With help from a terrific plan and clever play designs by Matt LaFleur, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers peppered the middle of the field for easy completions and big plays during Sunday’s 42-21 win over the Detroit Lions.
The Packers used bunched formations, savvy pick plays and a bunch of pre- and post-snap confusion to open up passing lanes between the numbers against the Lions’ man-heavy coverage schemes, and Rodgers had no problems attacking.
According to Pro Football Focus, Rodgers completed 12 of 15 passes between the numbers for 134 yards and a touchdown against the Lions. Two of the three incompletions were drops on catchable passes, including one potential touchdown to Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Here’s Rodgers’ passing chart from Week 2, via Next Gen Stats:
On the Packers’ first third down of the contest, a bunched formation to the right of the formation helped open up Valdes-Scantling for an easy catch over the middle against man coverage. The cornerback got lost in the mess, and Valdes-Scantling ran into the clearing for a simple conversion.
In the second quarter, Aaron Jones motioned to the slot and was left wide open on a simple drag route when the linebacker in coverage couldn’t work through traffic created by the route combinations. The gain was 22 yards.
Both of Rodgers’ touchdown passes came against man coverage. On the first, Jones burst into the flat with no one around him due to the linebacker getting caught up with the route combinations to the middle of the field. Late in the first half, Robert Tonyan flashed open for a second on a stop route against single coverage and Rodgers hit him with anticipation for the score.
The middle of the field has been favorable for the Packers passing game to start 2020. Through two games, Rodgers has completed 23 of 28 passes between the numbers for 238 yards and a score.
The Packers passing game looks predicated on stressing defenses with both horizontal and vertical looks while attacking the middle of the field off of playaction and against man coverage. Rodgers looks increasingly comfortable, and LaFleur has dialed up the right stuff in the right situations.
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