Earlier this week, the Green Bay Packers’ main website featured a story about the ways head coach Matt LaFleur and quarterback Jordan Love communicate about game planning both during the week leading up to the game and during the game. Specifically, the first part of the article centered around a play call from week six last season versus the Arizona Cardinals, and a simple route adjustment made later in the half that resulted in a 44-yard touchdown pass from Love to Christian Watson.
The play call
and in-game adjustment gives us a small glimpse into the on-the-fly planning that occurs in-game based on what the players and coaches are seeing. It was a route adjustment on a play action concept that Love suggested in preparation for week four but they never got the coverage they wanted to test it out. From the article:
“Again, nothing exciting with it had happened right away, until Love and LaFleur were sitting on the sidelines between drives, looking at the pictures on the tablets with the other coaches and QBs.”
On the sideline, the players and coaches print out screen shots of the all-22 because they are not allowed to look at film from previous drives so they rely on static images of the coverages. That didn’t prevent them from running the adjustment in week six. They noticed the coverage right away.
“We saw the leverage on the No. 2 receiver (Watson),” LaFleur said. “The defender was so far outside leverage, we were like, ‘Holy cow, if we post him back, there’s literally nobody out there. He’s going to be running away from the guy.'”
First play: the setup
With just over 6 minutes left in the first quarter, LaFleur deployed 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE) on 1st-and-10. The Packers started in a YY closed formation before putting Tucker Kraft in motion from the right tight end spot to the left to create a closed 3×1.
The Packers would be running a play action 3×1 dagger concept from the trips on the left after the motion but made a crucial change when Christian Watson ran a deep-corner route instead of his usual thru/vertical route while tight end Tucker Kraft took the deep-over route. Typically on dagger, the two outside receivers run the deep over and dagger route.
The Cardinals used their base defense to match up against the Packers while their backside corner defended tight end Ben Sims. Their post-snap rotation shows quarters versus a 3×1 with a “poach” safety on the back side looking to play top-down over anything deep and over from the #3 receiver, Kraft.
The backside safety followed Kraft on his over-route which exposed the deep half of the field to an open pass.
Love eventually completed the pass to Romeo Doubs for a 19-yard gain. The defensive strategy against this play became a mental note for LaFleur.
Second play: the confirmation
What the article didn’t mention was that LaFleur probed the defense a second time to see how the coverage would respond to the route distribution. The Packers came out again on this play in 12 personnel but did not use motion. They lined up static with Kraft as the trips tight end again on the left.
The play call was a 3×1 sail concept with Kraft running the sail/deep out route toward the sideline while Watson ran a deep post route.
The defensive strategy remained unchanged as the back-side corner maintained his focus on the single tight end while the back-side safety continued to monitor Kraft as the third receiver.
The safety had no reason to stay with Kraft because his route took him away from the defender. Instead, the safety zone off to Watson’s post route because Kraft ran a different path.
The final result of this play ended with an incomplete pass.
LaFleur now understood how the Cardinals’ would probably react to this formation, as he said after the game:
“We were just looking at the pictures and seeing how they responded […]. We tried to hit Tucker on what we call a sail route earlier and just noticed how the backside safety was playing it.”
With a minor adjustment, LaFleur was confident he could exploit the Cardinals’ anticipated coverage. He and Love knew what the backside poach safety would do if they presented that formation and ran the #3 receiver (Kraft) deep over the middle. Kraft would threaten the backside safety who would nail down on the deep crosser, leaving the middle of the field wide open.
As Jordan Love said after the game, two possessions later after a 39-yard punt return into Arizona territory, LaFleur “dialed it up on the sideline.”
Third play: touchdown
The pre-snap elements from the previous two plays appeared in the pre-snap again on the 3rd attempt at hitting the explosive play. The down and distance remained identical to the previous two plays as well.
This time the formation was flipped. The Packers again came out in the same YY 12 personnel formation, which led the Cardinals to adjust the defensive call to the same play as the first two times they lined up in this formation.
Kraft motioned across again on a Y-trade motion put the offense in a 3×1 closed alignment. Watson was again the second receiver in the bunch, making him the #2 receiver in the slot.
The Packers called a play-action 3×1 dagger concept again, just like the first play concept above.
LaFleur modified his play because he understood the Cardinals would use quarters coverage and Kraft’s deep over route would tie up the back side poach safety.
This time Watson would adjust his route to a corner post route instead of the deep-corner route.
The back-side safety followed Kraft to his route which created an open path for Watson to run his deep-post route. Love laid the pass out for Watson to run to and the result was six.
Final thoughts
This isn’t the first time we’ve received insight into the on-the-fly scouting in games. A few years back, I detailed how the Packers under Matt LaFleur were able to find explosives in a similar way through in-game study and adjustments of the back side of the defense in this post on their corner post play action shot play.
And in 2023, Love and LaFleur both talked about how tight end coach John Dunn spotted a tendency in the Chargers defense the Packers were able to exploit another touchdown pass to none other than Christian Watson. Those kinds of tidbits of information should give fans a ton of confidence that Love and LaFleur can continue to find answers on the fly in games this season.
