then his first option on the route is to run a slant. If the defender on him has hard inside leverage on him (square leverage is a slant, as well as outside leverage), then he’s supposed to convert and run an out route. In the book, the receiver is instructed to “make every effort to cross the defender’s face” for a slant.
To make it simple: It’s an option route from the slot (slant or out), which is why the outside receiver is instructed to run an “M.O.R.” in the Packers’ playbook. “M.O.R” means a mandatory outside release. Basically, the outside receiver is just there to clear space for the slot, in case an out route does happen. The Lookie route is also the first read on the play. Teams like to call this when they get an advantageous matchup (like a slot receiver on a non-defensive back), as it gives the route-runner a “two-way go” to make that defender wrong 100 percent of the time — at least on paper.
Below is the full play from the interception against the Cowboys.
What’s interesting about this play is the motion, as Golden goes from what was a trips side to what was the single-receiver side. Because the Packers started out in trips and motioned Golden away from the slot, the slot defender couldn’t travel with Golden, forcing an off-ball linebacker to play “on” Golden. (Note: They were in zone, so no one is truly man-to-man.)
Golden ends up square with the linebacker after his stutter, but decided to break outside anyway, which gave the linebacker, who had a flat responsibility in quarters coverage, the opportunity to undercut the football. According to LaFleur, Love expected Golden to run the slant, which is why the ball was a little late on the out route.
Certainly, Golden didn’t “make every effort to cross the defender’s face” for the slant. LaFleur also mentioned that something happened on the backside of the play to force the Mike linebacker to squeeze the window tighter than expected too (it was the Will linebacker who was “on” Golden), but Christian Watson, who was in the opposite slot, appears to have run a “China” route, which is common on the backside of Lookie plays.
I’m not in the coaches’ room and very well could be wrong (and it would not be my first time), but I would assume that the flub was on the running back. Often, these “Lookie” plays are run out of empty (to stretch the spacing of that Mike linebacker), so it’s possible the back wasn’t even supposed to be on the backfield in that play.
The Lookie route is very common in the NFL, and the Packers have been on the wrong end of it before. Notably, it’s how then-Raider Davante Adams got an explosive catch-and-run (out of an empty set) when Preston Smith was split out in space (as a flat defender) a couple of years ago. That is what the play was supposed to look like when Green Bay ended up with Golden “on” a linebacker after the motion.
Unfortunately, a wrong decision on an option route can disrupt the timing of a pass and put a defender in a position to make a play on the ball. Hopefully, Golden can learn from this lesson and not repeat his mistake.
