Tag: Film Room

Indianapolis Colts Passing Chronicles: Joe Flacco in Week 9

Let’s head back to the film room and take a closer look at Joe Flacco’s Week 9 performance as the Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback.

Last week, I did a big film breakdown of what we saw from Anthony Richardson in the Indianapolis Colts’ Week 8 loss to the Texans. While the film wasn’t quite as bad as the 10/32 stat line would have you believe, there still were enough recurring issues with Richardson’s process/footwork that I was fine with him getting benched. “Get some competent play from Joe Flacco while Richardson works on his core issues.”

What did we get from Joe Flacco? Well…

If you use your imagination, you can almost picture the outline of Oogie Boogie.

(I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that.)

The standard numbers are bad. He completed 59.3% of his passes for 6.6 Yards Per Attempt and a negative CPOE (Completion Percentage Over Expected). That’s on an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 7.6 yards, the lowest mark of this season for Flacco (per PFF).

The advanced numbers aren’t much better. His adjusted completion percentage was 68%. He was kept clean on 56.7% of his dropbacks, completing 64.7% of his passes for 124 yards (7.3 YPA).

It’s not just the numbers: he straight-up missed multiple guys. Some of the misses could potentially be on the receivers not throttling down against zone, but most of his misses just looked like misses.

The silver lining here is that the Vikings are the #1 defense in the league (per DVOA). While the Bills aren’t exactly a walk in the park, they have the 15th ranked pass defense per DVOA (12th overall) and don’t run half the funky stuff up front that the Vikings do. So we’re likely to see a better showing from the passing game this week, which would certainly be a nice change of pace.

To the film. As we try to do in this space, we’re finding a fun play from this past weekend and digging in a bit. Because, even as frustrating as the game can be at times, there are always fun and cool things happening.

This play sees the Colts getting to Dagger – a core passing concept in pretty much every offense in the league – in a creative way. The throw goes elsewhere, but this is still a really cool concept.

Dagger is a two-man concept, consisting of the inside receiver running a clear-out route and the outside receiver running an in-cutting route behind it. The idea is that the inside receiver helps clear space for the outside receiver in the middle of the field.

The Colts are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) in shotgun. They have a bunch to the left, with Mo Alie-Cox [81] at the point, Michael Pittman Jr. [11] as the inside man and Josh Downs [1] as the outside man.

At the snap, Pittman bubbles outside, with the initial step from Alie-Cox and Downs going up the field. This looks like a bubble screen to Pittman, something the Colts show a lot. They’re trying to trigger the Vikings down on the bubble screen, then release vertically behind it.

After that initial action, Alie-Cox releases vertically as the clear-out man and Pittman works back inside and behind Alie-Cox.

Flacco is looking to attack the middle of the field. He’s looking to Alie-Cox first, then working back to Pittman. But the Vikings are a tricky bunch. They’re showing a single-high defense pre-snap, with Cam Bynum [24] playing the post. At the snap, they switch to an inverted Cover 2 look, with Bynum dropping down to the middle of the field: the exact area the Colts are looking to attack.

With Flacco starting to feel the pressure, he moves off the middle and finds his way down to hit Downs in space.

Downs gets the ball and picks up 5 yards on 2nd & 9. I’ve seen a couple different measurements for Success Rate over the years, but the one I’ve heard most recently from coaching circles is gaining 50% of the necessary yards on 1st or 2nd down and 100% of the necessary yards on 3rd or 4th down. By that standard, this was a successful play.

Really fun way to get to one of your core passing concepts, by working it off a horizontal, behind-the-line-of-scrimmage play you show quite a bit.

Albums listened to: The Raveonettes – Pe’ahi; Bon Iver – i,i

Indianapolis Colts Passing Chronicles: Anthony Richardson’s Week 8 Performance

Let’s head back to the film room and take a closer look at Anthony Richardson’s Week 8 performance for the Indianapolis Colts.

I had pretty much this entire thing written but wasn’t quite in a position to post it late Monday night. Then the Indianapolis Colts benched Anthony Richardson and it felt like a different approach was needed. There has been a lot of discourse around this move in the football world, so I wanted to really dig in and see what this past game looked like.

Typically, we start with the passing chart, dig into some numbers, then look at a fun play from this past weekend. Instead of that, I thought we’d start with the passing chart, then just kind of roll through some of the film.

One of the main narratives I’ve seen from this game is that it wasn’t nearly as bad as the stats say. And, while I agree with that to some degree, there were issues that showed up in this game that have been with him all season, so I thought it was worth it to bring those up.

So, to kick things off, let’s look at Richardson’s passing chart from this game:

There is certainly some context that colors those numbers in a slightly better light, but a 31.3% completion percentage is not something you ever want to see. PFF has the Colts receivers charted with 2 drops on the game, but that’s remarkably charitable to the receivers even by PFF standards. I’d say there were 4-6 passes from Richardson that should have been caught but weren’t.

We’ll get to those, but we’ll start with Richardson. He has major issues with both his footwork and his timing, and those issues have led to a number of straight-up missed throws. His eyes are seeing things correctly, he knows where to go, but he just misses the throw.

Part of his issue is that it looks like his feet are sped-up on his drop, leading to him hitting the back foot of his drop earlier than expected. That leads to plays where he’s loaded up and ready to throw a beat before he’s supposed to be. He’ll get the coverage he’s looking for and the receiver will be open, but the timing is off, which leads to an inconsistent release.

Then you’ll have times where he is reading everything well, only for pressure to break through the pocket. On this play he initially navigates the pressure well – climbing through the pocket and finding room – only to panic once he breaks and make an off-platform throw to a spot where there’s little room for a complete pass. If Richardson takes a beat when he’s breaking through, he would see the better throw is to lay this up on the right for Alec Pierce to run under.

Then you have moments where Richardson reads everything right, throws a nice ball and the receiver just never sees it.

Or putting a ball up to a receiver on a vertical route, only to see it clang off hands and fall incomplete.

Richardson is still capable of some incredible feats on the football field. It’s a shame Adonai Mitchell couldn’t get his second foot down because Richardson uncorked a perfect throw midway through the 1st quarter with a flick of the wrist.

Or when he hangs in the pocket with 6’4”, 318lb Folorunso Fatukasi [91] running directly at his face and hitting a wide open Josh Downs for a TD.

The highs are high, but there’s a ton of inconsistency in Richardson’s game. Like I mentioned earlier, most of that seems to stem from footwork and timing on his dropback. Nothing is really tied together for him right now, leaving him to rely on his physical gifts to get the job done. And don’t get me wrong, he has some tremendous gifts, which is why we get the highs we get.

Unfortunately, that also means a healthy dose of inconsistency on a down-to-down basis. Even when he works within the rhythm of the offense, it’s just a little off. The timing isn’t quite right.

And then I see a chart like this, from RBSDM:

Richardson is keeping pretty lonely company with his -0.115 EPA per play and -14.6% CPOE (Completion Percentage Over Expected). His Success Rate (37.4%) is 3rd worst (just behind DeShaun Watson and Spencer Rattler) and his completion percentage (47.2%) is dead last in the league.

I will reiterate an earlier point: this isn’t entirely on Richardson. There are issues with the rest of the offense that have contributed to this to some extent. Drops, inconsistent routes and miscommunication have certainly played a part. That being said, Richardson’s issues are impossible to ignore at this point, even with the occasional eye-popping play.

Without being in the building, there’s no way to know the exact reason Richardson was benched after this week. It’s not simply because of his performance in this game, because a lot of the bad we saw this week is the exact same brand of bad we’ve been seeing this season. There hasn’t been any progression, but he also hasn’t gotten worse.

I’ll end with this, and it’s something I kind of touched on earlier: Richardson seems like a smart player. His eyes are in the right place, but the process to get it there clearly still needs a lot of work. I know it’s not as easy as simply saying, “here is what I would do,” because there are personalities and feelings and dynamics involved in these things that no one on the outside truly knows.

That being said, here is what I would do (fully acknowledging that I am working with incomplete information and don’t actually have to make the call or have these conversations face-to-face):

I would commit to sitting Richardson for the year. Joe Flacco is the starter, Sam Ehlinger is QB2 and Richardson is QB3. I’m treating this as a redshirt year. I know organizations don’t truly coach up mechanics that much in-season, but I’d look for ways to do that with Richardson, without the pressure of having to prepare for a game. Get his timing and footwork to a place where he can do it in his sleep. You need a 3 step drop that transitions to a 5 step concept to the backside? Drill that in. Get that portion of the game to be second nature for him.

If you still view Richardson as the future – and I absolutely would – I would make sure the mechanics are as smooth and automatic as possible. You know he can read a defense and uncork a ball 70 yards at a moment’s notice. Get him more consistent with the operation, with an eye on starting him Week 1 2025.

It’s true that he needs his reps, but he’s clearly not where he needs to be right now, and I don’t know that the negative in-game reps are helpful. Make it clear to him that he’s the starter next year, then get his operation buttoned-up. Slow the base part of his game down to where he doesn’t have to think about it. That’ll help with consistency, and they can unleash a (hopefully) fully operational weapon in 2025.

Albums listened to: Laura Marling – Patterns in Repeat; St. Vincent – All Born Screaming; Boygenius – The Record; John Carpenter – Lost Themes

Packers film room: 3 key plays from narrow win over Jaguars

Looking at three key plays from the Packers’ win over the Jaguars.

The Green Bay Packers improved to 6-2 following Sunday’s close 30-27 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. It certainly wasn’t their best effort, but it was enough to keep them a half-game back in the closely contested NFC North.

Green Bay pulled out the victory despite starting quarterback Jordan Love not finishing the game due to a groin injury, which forced backup Malik Willis into action for the fourth time this season. With the offense relying heavily on its run game in the second half, Willis completed only four passes, but a clutch throw with just over a minute remaining got them into field goal range and eventually allowed Brandon McManus to kick a walk-off 24-yarder.

Meanwhile, the defense also didn’t live up to its potential but managed to clinch a game-changing turnover in the fourth quarter.

For this week’s film room, we are looking at three pivotal plays from the offense and defense that helped the Packers escape with a win in Week 8.

Let’s begin.

Josh Jacobs run

With Jordan Love out, Jacksonville expected Green Bay to lean on its run game. However, it doesn’t matter when you have a dynamic back like Josh Jacobs.

Here, it is 1st and 10, and the Jaguars are expecting another run. However, with the threat of Willis’ mobility, the Packers run a read option. It’s enough to occupy the safety coming downhill and give Jacobs enough time to get out on the edge. From there, he shows off his elusiveness and tough running, making one defender miss with a juke before running through an arm tackle. Also, kudos to Christian Watson for delivering a key downfield block to allow Jacobs to score the touchdown. It was arguably his best run of the season and gave Green Bay a two-possession lead in the third quarter.

Cooper’s strip sack

There are so many things to like about Edgerrin Cooper’s play this season. Sure, the rookie linebacker makes some mistakes, but he makes up for it through his playmaking. Cooper came up huge on Sunday by strip-sacking Trevor Lawrence at the five-yard line to set up a touchdown.

Cooper shows blitz and wastes no time bulldozing through the center once the ball is snapped. Lawrence tries to escape, but Cooper is too quick and closes the distance, knocking the ball loose as he corralled the quarterback. Also, Devonte Wyatt showed great hustle in recovering the fumble, even shoulder-checking an offensive lineman in the process. This massive turnover set up a Packers touchdown to give them a 27-17 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.

Game winner

Matt LaFleur revealed after postgame that this play call came as a suggestion from passing game coordinator Jason Vrable even though they hadn’t practiced it during the week. Apparently, Vrable saw something in the Jaguars’ defense that made him think it could work, so they made it an option for Willis on the final drive. On 2nd and 6, Willis got the look he wanted and called an audible, switching to Vrable’s suggested play. The play starts with play action and split flow from the tight end, who is actually pass-blocking. Meanwhile, Jayden Reed is lined up as an inline blocker. But instead of blocking, the speedy slot receiver leaked out into a wheel route on the opposite side of where the play flows. Reed has a ton of separation, and Willis delivers a perfect pass that hit him in stride for a 51-yard pickup. The Packers would run out the clock and kick a game-winning field goal that stemmed from a play that wasn’t even in the game plan.

Packers film room: LB Eric Wilson steps up in win over Texans

Breaking down Eric Wilson’s big-time performance for the Packers on Sunday against the Texans.

When putting together their original game plan for the Houston Texans in Week 7, the Green Bay Packers hadn’t planned on playing Eric Wilson at Mike linebacker. Those plans changed after Quay Walker exited the game early in the second quarter with a concussion.

Wilson ended up playing a season-high 57 snaps on defense and proved to be a key ingredient in the team’s come-from-behind win in the second half.

More often than not, the eighth-year linebacker was in the right place at the right time, finishing with six tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks, and a pass breakup.

“Big time credit to Eric Wilson,” Matt LaFleur said postgame.

“He made some big-time plays… I can’t say enough great things about him. He is the consummate pro in terms of just always knowing what to do and then being able to, when called upon, go out there and deliver. I’m really proud of him, and we’re lucky to have a guy like that on our team.”

Wilson is exactly what you want in a backup linebacker. Someone who can step up at a moment’s notice and you can play winning football with. He certainly did that on Sunday and will be the subject of this week’s film room as we break down some of his key plays.

Let’s begin.

Wilson (#45) did a great job reading and reacting to this halfback screen on 2nd and 10. Green Bay was getting a good amount of pressure on CJ Stroud, so the Texans decided to release their center and guard to set up a screen for Joe Mixon and possibly pick up a chunk play. However, Wilson already beat them to the spot, thanks to his quick processing and angle to the ball. This savvy veteran play put Houston into a third and long and eventually led to them settling for a field goal.

As an NFL journeyman, Wilson has been asked to wear some different hats, which has helped him develop a unique skill set. Here, the Packers send him on a blitz in a mug front with the one linebacker bluffing before dropping into coverage. Wilson continues to rush the passer, though, and is utilized as the penetrator on a stunt with defensive tackle Kenny Clark. The center picks up Clark, but the guard isn’t able to block Wilson, allowing him to get a clear path to the quarterback.

Here, Green Bay is once again running a mug front, but this time, Wilson is also bluffing and drops into coverage. While dropping back, he immediately keys in on the tight end who is running into his area. Wilson does a good job shuffling his feet, getting eyes on the quarterback, and then breaking on the ball to force an incompletion. Overall, it is an excellent rep by Wilson, who has shown he can hold his own in coverage.

Is this really another double A gap mug front? Yes, it is. But this time, both linebackers are blitzing and running a stunt. Edgerrin Cooper is the penetrator, while Wilson is the looper. Cooper does a good job of pinning the center to get Wilson free. The running back tries to identify where the pressure is coming from, but the stunt confuses him. He is too late to recognize Wilson, who gets another free rush at Stroud.

Conclusion

Wilson deserves his flowers for Sunday’s performance. Being asked to wear the communication headset and then making some crucial plays in a win over a tough team isn’t easy. Wilson has made a name for himself as an ace on special teams, but clearly, he is more than that. In the second game of the season, he had a forced fumble and an interception in a narrow win over the Indianapolis Colts. Making the most of another opportunity, he managed to one-up that performance in Week 7. Wilson has proven to be a great depth piece, but on Sunday, he showed that maybe he is due for a larger role.

Indianapolis Colts passing chronicles: Tight end pop

Let’s head to the Colts’ film room and take a look at Joe Flacco’s performance in Jacksonville along with a big play to TE Mo Alie-Cox.

With Anthony Richardson missing this game due to the hip injury, he sustained against the Steelers, the Indianapolis Colts turned to Joe Flacco to start the game this week against the Jaguars. According to FTN’s DVOA, the Jaguars rank 32nd in the league against the pass, so the Colts clearly came in with a pass-heavy gameplan. How did that look?

Let’s look at the chart:

Woooooooo buddy. Asking a nearly 40-year-old Joe Flacco to throw 44 times in a game is not something I would have anticipated working well, but he’s still got enough gas in the tank to bring it, both with his arms and, apparently, his legs.

He peppered the short-to-intermediate area, threw a fair number of passes behind the line of scrimmage and took the occasional shot. He turned in an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 7.9 (per RBSDM), which feels right where he should be. He had a solid 0.27 EPA per play, which was dwarfed by AD Mitchell’s 2.45 EPA per pass play (minimum of 1 attempt).

On the day, Flacco averaged 2.73 seconds to throw, up from the 2.6 seconds he averaged in Week 4 (per PFF). Part of that was the protection up front, but part of that was the Jaguars lack of any sort of pressure. On the day, Flacco was only under pressure on 11 of his dropacks (22.4%) and his average time to throw on those under pressure snaps was 3.27 seconds. So, on average, he was only under pressure because he was holding onto the ball.

When Flacco was kept clean, he was an absolute assassin. On those 38 dropbacks, he was 30/38 (78.9%) for 351 yards (9.2 YPA), 2 TDs & 1 INT (122.7 QB Rating). PFF has the Colts for 2 dropped passes in those 38 dropbacks, giving Flacco an adjusted completion percentage of 84.2%. Not too shabby.

Before we get out of here, let’s take a look at a play from this past week. It’s a concept that I always love seeing, and we got to see it on the second play of the day from the Colts offense.

The Colts come out in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) in a shotgun look. They’re in a 2×2 formation, with Mo Alie-Cox [81] in-line on the right and Tyler Goodson [31] aligned to Flacco’s left. The Jaguars have a 6 man box, with 4 down linemen and 2 linebackers. With a light box, the Jaguars are looking to attack the run.

At the snap, Goodson crosses Flacco’s face and Flacco puts the ball into the belly of Goodson for the playfake. To add to that, Quenton Nelson [56] pulls to the right. That action triggers the linebackers to the presumed point of attack.

Alie-Cox releases at an angle that would be consistent with sealing one of the linebackers on a run play. With the linebackers thinking run, Alie-Cox simply releases through the middle and Flacco hits him as soon as he clears the safeties.

By the time the linebackers realize they’ve been duped, Alie-Cox has the ball in his hands and end up picking up 19 yards.

A beautiful call and nice execution.

Albums listened to: Efterklang – Things We Have in Common; Sunset Rubdown – Always Happy to Explode

Packers film room: Breaking down Evan Williams’ breakout game vs. Rams

Breaking down the breakout game from Packers rookie safety Evan Williams against the Rams.

Green Bay Packers safety Evan Williams played a season-high 78 snaps in Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Rams. In fact, it was more snaps than he had played in the first four games combined.

For the first month of the season, Williams had primarily served as the third safety behind Xavier McKinney and Javon Bullard. However, Green Bay decided to shuffle their secondary in Week 5, allowing the rookie fourth-rounder to take on an expanded role on defense.

Williams made the most of the opportunity, leading the team with 10 tackles and breaking up two passes, including one on the final fourth-down attempt to secure the win.

“Evan is another guy that’s very smart. He’s instinctive, and he has a knack for the football,” said Matt LaFleur. “He made a couple critical plays today on some critical downs, be it third or fourth down, where he was able to defend some passes. I think Evan is going to continue to get better and better and better.”

It was a highly anticipated performance for Packers fans who had heard so much about Williams’ ball skills and playmaking during training camp. He finally got his chance to showcase them against the Rams.

If it’s not obvious by now, for this week’s film review, we are going to break down some of Williams’ top plays from his outing in Los Angeles. Let’s begin.

Coming out of Oregon, many believed Williams (#33) would be best served as a box safety in the NFL. However, he certainly looks comfortable as the deep safety in this Cover 3 look. Williams gets depth using a smooth backpedal and opens his hips to the Z receiver, who is running vertically. He then flips his hips as the receiver crosses his face. Realizing his man is being targeted, Williams does a solid job of breaking on the route and causing disruption at the catch point. Overall, he showcases some pretty good technique on this rep.  

Williams is a hyper-aware run defender, as he showcases here. Notice how he triggers as soon as the tight end goes in motion on this toss play. Williams attacks downhill with urgency while maintaining leverage and also takes on a block to help with the tackle. LaFleur said Williams is smart and instinctive, and you can certainly see his processing skills on display here.

Here, we get a good look at Williams’ closing speed and ability to tackle in space. The Packers run a zone blitz, with Williams dropping down underneath. He shows good awareness to pick up the wide receiver running into the flat as he sprints to the ball and makes a good tackle short of the line to gain.

The Rams picked up a decent gain on this play, but it is still a good example of the type of player Williams is. He is clearly not afraid to be physical seeing that he lowers the boom on the tight end trying to block for his running back. As you can see, Williams is tough, competitive, and plays to the whistle. He’s sort of a throwback strong safety who brings a hardened mindset when he is on the field and is a nice complement to Xavier McKinney’s ball-hawking.

Here is the play that sealed the win for Green Bay. Los Angeles got the ball back with less than three minutes remaining to try and score a touchdown to take the lead. They moved the ball into Packers territory but ended up facing a 4th and 5 do-or-die situation with just over a minute left. The Rams tried to create some confusion for Green Bay’s defense by running a trail concept out of bunch formation. Fortunately, the Packers’ defenders do a good job of executing their responsibilities against this concept. The blitz forces Matthew Stafford into a hurried throw, so he tries to get the ball to tight end Colby Parkinson running the trail route, except Williams has excellent coverage and forces the incompletion. It was a collective effort by Williams and the defense to get a stop when they needed it most.

Conclusion

In the end, Green Bay has to be pleased with Williams’ performance from Sunday, but it’s difficult to say what it means for his role moving forward. The Packers will continue to use Bullard, and McKinney isn’t going anywhere, having played 100 percent of the defensive snaps during his historic run of five interceptions in five games. In Week 5, they experimented with Bullard in the nickel spot, but that could revert to Keisean Nixon’s role once Jaire Alexander returns from injury. It’s a good problem to have a secondary full of talented players, though not everyone will play as much as they’d like. Williams certainly deserves more opportunities, but his snap count will likely be gameplan-specific, depending on the opponent.

Packers film room: Closer look at dominant pass-rushing performance vs. Titans

The Packers produced 8 sacks against the Titans on Sunday. Let’s dig into the tape of the dominant pass-rushing performance.

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur summed up his thoughts on the team’s pass rush during training camp: “The pass rush is real,” he said on July 28.

Green Bay’s defensive line showed flashes of brilliance over the summer. However, first-year defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley couldn’t unleash them for the first two games of the regular season, going up against two quarterbacks eager to utilize their mobility in Jalen Hurts and Anthony Richardson.

That changed in Week 3 when the face Packers had an advantageous matchup against a Tennessee Titans offense hindered by a struggling Will Levis at quarterback and a permeable offensive line.

On Sunday, Green Bay took advantage of the opportunity, sacking Levis eight times, tying their second-highest total since sacks became an official stat in 1982. The defense line’s ability to wreak consistent havoc made life easy for safety Xavier McKinney, who would snag his third interception of the season off of Levis.

“The pass rush was ridiculous,” said McKinney. “Sometimes, we’re not even rushing real. We’re just contain rushing. They still getting back there, so it’s lovely for us.”

Through the first two weeks, the Packers had no choice but to play more contain against Hurts and Richardson. Fortunately, knowing the Titans were having serious issues with their pass protection allowed the pass rush to pin their ears back.

Most of the offseason conversation was dominated by how Green Bay would be implementing a new, aggressive defense. Against the Titans, all that talk turned into actual dominance on the field.

Featuring four former first-round picks along the defensive line, the Packers have the talent to be one of the best pass-rushing teams in the NFL. On Sunday, they certainly looked the part.

For this week’s film, we are taking a closer look at what happened during Green Bay’s raucous day getting after the quarterback in Tennessee.

Let’s begin.

Lukas Van Ness got the first sack of the day, and it was an impactful one on third down. While Van Ness’s hand usage still needs some work, his speed and motor are evident in this play. He and Rashan Gary are able to bend the corner and collapse the pocket around Levis. When Levis tries to break out to his right, Van Ness gets back into the play to punish him. Van Ness was far from a finished product when Green Bay took him 13th overall in 2023. Instead, the team made the selection knowing they were getting a high-level prospect with elite size and athleticism they could develop. This play highlights those traits.

After some initial uncertainty, Kingsley Enagbare was fortunate to avoid a serious injury during last year’s playoffs. The 2022 fifth-rounder looked as healthy and explosive as ever on this play, where he embarrassed right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere. Enagbare is lined up at the nine-technique to utilize his speed to get upfield. He gives Petit-Frere a little crossover move and then finishes with a club-swim. Enagbare gets a clean shot at the quarterback and forces a fumble in the process. This play occurred during the third quarter when the Packers were up 27-14. The Titans were driving at the time, but the takeaway kept points off the board. Van Ness did an excellent jumping on the ball as well.

It’s been years since Green Bay ran their NASCAR package (four defensive ends on the field instead of two with two defensive tackles). Basically, every player in the frame has an impact on this play. Enagbare uses a nasty double-swipe move to keep himself free from the center. Meanwhile, Gary does a nice job beating the right tackle and turning a tight corner to force Levis into his help. You also have to like how Edgerrin Cooper (#56) is blitzing from depth even though he gets picked up. Hopefully, we will see Cooper doing more of this in the future. Overall, this sack showcases how the Packers can get creative with their arsenal of pass rushers.

This is one of the cleanest reps you’ll see from a defensive end. Smith makes easy work of the right tackle, destroying him with a double-swipe into a swim move. The quarterback stood no chance the second the ball was snapped. Even at 31 years of age, Smith is still an effective player.

Conclusion

Watching Green Bay’s pass rush get after it this week was a lot of fun. It was one of the X-factors in clinching their second win of the season and limiting Tennessee to just 14 points while forcing three turnovers. Of course, it’s not fair to expect this type of performance every week from the defensive line, but it shows what they are capable of when everything is clicking.

Colts Passing Chronicles: Mesh Rail and the damage done

Let’s head to the film room and take a look at how the Colts’ offense used the mesh concept to their advantage.

Some high-highs, some low-lows and some maddening inconsistency: the Anthony Richardson experience was on full display once again this week in the Indianapolis Colts victory over the Bears.

We got a beautiful deep-ball to Alec Pierce, but we also got a head-scratching interception in the end zone and a third down throw to the flat that went five feet over the head of the receiver. Let’s look at the passing chart:

On the day, Richardson completed 50% of his passes for 167 yards, 0 TDs and 2 INTs. He posted an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 10.4 (per RBSDM), so he’s still pushing the ball down field, but that number is slowly coming back to normal (he posted an ADOT of 16.4 in Week 1 and 11.6 in Week 2).

On his two interceptions, the first seemed to be a case of just not seeing the defender and the second seemed to be a case of an inaccurate pass. We’re not breaking those down today, because I like this space to be a fun and happy one in terms of the film portion, but maybe we’ll take a look later this week.

It’s a left-leaning chart, with only five throws to the right side of the field and a pretty big void in the middle of the field.

The Colts went play action in the passing game on 30.4% of their snaps (per NFL Pro), which is right in-line with their season average of 31%.

Overall, this passing game just isn’t operating very well right now (a bit of an understatement, to be sure). They are capable of hitting a big play at any time…

…but they’re also capable of air-mailing a receiver on 3rd down, killing a drive.

For now, let’s get to a fun play. It’s an incomplete pass but I like the design, so we’re calling it fun.

As with a lot of people like me, Mesh is one of my favorite passing concepts. It’s fairly simple at its core – two shallow crossing routes that intersect in the middle of the field is what lies at the heart of it – but there are countless variations, each of them useful and beautiful. This one here is called Mesh Rail, and it’s one of my favorites.

The Colts are in 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR), with a YY Wing look on the right with both of their tight ends on the line. Jonathan Taylor [28] is initially set to Anthony Richardson’s [5] left, but motions behind Richardson before the snap and out to the right.

The Colts send Alec Pierce [14] vertical on the left side, then run Mesh Sit in the middle, with Mo Alie-Cox [81] and Michael Pittman [11] as the meshers and Andrew Ogletree [85] following Alie-Cox and working a sit route over the Mesh point.

And then Taylor runs a Rail route out of the backfield.

The two tight ends releasing inside out of that heavy look causes confusion with the Bears in coverage, springing Taylor wide open on the Rail. That’s Richardson’s first read, so he throws it immediately.

Richardson puts this sucker on a line and just barely overshoots Taylor. You can make an argument that Taylor should have caught this – it did glance off his fingertips, after all – but the Bears defenders had recovered by this point and TJ Edwards [53] is waiting to dislodge this ball the moment Taylor hauls it in.

If this ball has a bit more air under it and leads Taylor up the sideline, we may be talking about a different outcome. As it stands, this goes down as an incomplete pass on 3rd down. A real shame, because this is a beauty.

Album listened to: Richard Edwards – Sings the Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s Songbook

Colts Film Room: Messing with Linebackers

Let’s head into the film room and take a look at how the Colts’ offense was able to find success messing with the Packers’ linebackers.

Earlier this week I wrote about the Colts passing game against the Packers. A bit of a high-level look with numbers, then dug into a 30 yard pass to Adonai Mitchell. Since I’m only really looking at one play in that post, a lot of really fun stuff gets tossed to the side. Being a lover of fun offensive plays, that makes me sad, so I wanted to bring up a couple more plays I really liked.

After all, regardless of the result of the game, I believe that Shane Steichen is a good offensive mind and there is a lot of talent on this offense, so there are bound to be plays in each game that are fun and cool, and yet get glossed over.

We’re not getting to a ton of plays today (mainly because time is in short supply), but we’re going to take a look at two that I really liked. So let’s get to it.

Play 1

This is a play that basically mirrors the first play I ever wrote up for this site: a post-snap RPO. This is slightly different, but not overly so. It’s a concept I love and will find every excuse to write about, which is how we find ourselves here.

Let’s revisit the idea slightly. There are two types of RPOs: pre-snap read and post-snap read. A pre-snap read is typically a behind-the-line-of-scrimmage route and the decision to either throw the ball or hand off the ball is based on the numbers to the receiving side. If the offense has more receivers to a side of the field than the defense has defenders, the QB will throw it. If they don’t have an advantage, the QB will hand the ball off.

A post-snap RPO has the QB reading a defender (typically called a “conflict defender”). This is a more vertically attacking route. The QB will fake the handoff and read a second-level defender (usually a linebacker or slot corner). If that player stays back in coverage, that means there’s one less defender to play against the run, so the QB will hand the ball off. If the defender attacks the line of scrimmage to play the run, that means there is a void in coverage so the QB will pull the ball and throw.

This play is a post-snap read.

The Colts are running Duo (basically a power, inside zone based run), with a glance/hitch from the left slot. Ashton Dulin [16] is the receiver and Keisean Nixon [25] is the conflict defender.

At the snap, Anthony Richardson [4] puts the ball into the belly of Jonathan Taylor [28] and reads Nixon.

Nixon fires down immediately at the line, making this an easy decision for Richardson. Dulin – being uncovered at the line – looks back for the ball immediately, and hitches up into the space voided by Nixon.

Easy pitch-and-catch for Richardson and Dulin.

Play 2

This is not exactly the same thing, as it’s simply a play action and not an RPO, but the idea is the same. The Colts are looking to get a second-level defender to bite on the threat of a run, then attack the space behind them.

On this play, they’re attacking Isaiah McDuffie [58] with Mo Alie-Cox [81].

The Colts are selling a power run to the right, with Taylor crossing the face of Richardson on the playfake and Quenton Nelson [56] pulling to the right. Alie-Cox releases vertically off the line, which would be consistent with a run to that side, as he would be looking to block McDuffie.

All that action sells the run, triggering McDuffie down to the line. Alie-Cox simply runs right past McDuffie to a wide-open middle and Richardson finds him for a gain of 22.

A lovely bit of misdirection that pays off with a big gain.

Album listened to: Starflyer 59 – Lust For Gold

Colts Passing Chronicles: Anthony Richardson finds AD Mitchell for big gain

Colts’ QB Anthony Richardson connected with AD Mitchell for a 30 yard gain vs. the Packers. Let’s take a closer look at how that play unfolded.

To say the Colts struggled to pass the ball this week would be an understatement. Before we get too deep into it, let’s look at Anthony Richardson’s passing chart.

He spread the ball around a bit, not locking onto one part of the field. That’s good! Also, we can knock one interception off his total there, because Hail Mary interceptions shouldn’t count. That’s the platform I’m running for office on.

One thing these charts don’t account for are the drops. And there were quite a few drops. PFF has them listed with three, but I’ve yet to find a place that accurately charts drops. Most places tend to skew more charitable to the receiver, which is fine except it makes it hard to get the full view of the QB. Personally, I counted 5 passes that hit a receiver in the hand that ended up being incomplete. There’s also a spike thrown in for good measure. So not a great day for Richardson, but it could have been a little better with some help from his receivers.

Richardson had an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 11.6. That’s down from his 16.4 ADOT we saw in Week 1, but still higher than the 2023 ADOT Leader, Will Levis (11.1). So I don’t expect the number to be this high every week, but maybe it will. The Colts certainly have the speed and weapons to try to operate that way, but they’ll need to be better in the short-to-intermediate areas to be a more consistent offense.

There were flashes from this passing offense that were really exciting, but, for the most part, they remained flashes. Moments of brilliance, bridged by moments of madness.

Let’s look at a fun play before we get out of here. This is Adonai’s Mitchell only catch of the game: a 30 yard gain on 1st & 10 early in the 4th quarter.

With the Colts down 16-3, the Packers come out with a two-high safety look. It looks like the Packers know the Colts need to pass and are looking to put an umbrella over the offense. The two deep safeties for the Packers are Xavier McKinney [29] and Evan Williams [33].

On the left side, the Colts are looking to take a shot, with Alec Pierce [14] running a post from the outside and Adonai Mitchell [10] running an out-and-up from the slot.

Just before the snap, McKinney bails to the post and Williams drives down on Mitchell, changing from a two-high safety defense to a single-high. It’s a nice bit of disguise and solid rotation, but the Colts have the perfect play-call on and Richardson sees the defensive rotation and knows exactly where to go with the ball.

By firing down hard on the slot, Williams leaves himself open to a double-move, which is exactly what Mitchell is doing. Williams follows Mitchell on the out, but can’t catch up when Mitchell turns upfield.

With Pierce dragging the boundary defender to the middle of the field, there’s an ocean of space for Mitchell.

Richardson throws a perfect ball, dropping over the top of Williams and to the outside where the closing Carrington Valentine [24] can’t get to it.

Nicely done all the way around.

Album listened to: Haley Heynderickx – I Need to Start a Garden