The Passing Chronicles: 2022 Week 6

Dusty dives into 2 plays from the Packers week 6 loss to the Jets

Hey guys! Who's ready to relive the Packers/Jets game?

/dodges tomato

As we do every week, we'll take a little to dive into the overall passing game, then do a deep dive into a couple plays I enjoyed. Because, while the game was ugly as a whole, we all deserve happiness. You deserve happiness.

To the chart!

The first thing that popped out to me was the fact that there were fewer throws behind the line of scrimmage. Per PFF, 17.1% of Rodgers throws were behind the line of scrimmage, which marks the first time this season that he targeted that area of the field less than 20% of the time. Most of those throws seemed to make their way just further upfield, as he targeted the short area of the field (0-9 yards) on 51.2% of his throws, going 17/21 (81%) and 124 yards (5.9 YPA). 

While the deep game improved this week, it was only because it's harder to be worse than the 0/5 he was last week. When targeting 20+ yards down the field, Rodgers was 2/7 (28.6%), 60 yards (8.6 YPA) and a TD. On the game, his ADOT (Average Depth of Target) was 9.0, his second highest of the year. After seeing an ADOT of under 6 yards for the first 3 weeks, Rodgers has gone 9.6 in week 4, 7.3 in week 5 and 9.0 in week 6. The results haven't been there (for a handful of different reasons, his own accuracy being part of it), but I like that they've been breaking out of the confines of the low ADOT world they had placed themselves in. I find comfort in that and will cling to the hope that good things are around the corner. Good things are around the corner.

One last thing I wanted to touch on before we move on is the fact that it looks like Rodgers was actively avoiding the middle of the field. That's an area the Packers - along with pretty much every other team around the league - looks to attack with play action. The Jets were actively looking to take that away by having their linebackers not bite on the fake. It's an approach we've been seeing with more frequency this season. I spent a bit of time walking through an example of it and talking about a few potential counters.

Alright. Let's get to the plays. I've got somewhat limited time this week, so we're only digging into two. I hope you understand. We'll go in reverse chronological order because that allows us to end on the cooler of the two plays.

Play 1: 1st & 10, 2:40 remaining in the 3rd quarter

It's not looking good at this point. Indeed, it would not end well, but at this point some of us still had hope of a comeback. I know I did, even if it was somewhat fleeting. Down 17-3 late in the 3rd wasn't great, but the defense was playing well and the Packers offense just needed to get on track. It was bound to happen any time now, right? RIGHT?!

The Packers are in 11 personnel spread, with trips to the right, Robert Tonyan [85] as the lone receiver on the left, and Aaron Jones [33] aligned on the left of Rodgers. The Jets initially show a two-high look, leaving Amari Rodgers [8] uncovered as the #3 receiver in trips, but the safeties rotate before the snap. That has the Packers running vertical routes against a single-high look, with the single-high safety initially starting away from the trips side.

Amari Rodgers runs a vertical route bending toward the safety from his #3 spot, while Allen Lazard [13] fades toward the sideline from his #2 spot. Rodgers checks the movement of the safety on the dropback, bounces, loads and throws to Lazard.

The defender has good coverage on Lazard: playing inside and over the top. The throw can't go over Lazard, so Rodgers throws back shoulder. Lazard comes back for the ball and dives inside the front pylon.

Play 2: 3rd & 2, 4:35 remaining in the 3rd quarter

This was my favorite play of the day. Yeah, sure, touchdowns are cool and all, but this? Ah buddy, this is something beautiful.

Everyone knows how much the Packers love their WR bubble screens. It's one of their favorite tags in the RPO game. Three receivers to one side, the two outside receivers block and the inside receiver bubbles underneath. You see it in your nightmares, you see it in your dreams. Well, this one appears out of nowhere and it ain't what it seems.

The initial action looks the same: the two outside receivers in the bunch (Lazard and Rodgers) fire out to block, while the inside receiver (Doubs) bubbles underneath. The Jets react like everyone else does to this action: the defenders look to engage/shed the blockers, while the inside defender looks to take away the bubble. To complete the illusion, Rodgers turns his shoulders and sets to throw the bubble.

Instead of blocking, both Amari Rodgers and Allen Lazard release: Amari releases inside while Lazard releases on a vertical route.

It's beautiful. It's perfect. It's dropped. The Packers end up picking up 15 yards on a helmet-to-helmet hit on Lazard and the play never officially happened. Some things in this world are too beautiful to exist.


Albums listened to: Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher; Radiohead - OK Computer; John Carpenter - Halloween Ends Soundtrack; Richard Edwards - Ghost Electricity/Vampire Draw; The 1975 - Being Funny in a Foreign Language

 

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Dusty Evely is a film analyst for Cheesehead TV. He can be heard talking about the Packers on Pack-A-Day Podcast. He can be found on Twitter at @DustyEvely or email at [email protected].

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4 points
 

Comments (2)

Fan-Friendly This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.
LeotisHarris's picture

October 19, 2022 at 08:29 pm

Thanks, Dusty.

Bright and Personable Internet Film Guy can see opposing DCs have the Illusion of Complexity completely figured out, are not respecting play action, and no longer fear the Smartest Man in the Room. He writes about it, and shares video on YouTube for all. How is it that moderately successful NFL head coaches and fledgling coordinators can't see the same things? On behalf of Packers fans worldwide, I ask WTF?

Maybe the emperor has no clothes? Maybe we need a resurrection of the wrap-around draw? Maybe it's time to dust off A-B Circle with 33 and 28 (Bart would, you know!).

3 points
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croatpackfan's picture

October 20, 2022 at 02:42 am

Thanks Dusty. It is only good that you did not have much time than to show just 2 passing plays. After all I doubt you'll find much more to show even if you had more time.

I like your analysis and wonder why MLF do not ask you to join analytics to help Packers coaches on both sides to finally open their eyes and see what is wrong with Packers O and D.

I learned something more today, and I'm happy about that.

1 points
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