Paul Bretl | 11/16/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — As the Packers offense searches for more consistency in the second half of the season, their play-action game can be an important part of that equation.

The marrying of the run and passing games is an important element of the Matt LaFleur offense and helps create that ‘illusion of complexity’ that we’ve heard him refer to in the past. In short, this keeps defenses off-balanced and guessing by running like-plays–or plays that start the same but end up quite different–along with being able to run a variety of plays from just a few personnel packages.

However, through the first half of the season, we haven’t seen the Packers find the same effectiveness that they did in 2023 when utilizing play-action. According to PFF, Jordan Love’s completion percentage off play-action is actually 3.5 percent lower than his overall hit rate, which ranks 38th out of 41 quarterbacks. In terms of usage rate, Love went from ranking 11th last season in percent of dropbacks being play-action throws to now being 28th in that category.

So what goes into making a play-action pass successful?

That obviously begins with a good run game that forces the defenders to bite on the run-action component of the play, helping to open up those opportunities in the passing game.

“Just getting our run game started,” said Sean Rhyan of being effective off of play-action. “It’s all predicated off of that and once you get the run game started it opens up your whole playbook because then if the other team knows you can run the ball on them, obviously they’re more aware about stopping the run. We could always drop back to pass all day, but to run the ball well in this league is hard.”

For the offensive line, there is some selling that takes place. While the run-action part of the play is unfolding, depending on the play-call and how the linebackers respond, the line wants to give the impression that they are run-blocking and trying to move the defender, rather than letting the defenders come to them as if they were pass protecting.

“We want to, depending off our play-action and how the linebackers play,” added Rhyan, “we want to sell it a little bit more than we normally would. But we also say don’t sacrifice run sell for protection. If you’re going to put yourself in a compromising position just to get a run sell don’t do it because at the end of the day you still have to keep the pocket and let J-Love throw.”

Once the run-action is complete, it’s about forming that pocket around the quarterback, just like on any other passing play. As already mentioned, if effective, a defender or two may have creeped up thinking a running play was unfolding. From a route running standpoint, there will often be a deep route or two as part of the play-design to either catch the safety off-guard and playing the run, or to at least create space underneath for the short and intermediate routes to operate in.

“Obviously the run game but then you’ve got your protections, always starts there,” said Adam Stenavich on play-action. “And then just having the receivers to stretch the field and create that space between the second and third levels, with whatever you’re trying to do.

“And a lot of times you’re not going to get the premier look that you want, so just checking it down to your playmakers whether that be Josh (Jacobs) or Tucker (Kraft), you’ve seen those guys make a ton of plays when they just catch a short underneath route and make an explosive gain off of that.”

So when it comes being successful off of play-action, it would seem that the Packers have the recipe to do just that. We all know they have a very dynamic group of pass catchers. Protection-wise, the offensive line ranks sixth in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric, and led by Josh Jacobs, the Packers are averaging 5.0 yards per rush and have generated the second-most explosive runs this season.

However, there have been limiting factors for the Packers as well when it comes to usage and the potential effectiveness.

One is the pre-snap penalties. These have often put the Packers behind the sticks and in more obvious passing situations. Even with a strong run game, play-action doesn’t exactly have the same effectiveness when ran in a 2nd-and-15 situation–to put it simply, the defense doesn’t really care if you run the ball in that scenario.

Another limiting factor has been Love’s health. With Love dealing with two separate lower body injuries this season, that has taken away at times the Packers’ ability to line up under center where play-action is going to be utilized.

“I just think every week’s a little bit different in terms of the type of schemes you’re going against,” said LaFleur of the Packers’ play-action, game. “The type of run schemes you’re implementing, you always want to be kind of cognizant and aware of what you put on tape and try to marry it up as best you can.”

Then generally speaking, the passing game as a whole, whether running play-action or not, has been very boom-or-bust this season. The Packers can create big plays with the best of them, but off-target throws, drops, and turnovers–along with those aforementioned penalties–have been difficult to overcome as well.

But having said that, having a healthier version of Love coming off the bye week will play an important role in that phase of the game finding stability, which, in theory, should trickle-down to the play-action game its effectiveness.

The play-action game was a weapon for this offense in 2023. Love completed 72 percent of his throws at almost 10 yards per attempt with 12 touchdowns to just three interceptions. This season, however, that hasn’t been the case, and with play-action being such an important element of the LaFleur offense, when it comes to this unit reaching its ceiling, taking advantage of those opportunities when they arise is crucial.

Like we said, the formula for success certainly seems to exist, but as always, not it comes down to execution.

Paul Bretl | 11/15/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Coming out of the bye week, the Packers made some adjustments to their practice schedule and how they go about practices, similarly to what they did last season, in an effort to change things up but to also get this team peaking at the right time.

To account for daylight savings, where it begins to get dark in Green Bay around 4:00 during the winter months, Matt LaFleur adjusted the daily schedule a bit to help the players get out of the building a little bit earlier. But on the field, he is trying to turn up the competition as the Packers hit the second half stretch of the season.

To accomplish this, there are fewer ‘carded’ or scripted periods. During these carded periods, players see the play and what their responsibility is, and the emphasis is on getting to your spots and being assignment sound. The Packers leaned heavily on this during the early portion of the season, in part because they were implementing a new defensive scheme.

“I thought it was important for the first part of the season,” said LaFleur of the carded periods, “implementing a new defensive scheme that we get as many carded periods as possible. But I think we’re at, to that point now where, you know, we can do a little less cards and a little bit more, you know, I would say good on good.”

These unscripted periods create a more game-like practice environment where the focus is on playing fast and reacting appropriately within the scope of what each player’s responsibilities are. When everything is moving so fast, just like in a game, do the players stick to their rules and is the on-field communication sound?

“I think it just gives fast looks. You never know what coverage you’re going to get. It’s kind of like a game where it’s an unscouted look and you just have to react and play the play. I think it’s really valuable for everybody. Sometimes when you’re in carded periods or scouted periods you don’t get as good of looks, so any time you can go against the defense and get fast looks, I think it’s beneficial.”

Also, a point of emphasis for the Packers in practices right now are the “good-on-good” periods. Rather than having the starting offense and defenses only face the scout teams who are giving similar looks to what the opponents will do, LaFleur wants to turn up the intensity and have the starting offense and the starting defense face each other

“I think what you look at is, how can we get better in the second half and improve on what we did,” said Jeff Hafley, “and I’m grateful he has that mindset and wants to do that. Because, you know how you get better at football? You practice football, against good players.

“So today it’s our defense, and I think we had 10 third-down reps, our ones versus our ones, so we get 10 good reps against Jordan Love and our wide receivers and our O-line. That’s arguably one of the best, most explosive offenses in the NFL. So we just got those 10 reps today rather than doing a walk through or some three-quarter speed. So our guys got better today.”

This is the same approach in practice that the Packers utilized last season. Of course, what happened in 2023 is independent of what the second half of the 2024 season will hold, but LaFleur does believe that increased speed and emphasis on competition in practices was a factor in Green Bay’s second half surge last season.

Particularly on the offensive side of the ball, the Packers began operating as one of the more efficient and explosive units in football during the latter half of the 2023 season.

“Every year is a new year but we know what it takes to take those jumps,” said Jayden Reed. “Just hone in on the little things. If we don’t beat ourselves, we’ll do great. We showed it last year. It’s no different. We got a lot of the same guys and we can do it again.”

As Hafley mentioned, what the Packers are doing right now practice-wise isn’t necessarily common. As the NFL season progresses, teams will begin to turn down the intensity in practice, but the Green Bay is going in the other direction.

GM Brian Gutekunst referenced recently that the goal is to be peaking at the right time–much like we saw last year–and this practice schedule is a part of that equation. Ultimately, all that matters are the results on Sundays, but coming out of the bye week, this Packers team was glad to be back on the practice field.

“Today was outstanding,” said LaFleur of Thursday’s practice. “I feel like the last two days have been, the energy has been exactly where you want it to be. So it’s never going to be perfect at practice in terms of the execution, there’s a lot of install there’s some new plays, you know, like I talked about yesterday, we’re doing a little bit more just unscripted, unscouted looks, so you’d like to see how the guys react. But in terms of the energy and the things that are within their control, the effort, all that, I thought it was on point.”

Paul Bretl | 11/14/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — As the Packers search for more consistency in the second half of the season, a key component to achieving that on the offensive side of the football will start with improved play and efficiency in the red zone.

As dynamic as this Packers’ offense is, ranking ninth in points per game scored and entering Week 11 with the most explosive plays generated, their red zone woes have proven difficult to overcome. Now 10 games into the season, the sample size is large enough for us to say that the Packers haven’t been a good red zone offense. Their success rate in converting red zone visits to touchdowns sits at 47.1 percent, the fourth-lowest mark in the league.

“You look at everything,” said Jordan Love of the team’s red zone woes. “You look at the plays we’re running, and then obviously execution of the plays we’re running. Both of those things are things we’re going to have to clean up and be better going forward but I definitely think looking back on it there’s plays to be had down there, it just comes down to going out there and making those plays.”

Moving the ball in the red zone can already be an innately more difficult task given that it is a condensed part of the field and there is less space to operate in. Then in some instances, you tip your cap to the defense for dialing up the right play.

However, the Packers also aren’t doing themselves any favors in that part of the field either. The same self-inflicted pre-snap penalties, off-target throws, dropped passes, and even turnovers that have plagued this offense for much of the season, are also happening in the red zone–putting themselves in a hole that they just can’t consistently dig themselves out of, and truthfully, not many offenses can.

In the past, when discussing red zone success, we’ve heard Matt LaFleur highlight the importance of having a good run game to lean on inside the opponent’s 20 yard line. Well, the Packers have that with Josh Jacobs. As a team, Green Bay is averaging 5.0 yards per rush, the fourth-best mark this season, while individually, Jacobs ranks fourth in rushing yards at an efficient 4.8 yards per attempt.

But the trickle-down effect of a pre-snap penalty or an incomplete pass is that the run game–even if effective overall–then has to take a back seat. When facing a second or third-and-long situation, offenses often have to abandon the run in an effort to get back on track and make up for the lost yardage on early downs.

“I certainly think there’s some things that we can improve upon,” said LaFleur on Wednesday. “I think the other thing that we’ve kind of have done to ourselves is we’ve put ourselves in some unfavorable situations with penalties, that’s not just back, in, and usually it’s harder to run it down there.

“But when you’re in those get back on track situations, you know, you’re generally you’re going to pass it more you most often I would tell you, just to try to get yourself either to stay out of third down or to get yourself in a more manageable third down because if, if you get to third and 7, 8, 9, 10 in the red area, I mean that is, that’s tough sledding.”

Turning things around this week won’t be an easy task either. Although the Chicago Bears are certainly struggling on the offensive side of the ball, their defense has proven to be a stout and difficult matchup this season. The Bears are responsible for forcing 16 takeaways, tied for the seventh-most, while their pass rush ranks fourth in pressure rate.

In the red zone specifically, Chicago has been the best in football, with opposing offenses finding the end zone on only 37 percent of their visits inside the 20-yard line–although, of note given our previous discussion, the Bears are allowing 4.8 yards per rush as a team, ranking 29th in that category.

With that said, any sort of red zone success and improved efficiency begins with the Packers, to a degree, getting out of their own way and minimizing the self-inflicted errors. It sounds simple: eliminate the flags, etc., but obviously, it’s not. These are issues that have been persistent since Week 1, and they were again on display in Green Bay’s most recent game against Detroit.

“It’s just consistency,” said Christian Watson of improved red zone play. “We’re just getting ourselves there and then backing ourselves up or just having negative plays. We just gotta find a way to be more consistent when we get down there. I mean we get ourselves down there and then we take a step back.

“We know if we want to get where we want to go we can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. So obviously it sounds simple and really the problems themselves are simple, but we haven’t found a solution yet. So clearly we gotta do a little bit more of a deep dive into it and just find a way to be more consistent.”