Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers offense was incredibly efficient off play-action against the Kansas City Chiefs and has been over the last five games.
Love would have 41 percent of his attempts against the Chiefs come off play-action—a season high. On those throws, Love was near lights out, completing 12 of his 15 attempts at 9.1 yards per attempt with a touchdown.
“The confidence for me is just growing every rep I get,” said Love postgame, “every time we touch the field, we get more confident. I’m getting more comfortable in the pocket and just making these plays that I make in practice. So, the confidence is growing, the confidence in everybody in the locker room is growing as well.”
Not coincidentally, with Love and the play-action game taking off over the last five games, so has the Packers offense as a whole. Since Week 9 against the Los Angeles Rams, Love ranks ninth in completion rate among all quarterbacks at 72.5 percent. His 37 completions off play-action are the most in football during that span. He also ranks second in yards with 462, and has averaged 9.1 yards per attempt with two touchdowns to no interceptions.
Play-action is an important element of the Matt LaFleur offense. However, in order for it to be truly effective, there often needs to be a run game to lean on—or at least the threat of it. Through Weeks 3 through 8, when Green Bay went 1-5, the Packers averaged just 4.1 yards per rush as a team, and even that figure was inflated by some scrambles from Love. For some context, 4.1 yards per rush ranks 21st in the NFL this season. But over the last five games, Green Bay is averaging 4.7 yards per rush with Love ranking ninth in play-action pass rate compared to 25th in that previous stretch of games.
“It helps us a lot,” said Elgton Jenkins about having a run game to lean on. “Those guys thinking we are going to run the ball because we are running it good, getting four or five yards a pop, so it slows down their rush, especially on the play-action pass because they are trying to stop the run. By the time they find out it’s the pass, J-Love throwing a dot to somebody. It works hand-in-hand, it works real good together.”
The trickle down effect of having an improved run game and more play-action baked into the offense is that Love has been much improved on downfield passes of 20-plus yards. As we know, this was an area he and the offense struggled with through the first half or so of the season. That inability to create chunk plays is a tough way to live in the NFL when scoring consistently requires putting together 10-plus play drives, especially for a Packers offense that was so mistake prone.
From Weeks 9 through 13, however, Love ranks second in completions of 20 or more yards, fourth in completion rate, and second in yards. The run game and play-action isn’t the sole reason for that improvement, of course, but it absolutely helps.
“I think it just helps open up more things downfield,” said Love about the run game. “Just being able to lean on that run game and just know that we are going to pound out those yards, just keep pushing the ball downfield and I think it’s demoralizing for the defense being able to run the ball well.”
Along with downfield opportunities, play-action opens up opportunities over the middle, where Love has also been very good during this stretch, as well as YAC potential for the pass catchers, another improved area for this Packers offense in recent weeks.
In general, the run fake portion of play-action forces the defense to react, leading to relatively easier pass and catch opportunities, taking some of the burden off the passing game. It only takes half a step in the wrong direction by a defender or a split-second of hesitation to open up a passing lane or for the pass catcher to find open space.
“It definitely feels different,” said Love after the Lions game on the improvements the offense has made. “I think it’s part of the process though. We are just taking it week-by-week. Focusing on what we can do throughout the week to get better. Focusing on the areas we can improve on and we are going out there and practicing really hard throughout the week then obviously you see the growth that’s starting to show every week.
”It’s just a testament to everybody showing up working, staying committed to the process, not comparing that things aren’t perfect so far. But just showing up with that mindset that we are going to work, get better, find ways to improve, and just keep stacking days.”
