The other day, I broke down the Green Bay Packers’ touchdown to Romeo Doubs against the Chicago Bears and the play that set it up. As you may recall, the Packers scored four touchdowns in this game, so
we’re going to break down those other three. Because they’re fun and we can.
TD 1: 3rd & 2, 2:11 remaining in the 1st quarter
The Packers are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) in a condensed formation. Christian Watson [9] is originally split out five yards on the left, but he shifts to an in-line position pre-snap. The Packers are running Keep Slide, a part of their Movement series.
At the snap, the Packers show a Wide Zone run to the left, then Jordan Love [10] boots back to the right to find 3 receivers running parallel on different planes. Watson releases on the slide route under the line, Luke Musgrave [88] is on the Low Cross from his in-line position on the left, Romeo Doubs [87] is running the High Corner and Jayden Reed [11] is on the Down Flat route from his in-line position.
The idea is to get the defense flowing on the Wide Zone run (something they would have seen on the film and also in this game), then get the passing game flowing in the opposite direction.
It’s a simple concept, and we’ve seen it hundreds of times over the years, but it can still be wildly effective. Love gets out on the edge and finds the defender to that side scrambling to pick up Watson on the Slide. Watson has a head full of steam, so Love flips it out to Watson, who turns the corner for 6.
Sure is nice to have someone with the speed of Watson who is also a legitimate blocking threat on the line.
This was the same concept (and personnel group/formation) that Watson almost scored a TD on later in the game. He didn’t, of course, but that led to us getting the TD to Doubs, which was also fun.
TD 2: 3rd & 9, 6:51 remaining in the 2nd quarter
The Packers are in 11 personnel, but this time in an empty spread look. It’s 3rd & 9, after all. Watson and Reed are in a stack on the left, and they’re showing releases consistent with Bow as they push down the field. Bow – or “Spin” as I’ve also heard it called – is a two-man concept that consists of a hitch route from the inside and a dig route from the outside. (In the parlance of the Packers playbook, those routes would be Arrow and Basic.)
It’s a concept designed to attack the middle of the field. The Arrow pins down a defender, and the Basic wraps over the top to find room in the middle. On this play, Reed is on the Arrow, and Watson is on the Basic.
That’s what they sell, but it’s not what they run. Watson’s initial cut is to the inside, before bending the route upfield, taking two Bears defenders with him. Reed runs a ridiculous route, showing the Arrow before spinning to the sideline and releasing on a vertical route.
Reed is being covered by linebacker Tremaine Edmunds [49] on this play, and he never has a chance. With Watson dragging two defenders to the middle, the only thing in front of Reed is green grass.
Love lays the ball up and Reed waltzes into the end zone.
Dear Reader, it is not lost on me that we saw the Lions score a TD against the Packers on this Arrow-and-Go route in 2023 when Ben Johnson was calling the game.
TD 3: 1st & 10, 6:44 remaining in the 4th quarter
The last play we’re looking at today is Matthew Golden’s [0] 1st receiving TD in the NFL (it certainly looks like a lateral, but who am I to argue with the official scorer).
The Packers are, once again, in 11 personnel in a 2×1, split-gun look. Golden is originally aligned in the backfield on Love’s left, but he motions out before the snap to the right, under the two receiver side.
This is an RPO (Run Pass Option), and it’s a pre-snap read for Love. If the Packers have a numbers advantage to the passing side, Love will throw to Golden on the WR screen. If the numbers are even or worse, Love will hand the ball to Josh Jacobs [8] on a Wide Zone run to the left.
When Golden motions, no one follows him, so the Packers have 3 receivers (the two blockers up front plus Golden) while the Bears have 2 defenders. So Love throws. On an RPO, the idea is for the defense to always be wrong. If they’ve got numbers on the pass, that means they have one less defender to play the run, and vice versa.
Kyler Gordon [6] is on a corner blitz, so he shoots inside the block from Watson. That allows Watson to move up to the second level, giving Golden a nice lane to hit.
The blocking eventually breaks down, but Golden finds the end zone with a tremendous individual effort.
Albums listened to: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress; Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s – Buzzard
