The Green Bay Packers began their Thanksgiving Day win over the Detroit Lions with a bang, connecting on a 53-yard pass from Jordan Love to Christain Watson. However, that play call almost didn’t happen.
Coach Matt LaFleur admitted he was tempted to change the play. He stuck with it, and Love and Watson created the explosive play.
Before the ball was even kicked off on Thanksgiving Day, the Packers started things out uncharacteristically by choosing to receive the opening kickoff after winning the coin toss.
Typically, if the Packers win the opening toss, they choose to defer to the second half, with the thought process behind this being that they’ll possibly have the opportunity to double-dip, scoring before halftime and then scoring to begin the third quarter.
But Thursday was different. Against a very good Lions team that featured a stout defense and an offense that can put up points, along with the Packers being short-handed at a number of positions due to injuries, Green Bay knew how important a fast start was.
“Just wanted to start fast,” said Jordan Love post-game about the team’s decision to receive. “Wanted to put the offense out there and set the tone and that’s what we did.”
Green Bay didn’t only attempt to set the tone by choosing to start with the football, but right out of the gate, they came out swinging, with an immediate deep shot off play-action from Love to Watson. The ball was a bit underthrown, but Watson made a nice adjustment and an aggressive play to secure the catch for a 53-yard gain.
.@jordan3love goes DEEP on the first play of the game ‼️
📺: #GBvsDET on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/N5H8NbZZUE pic.twitter.com/um8K7FH7jU— NFL (@NFL) November 23, 2023
“I wasn’t quite sure where the ball was going to go,” said Matt LaFleur. “I had a good idea it was going to Christian or I thought maybe Rome; just with the action we had, I was kind of concerned that we wouldn’t have the checkdowns we might need, but our protection was phenomenal because it was kind of a later developing play to throw a post.
“I told Christian right before the game, there’s a good chance this play is going to go to you, just go up and attack the football, and he did exactly that.”
Green Bay would go on to score on that opening possession, giving them the early lead. After the game, Love said that this specific play was put in just this week, and the plan as of Wednesday was to open the game with it. However, it’s a play-call, at least at this stage of the game, that almost didn’t happen.
“As a matter of fact,” said LaFleur, “I almost changed that first play call. I was kind of mulling it over quite a bit, and I texted Jordan this morning and told him I was going to change it to something else, and he said he wanted this call, so I said okay.”
In addition to that opening play, Watson had what was by far his best performance of the season. He led the team in both receptions with five and receiving yards with 94, including a touchdown catch. Along with seeing Watson’s big play ability on display, the other encouraging aspect of his performance beyond the numbers was that several of those catches were made in contested catch situations–something that has given him fits at times this season.
Short-handed at running back and facing one of the best run defenses in football, the Packers’ passing game, led by Love and Watson, had to shoulder the workload this week, and the fact that they do so successfully shows just how far this offense has come over the last month.
“He had a big-time game today,” said LaFleur of Watson. “That was good to see just for him. I know he hasn’t been flawless up to this point, but I thought he came up big today and made a lot of critical catches.”
