Packers quarterback Jordan Love had one of the highest quarterback ratings in NFL playoff history inside Jerry World in Green Bay's demolition of the No. 2 seed Cowboys, and two schematic concepts were at the core of this unbelievable effort.
Before I begin, I'm compelled to praise the Packers offensive line. While quarterback is the most vital position in football, I remain a firm believer that it all starts up front. And when I write "it" I mean -- offensive success in any shape or form.
Love had a perfect passer rating against 10 Cowboys blitzes -- 8 of 10 for 158 yards with three touchdowns and no picks -- and faced pressure on just seven of his 21 drop backs. While a 33.3% pressure rate isn't incredibly low, the Cowboys did lead the NFL with a 45.1% pressure-generation rate during the regular season. Oh, and Love was sacked zero times at Dallas.
Extra order of cheese curds to Green Bay's big men in the trenches after this one.
Now for the schematic masterclass from Matt LaFleur. He and Love first aggressively worked the middle of the field, mostly to Romeo Doubs, with a deep dig against the Cowboys two-deep safety zone shell.
In fact, Love's first completion of the game featured one of the more open receivers you'll see in the playoffs -- foreshadowing for the Packers pass game against the Cowboys. In a second-and-13 situation, Dallas's coverage dropped into a soft Cover 4 look, with the two outside corners responsible for the outside quarters of the field and two safeties assigned to the two inside quarters of the field.
LaFleur sent sizable wideout Christian Watson, who was positioned in the slot at the snap, down the middle. He ran directly between the two deep safeties. On that side of the field, Doubs started by running a boundary vertical.
Watch what he did at about 20 yards past the line of scrimmage.
Breaking to the inside when everyone on the Cowboys defense was convinced Doubs was also running a vertical, meant no one was there to account for him in the middle of the field, with the two deep safeties justifiably concerned with Watson screaming down the seam. Oh, and Aaron Jones running a quick comeback out of the backfield occupied the underneath linebacker. What's funny here -- Love was pressured and didn't see Doubs in rhythm. Didn't matter Love was a little late. Doubs was that wide open.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? That was the theme that carried LaFleur in this game.
Late in the first quarter, LaFleur went back to a nearly identical concept to Doubs on a third-and-7 with a seven-point lead.
This time, from trips to Love's left, Jayden Reed, at the inside slot position, ran a deep over to draw safety attention along with the cornerback in man coverage. Bo Melton was sent on a deep corner, with a specific purpose to threaten the deep safety on that side of the field.
What did that leave? Doubs to run his patented deep dig, at 15 yards this time, to wide open space in the middle of the field. Again, Love took an extra second to notice Doubs -- maybe out of shock? -- with no one around him and got him the ball for what ultimately amounted to a 26-yard gain.
On the touchdown to rookie to Dontayvion Wicks, the Packers attacked the deep middle of the field again, and this time, it was basically a layup schematically but did take a gorgeous throw from Love for the connection to be made.
From the top of the screen, you'll see Reed come in short motion from the boundary into the slot, essentially switching spots with Wicks. His motion at the snap and subsequent post route took the only safety help out of the play -- this was nearly an all out pressure look from Dallas.
Wicks froze the cornerback assigned to him with a juke and broke to the post. Love put it on him. No over-the-top safety. Touchdown, Green Bay. That's what can happen when a blitz doesn't get home.
But it wasn't just long-developing, in-breaking routes that LaFleur deployed in this game en route to Love's ridiculous passer rating in effortless offensive performance.
The deep over route is a staple man-beater. It's usually very difficult for a corner to run through traffic all the way diagonally across the field, especially if he loses off the line of scrimmage.
But LaFleur put his own spin on it by having Doubs run two "fake" deep overs that featured the second-year receiver slamming on the breaks mid-route to run a corner route in the opposite direction. Both plays hit. Of course the other routes featured downfield clearing route to create space for Doubs.
The first one started with motion from Reed, which potentially created confusion for the Cowboys defense, as he became the outside receiver at the top of the screen. He ran a vertical down the sideline. The middle receiver in the trips formation ran a deep skinny post. Then there was Doubs, in the slot, who sprinted for 10 yards in the direction of a classic deep over route, throttled down, and headed toward the sideline the other way.
Such a difficult ask for any cornerback in man coverage. Easy pitch and catch for Love. Another splash play for the Packers.
This one, from a more traditional formation was just as nasty. Check what it did to man-coverage specialist Stephon Gilmore.
Doubs, at the bottom of the screen, made sure he got an inside release, and sold the deep over beautifully. Gilmore, who's covered 1,000 deep overs in his long career, recognized it, and started to chase. At about 15 yards, Doubs blasted the brakes, and accelerated up the field in the opposite direction. Gilmore was suddenly in a blender.
Love did take a shot upon releasing this throw. But the ball placement really didn't matter. Doubs was that wide open.
In a low-volume, high-efficiency passing game, there's not necessarily a vast variety of concepts that got the job done. That was certainly the case for the the Packers against the Cowboys.
LaFleur demonstrated immense confidence in his club's offensive line by featuring vertical routes out of the gate with those sneaky in-breaking routes from Doubs sprinkled in. Later, he leaned on Doubs' route-salesmanship on that deep over turned corner route for two huge plays.
Love only needed to complete two passes in the third quarter and one (!) in the fourth quarter en route to his historic outing on the road in Dallas. He was outstanding. As was the blocking unit in front of him. And Love's head coach constructed an ingenius but simple plan of attack for the Packers passing game that worked to perfection.
