Opposing defenses have blitzed Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers offense a ton this year, especially over the second half of the season. However, the Packers have handled it well, and that all starts pre-snap with the communication upfront.
The Minnesota Vikings came into last Sunday’s game blitzing at the highest rate in football at 49 percent. But defensive coordinator Brian Flores would throw even more at Love, blitzing him on 76 percent of his dropbacks, according to PFF. Against these blitzes, Love was efficient and effective, completing 18-of-25 passes at 8.0 yards per attempt with two touchdowns.
“I liked our plan last week with picking up the pressures,” said offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich, “and I thought Jordan did a really nice job of recognizing things. There was a bunch of adjustments that had to get made, that did get made.
“The backs being on it because that plays into it just as much as anything is making sure the backs are on the same page and recognizing where they have to be. So it’s a testament to everybody. All of them did a great job.”
Love and the offense’s performance against Minnesota may have been their best this season against the blitz, but this unit has handled it well for several weeks now. Since Week 11, Love has been the most blitzed quarterback in football, yet out of 42 eligible quarterbacks, he ranks 13th in pressure rate. During that span, Love is completing 68.2 percent of his throws at 7.7 yards per attempt with six touchdowns to one interception.
A lot goes into navigating the blitz successfully and it all starts pre-snap with Josh Myers and him communicating to Love and the rest of the players involved with blocking what the initial protection is. Love then has the autonomy to make changes based on the movement from the defense.
“You have your initial protection,” said Stenavich. “Your initial rules and there’s any adjustments off the front look they will give you, or the safety rotation or whatever it is. So it starts up front with the O-Line making a call and making sure that gets communicated to Jordan and the running backs, or the tight ends, whoever is involved in the protection.
“From there, Jordan sees something and wants to change it, then he communicates it to the blocking people—backs, O-Line, anybody else, to get us right. A lot goes into it, especially when you’re in a loud environment, the play clock is running down, other factors that have to get communicated quickly. A large portion of our week is based on doing stuff like that.”
Myers has taken his lumps at time this season from a blocking standpoint, but his ability to identify what the defense is doing and get everyone aligned is something that Matt LaFleur and Stenavich have complemented him on at varoius points this season.
Love’s ability to use the hard count and the Packers’ usage of motion have helped force the defense to tip their hand, allowing Love to make the proper protection adjustments. Prior to the Kansas City game, quarterbacks coach Tom Clements was asked where he felt Love has improved the most and he mentioned his ability to make the correct protection adjustments, along with his decision-making, specifically when under pressure.
All of that was expertly on display against Minnesota and is another sign of the growth that Love and the offense as a whole has made. It’s not just that the Vikings blitz a lot, but they do a really good job of using different personnel groupings, alignments, and disguising where it is coming from. But it’s as if Love was always a step ahead, knowing where it was coming from, making the adjustments, and knowing where to go with the ball if pressure got through.
“O-line balled out,” said Love. “The pass protection was great all night. The run game was great all night. It’s a credit to Josh, he does a great job being able to communicate in a noisy environment. Get the running backs, get me all on the same page with what we are doing protection-wise. It’s not easy.
“Obviously the Vikings do a lot of different fronts, different personnel guys in there, so a lot of moving parts. Josh is able to figure out what they’re in, get us in a good call and obviously I make changes base on what I see. But that’s the biggest thing, just communicating in a noisy environment like that. They did a great job with that.”