My regular article came out yesterday. I covered the Packers use of Smash against the Colts, and how that helped set up the bomb to MVS late in the game. But I still had another concept I wanted to get into, so I thought I'd write up something about it. Today, we're getting into the incomplete pass on 4th down with 3:11 remaining in the game and the Packers down 28-31. In Pro Football Reference's play-by-play of the game, the play simply goes down as "Aaron Rodgers pass incomplete short left intended for Jamaal Williams." That's true, but as with all things, there is more to it than that. 

If you need a refresher, here's the play from the broadcast.

I heard a lot of cries of "that was a terrible playcall," so I wanted to see what I thought about the playcall itself. What were they trying to do? That's always the central question, isn't it? 

To understand what they were trying to do, we need to go back to the 1st quarter and run through 5 plays. 

But first, a question. You all remember Play Action Bootleg (PA Boot)? Of course you do. It's a staple of Matt LaFleur's playbook. Really, it's a staple of any coach with a zone blocking scheme. The mechanics are simple: play fake one way, then have the quarterback roll back the other way and have 2-3 receivers rolling with him on different levels. That's basically all we're looking at today.

Unlike my regular articles, we're not going to spend a lot of time on each play. Honestly, for our purposes today, I'm not even overly concerned with the end result. I want us to get familiar with the concept itself. Then we can get to a place where we can at least understand what the Packers were going for on 4th & 1.

Play 1: 3rd & 1, 11:06 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers tied 0-0

Play action to the right, boot to the left to find 3 receivers flooding that side of the field. Aaron Jones [33] carries out the fake and drifts into the flat away from the flood.

Play 2: 1st & 10, 10:29 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers tied 0-0

Play action to the left, boot to the right to find 3 receivers flooding that side of the field. Jones carries out the fake, cuts through the line and drifts into the flat away from the flood.

Play 3: 2nd & 6, 9:48 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers tied 0-0

Play action to the right, boot to the left to find 3 receivers flooding that side of the field. Jones carries out the fake and helps out with blocking away from the flood.

This all feeling pretty monotonous so far? Good. That means it's working.

Play 4: 1st & 10, 8:27 remaining in the 2nd quarter, Packers leading 14-7

Play action to the left, boot to the right to find 2 receivers flooding that side of the field (plus Robert Tonyan [85] kind of meandering around in the middle, trying to drift into an empty zone). Jamaal Williams [30] carries out the fake and helps out with blocking away from the flood.

Play 5: 1st & 10, 1:54 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Packers leading 28-25

Play action to the right, boot left to find 2 receivers flooding that side of the field (plus a stutter-and-go from Davante Adams [17] on the outside). Williams carries out the fake, cuts through the line and drifts into the flat away from the flood.

We just saw 5 examples of PA Boot. Sure, there were some differences between them - some had jet motion, the formations were different, etc. - but the main action and idea behind them is the same. Play action one way, boot the otehr way and find receivers flooding the zone.

Play 6: 4th & 1, 3:11 remaining in the 4th quarter, Packers trailing 28-31

So we find ourselves looking at 4th &1 late in the game. Just as a refresher, let's look at that broadcast again.

Still doesn't look great, right? But we are now armed with knowledge and the All 22 angle. What does that show? I suspect you already know.

It's not exactly the same, but the core action is there, to an extent. You have a shallow crosser from Tonyan off the left side of the line and what appears to be a mid-crosser from Adams on the outside. The play action takes place away from the flood, just like all the plays we looked at. But instead of rolling with them, Aaron Rodgers [12] pulls up and looks to the backside of the play, where Adams is coming back to the sideline instead of continuing on his crossing route. We also have Williams drifting into the flat, just like we saw above.

The idea is to get the defense biting on what they've already seen 5 times in this game (and countless times on film). Get them reading PA Boot, then hit them with the counter. Rodgers is looking to go to Adams, and with an extra half-second he likely would have. But that route isn't quite ready to throw to yet, so he throws to Williams. The last time the Packers ran PA Boot, the backside linebacker left Williams alone on his release. This time, the linebacker plays it well and sticks with him.

One of the reasons it doesn't work is because Adams is walled off from the sideline by the defender. Ideally, he cuts back to the sideline as soon as Rodgers sets up behind the line. As soon as the defense sees Rodgers set up, they know it's not the PA Boot they're looking for. You can see Adams stutter a little to come back to the sideline, only to find the defender to that side. That forces him to take a wider path up the field. That wider path causes Rodgers to hold it, which allows pressure to break through, and so on. If you give a mouse a cookie, and all that.

I'll run it one more time so you don't have to scroll back up.

It's a fun idea and I love the sequencing, but the Colts play this well and are able to get pressure up the middle to force the issue. 

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but moments like these are why you set up your tendencies. Get the defense leaning. Get them thinking they know what's coming, then hit them with a counter. You have to create your own windows, and the Packers were looking to do that in a big moment.

You may still hate the call and that's fine, but I hope you at least understand the thought process behind it now. Why they ran it, how they set it up and why they thought it would be effective.

To end us on a high note, I thought I'd show what can happen when this is effective. Let's take it back to the 2019 Divisional Round game against the Seahawks.

See? There is beauty in this world.