The Green Bay Packers offense has been building momentum in recent weeks and a key contributor to the success has been Jordan Love and the pass catchers improved connection on the deep ball.
Over the last four games, Love has completed nine of his 15 pass attempts of 20 yards or more, according to PFF. For some context, those 15 attempts during this span of games are the sixth-most among all quarterbacks, his nine completions are the third-most, and his completion rate of 60 percent is tied for the fourth-best.
To take this one step further, Love’s 283 passing yards on such throws ranks third. He has two touchdowns to no interceptions, and PFF hasn’t even deemed any of those 15 passes to be turnover-worthy plays. Love has also been credited with the fourth-most big-time throws, which PFF describes as a pass with excellent location and timing.
“I think it’s something we’ve just got to keep going, got to keep working at, just keep improving at daily,” said Love when asked what has changed in the downfield passing game recently. “I’m just giving those guys opportunities to go make plays down the field. I can’t pinpoint one thing that’s changed or been different. I think just trying to be a more accurate passer downfield. Give them those chances and opportunities and obviously just reading out the plays and taking advantage of the looks we get downfield. But nothing has really changed.”
One of the core issues that this offense faced for a large portion of the season was their inability to connect on these downfield throws. Through the first six games, Love was still more than willing to push the ball downfield, ranking third in passes of 20 or more yards, but ranked 32nd in completion percentage and had the second-most turnover worthy plays.
When an offense is unable to generate chunk plays, it forces them to plot the ball down the field, stringing together long scoring drives, which was not something this unit was able to do regularly with how mistake-prone they were. On top of that, when a defense doesn’t fear the deep ball, it allows them to creep closer to the line of scrimmage, making moving the ball on the ground or on short to intermediate throws more difficult because there are more defenders in a confined space.
“A lot of it, obviously, is timing and just making those throws at the right time,” said Adam Stenavich when discussing the downfield disconnect earlier in the season. “Speeding up your drops and things like that. Wide outs, maybe, not giving up on routes. Making sure they’re pressing it and running hard. So there’s a lot of timing that comes into play with all those routes that we just got to make sure we do a better job.”
A big part of the Packers improved downfield passing game has been from the growth of their young group of receivers. Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks, in particular, have become reliable targets for Love in that regard, both with a sixth sense for finding open space, the ability to create for themselves after the catch, along with the overall timing and precision of these plays having improved immensely.
Following the game against Los Angeles, Matt LaFleur mentioned that on these downfield attempts, he wanted to see Love “let it rip” a bit more. This wasn’t asking him to be more aggressive, but rather trusting what he sees and, taking advantage of those opportunities, and letting his natural abilities take over, rather than trying to be so perfect.
“When Matt says let it rip,” added Love, “it’s more of don’t hesitate going through my reads. Trust what I’m seeing out there. Be confident in it and just let the ball fly. Don’t have any hesitation, and that’s definitely something I’ve been focusing on, just trusting my reads, trusting my feet. When it’s time to let the ball come out, just trust it and be confident in it. Not playing trying not to make mistakes, if that makes sense. Just going out there and taking advantage of the defensive looks.”
Continued success for the offense is going to require this downfield passing attack to be productive. It not only creates big plays, but opens up opportunities elsewhere and for other players. Without it, along with not having a strong run game for this offense to lean on, then there is really nothing for opposing defenses to fear at that point. And during Green Bay’s four game losing streak, we saw how devastating that can be for a young offense.