The first week of APC’s top plays of 2025 countdown concludes with a look at play number six, which came in a crucial late-season divisional matchup.
The Game
After finishing off their season sweep of the Lions the week before (in an impressive showing on Thanksgiving), the Packers faced the Bears for their first showdown of the year. The Packers came in with an 8-3-1 record, riding a three-game winning streak. The Bears came in with a 9-3 record, riding a five-game winning streak. The winner of this game would
be sitting in 1st place in the NFC North.
The Situation
The Packers went into halftime up 14-3, but they stalled out on the first drive of the second half. The Bears proceeded to put together a 10 play, 64 yard drive that ended in a touchdown and two-point conversion. That put the ball back in the hands of the Packers with 8:08 remaining in the 3rd quarter, holding onto a 14-11 lead.
The Packers gained 22 yards on their first 3 plays, but now faced 3rd & 3 at the Bears 41 yard line.
The Play
The Packers are in 11 personnel in a 3×1, Trips Nub alignment (three receivers spread to one side, with the lone receiver on the other side being a TE aligned close to the line). Before the snap, Love gives a hand signal to the right side (Christian Watson relays the call with his own hand signal to Doubs on the outside). After the game, Jordan Love said, “we just changed the route with Christian and he did a great job just kinda creating that separation and be able to win across the field and just beat the guy with speed.”
This is an RPO (Run Pass Option), with the run call being a Wide Zone run with Josh Jacobs, and the pass tag being a variant of a WR Screen they’re fond of using on these RPO looks. This is a fairly standard call for them: the outside receivers to the pass side will block, while the inside receiver runs underneath them in the flat. Love has the option to hand the ball off to Jacobs or pass to Reed. It’s a pre-snap read and it’s a numbers game: if the offense has more players on the passing side, Love will throw it. If they don’t have a numbers advantage, he’ll hand it off.
My theory is that the hand signal from Love was a route adjustment based off of the defensive alignment. The call (Wide Zone with WR Screen tag) was the call, but Love had Watson and Doubs adjust to stalk-and-release routes: Watson on the slant, Doubs on the fade. That also converted this from a pre-snap read to a post-snap read, with Love needing to read a single defender (or section of the field) after the ball is snapped.
The Bears cornerbacks are tight to the line and their single-high safety is playing deep, so this looks like Man coverage, with the Bears bringing heat up front. At the snap, Love checks the line to the pass side. Based on what the Bears had been doing, it looks like Love is reading D’Marco Jackson [48] as the conflict defender. If Jackson breaks toward the line, Love pulls and throws. If Jackson drops off the line and into the throwing lane to Watson, Love will hand off to Jacobs.
At the snap, Jackson breaks toward the line, so Love pulls and throws.
Watson does a good job selling the block, gets inside position and breaks to the inside. Love gets the ball out on-time and out in front of Watson. With the safety breaking to the passing side and Watson catching the ball in-stride, there’s no one deep to the side Watson is running to.
Once Watson gets the ball, he’s gone. A true angle-eraser. Both CJ Gardner-Johnson [35] and Kevin Byard [31] take angles to make the tackle, but Watson outraces them to the front pylon.
The Packers kick the extra point and take a 21-11 lead.
The Impact
The Bears battled back – tying it at 21 with 8:00 left in the game – but the Packers ultimately won the game 28-21, taking the NFC North in the process. Don’t be surprised if you see this game come up again sometime next week.
Albums listened to: Jessica Lea Mayfield – Miss Obliteration
