Mere seconds after I was sure the clock had hit 0:00 in Charlotte, I sat back (with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head) and said, “that was about a good a game as I could have hoped for.”

Despite the offense being without Christian Watson and Jayden Reed (and losing Dontayvion Wicks during the game), we saw them put up 33 points on the road. This unit continues to show growth and flashes. Jordan Love turned in another nice performance and we have seen the continued ascendance of Tucker Kraft as both a pass catcher and a dirty-work run-blocker. We also got to see Aaron Jones be Aaron Jones, which is always a delight.

On top of that, we got a defensive performance that will not allow the Packers to delude themselves at the end of the year that Joe Barry ended the year “on a heater” against a bad set of teams. If the Packers had won this game 33-10 I would have had a blast while watching it, but I also would have been a little worried that this might serve as evidence to talk the Packers into another year of Barry. But now? I don’t have that fear. (And no, I don’t particularly care with LaFleur says at the podium about any of this.)

Alright. Enough of this. Let’s talk about the passing offense. To the chart!

A nice, balanced chart. A negative CPOE (Completion Percentage Over Expected) of -5.0%, but a couple drops contributed to that number so it doesn’t really concern me. Love’s 28 attempts were his lowest since the 26 attempts he had against the Rams in week 9. The Packers came out of the half with more of a run-heavy approach (they dropped back to pass on 54.1% of their snaps in the 1st half and 38.5% in the 2nd half), which is a perfectly fine strategy when you’re leading by 10 and get the ball to start the second half. The run game performed pretty well in the 3rd quarter (4.1 YPA), but totally fell off in the 4th quarter (1.5 YPA). In the 4th quarter, Love went 4/7 (57.1%) for 60 yards (8.6 YPA), with that big 36 yard toss to Romeo Doubs on 3rd down carrying a lot of weight.

Love had another good day against the blitz. Per PFF, Love was 9/13 for 100 yards (7.7 YPA), 1 TD and 1 sack. He had an average time to throw of 2.2 seconds and an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 7.8 yards. The ADOT is slightly higher than we've been seeing from Love against the blitz (he had been in the 6.5 range as of late), but it was still quite a bit lower than his non-blitz ADOT of 11.1 yards. It's been awesome to see how well he has been performing against the blitz as the season has gone on, especially with blitz-happy Minnesota looming.

The Packers were a little less reliant on throws behind the line of scrimmage (LOS) this week than we’ve seen as of late. For the game, the Packers had 16 RPO calls, which made up 25.4% of their total offense. That’s up from their season average of 19.3%, but down from their week 15 mark of 29.8%. They also threw on only 12.5% of those RPO calls, down from their season average of 22.3%. So that explains seeing fewer targets behind the LOS.

I could go on and on (I already have), but let’s cut this short and get to a couple plays. Today we’re looking at two 3rd down plays at opposite ends of the game.

Play 1: 3rd & 7, 1:16 remaining in the 1st quarter

On their second drive of the game, the Packers were facing 3rd & 7 at the Panthers 10 yard line. The Packers are in 11 personnel and they shift Dontayvion Wicks [13] across the formation pre-snap, giving them a 3x1 alignment, with Aaron Jones [33] set away from the trips side. The Panthers bump coverage with the motion, indicating that they’re playing zone coverage. More importantly, Tucker Kraft [85] is uncovered at the line, both pre-and-post shift. Kraft sees this and makes sure to make eye contact with Jordan Love [10]. The Panthers are showing two-high safeties, but the uncovered Kraft suggests that they’ll likely be rotating to a single-high post-snap.

At the snap, the Panthers get a little funkier than that. They do, in fact, rotate their coverage,but they do it in a way that basically amounts to the Panthers playing Cover 0 (straight man-to-man in coverage). The safety over the slot picks up Wicks, while the safety from the opposite hash rotates over to pick up Kraft.

The Packers are running what I believe to be a two-man Stick look. On this concept, the Packers typically have the #2 and #3 receivers running quick-outs, but the #3 receiver (Kraft, in this case), usually has the option to run a quick stick/hitch route.

Between being uncovered at the line and seeing the rotating coverage, Kraft quickly gets upfield, sticks his foot in the dirt and makes himself a target for Love. Knowing he has to get the ball out quickly, Love no-hitches the throw when his 3rd foot hits.

But that’s not all. Kraft is 2 yards short of the line to gain, and the high throw takes him off his feet. Kraft is contacted as soon as he hits the ground, but he’s able to fight through contact and pick up the first down.

The Packers would score a TD 3 plays later to push their lead to 14-3.

Nice read-and-recognition from Love and Kraft, and a great individual effort from Kraft to pick up a big 1st down. Whether you’re looking at him in the run game or the pass game, it’s hard to not be impressed with what Kraft has been doing as the season has rolled on. 

Play 2: 3rd & 4, 2:39 remaining in the 4th quarter

Here’s the big 3rd down completion to Romeo Doubs [87] on the Packers final drive. It’s 3rd & 4 and the Panthers drift back into a single-high coverage look pre-snap. On the right side of the field, the Packers are running a pick-and-drag look, with Kraft running straight up the field to create a wall for Malik Heath [18] to run a drag underneath. A nice concept to try to pick up 4 yards on 3rd down.

On the other side, they’re running an out-route with Bo Melton [80] off jet motion and Doubs on a vertical fade route over the top (more on that in a minute). The “safe” play looks like the drag route to Heath, but the extra body rolling into the box causes a little more traffic in that area. 

At the snap, Love is looking at the safety rotation. If they rotate back to two-high, Love likely checks to the drag. If they stay in single-high, Love knows he has Doubs on a one-on-one opportunity away from the safety.

Love confirms single-high at the snap, then throws the ball to Doubs.

A bit earlier, I called this a “vertical fade route” by Doubs. At his post-game press conference, Love referred to this as a “stomp” route by Doubs. I don’t mind telling you that I had never heard that term before. And so, at the prompting of a friend, I dug in a bit. As near as I can tell, a “stomp” route is basically a deep fade route that pushes straight-forward more than a typical fade route, with the goal of getting in the way of the boundary defender on his way to cover the other route in the combination. It’s also possible that it’s a “stop” route that converts to a “go” route against certain coverages (“stop”+”go” combined to form “stomp” because it’s easier to say than something like “sto-go”). Based on the limited information I have, I think it’s the deeper-breaking fade, but, if someone wants to present me with evidence to the contrary, I’m down for listening.

Doubs came down with the ball (as the video review told us), and the Packers would kick the game-winning field goal 6 plays later.

Albums listened to: The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely; The Killers - Don’t Waste Your Wishes; Low - Christmas; Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler - This is Christmas; Ben Folds - Rockin’ the Suburbs