Matt LaFleur has stressed the importance of creating explosive plays in the passing game since he became the coach of the Green Bay Packers. And despite having a first-year starting quarterback leading the NFL’s youngest offense in 2023, that emphasis hasn’t changed.
So far this season, Jordan Love has continued to push the ball downfield in hopes of creating big completions, even when his success rate has been disconcerting. According to Pro Football Focus, nobody has thrown more 20-plus-yard passes than Love (50). Unfortunately, his completion percentage on those attempts is a meager 37 percent.
In many instances, especially early in the season, it appeared that Love’s downfield heaves were attempts to jumpstart a struggling offense rather than taking advantage of a specific look by the defense. The results obviously haven’t been great, but there has at least been some improvement over the last month.
The Packers have won three of their last four games thanks in large part to an offense that is finally starting to find its rhythm. Naturally, their success can also be attributed to Love completing more of his deep passes.
Per PFF, dating back to a Week 9 win over the Los Angeles Rams, Love is 11 for 19 (57.9%) on passes of at least 20 yards. His 11 completions have resulted in 352 passing yards and three touchdowns, all of which rank in the top three of the league.
Of course, a lot of credit goes to LaFleur, who has had unwavering confidence in his quarterback’s arm and ability to generate explosive plays.
“It’s given us a lot of confidence to be a little bit more aggressive with some of the calls,” LaFleur said after the team’s most recent win over the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. “When you’re trusting your offensive line, when you’re trusting your quarterback to facilitate and get the ball where it needs to go and throw on rhythm, that allows you to do that. We had a lot of, I would say, deeper developing plays and hit a lot of intermediate throws for some chunk plays that ended up being big for us.”
On the very first play of the Lions game, LaFleur dialed up a deep shot to wide receiver Christian Watson. The aggressive playcall resulted in a 53-yard gain and helped Green Bay take an immediate 7-0 lead they would never relent.
Watson has been Love’s most frequent target on longer throws, with 15 targets on 20-plus-yard passes. However, only four of those targets have been caught. Fortunately, Watson has also been trending in the right direction lately, as three of those catches have come in the last four games.
While Watson hasn’t let as many opportunities slip through his hands, he has also started to see a change in the offense.
“I just think we’re doing a better job of finding our rhythm, finding our flow as an offense,” he said. “It took us a little too long early in the season to find that rhythm. Now I think we’re just connecting a little better as an offense and just finding that a little quicker.”
This week, the Packers will face a difficult challenge when it comes to creating explosive plays through the air against a Kansas City Chiefs defense allowing only 5.6 yards per pass attempt (T-3rd).