LaFleur schemed to get Adams open
GREEN BAY - You might remember the 2011 Sports Illustrated cover that featured Aaron Rodgers and his top six receiving weapons.
There they were — Rodgers, Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Jermichael Finley, Randall Cobb, James Jones and Donald Driver — relaxed and smiling midseason on their way to putting up the second-most points (560) in NFL history up to that time. Nearly a decade later that team still ranks as the league's fourth-highest scoring ever.
That Mike McCarthy-coached offense was matchup based. With receiving talent across the board, McCarthy and Rodgers always could find favorable matchups no matter whom the defense tried to take out of the game with double teams. It didn't need to scheme to get guys open. Just find the best matchup and let that guy win.
The 2019 Packers don't have anywhere near that receiving talent and very much want to get the ball to their best receiver, Davante Adams. His average of 10.6 targets a game in the regular season ranked second-highest in the league, behind only Michael Thomas (11.6).
Rookie coach Matt LaFleur's offense uses scheme more than McCarthy's to get receivers open, and in recent weeks he and Rodgers have had more success getting Adams not just targets but quality targets with scheme creativity. That was evident in the Packers' 28-23 divisional-round playoff win over Seattle on Sunday night.
Adams had another huge game with eight receptions (on 11 targets) for 160 yards, which gives him 35 catches and a 118-yard average per game in the last four games. He accomplished it with the combination of superb route running, exceptional chemistry with Rodgers and scheming that stressed the Seahawks' secondary.
The most obvious example was Adams' first touchdown, the fake rub route that Rodgers recommended LaFleur put in the game plan. The play looks every bit the conventional rub route coming off the snap, but as Adams and Geronimo Allison were about to criss-cross, each instead stayed on his side and broke in opposite directions.
It completely fooled Seahawks cornerbacks Tre Flowers and Ugo Amadi, who were in man coverage. The two cornerbacks crossed paths, then stopped when they realized the receivers faked the rub route. By that point it was over. Adams and Allison were wide open — Adams running toward the corner of the end zone, Allison on a crossing route — and Rodgers took the easy throw over the top to Adams for the touchdown.
Likewise, LaFleur has been using Adams more in the slot in recent weeks. That's where the receiver was aligned on the huge 32-yard catch on thirdand-8 in the fourth quarter that helped the Packers run out the clock.
From the right slot, Adams beat Amadi off the line with an inside move, then had plenty of room to the outside to fade away from safety Lano Hill's double coverage. Rodgers after the game said Adams improvised the route. The quarterback read his receiver and dropped a perfect touch throw over Adams' shoulder for the huge third-down conversion.
The first play of the second quarter showed another way LaFleur schemed to get Adams the ball. On a first down he had Adams, lined up in a slot-like spot on the left, run across the formation behind Rodgers after the snap. That's usually something you do with a tight end or running back.
Rodgers then ran a bootleg along with Adams and flicked about a 10-yard pass to the line of scrimmage. It was an easy pitch and catch, and Adams, with a running start, picked up an easy 18 yards after the catch.
By lining up Adams all across the line — wide to either side, tight to either side, in the slot or in motion occasionally — LaFleur never allowed the Seahawks to get a bead on where he'd be. That stressed their double-team attempts, because it involved different players doing the doubling and made those players think and adjust on the fly.
San Francisco surely will have a target on Adams for the NFC championship game this Sunday. LaFleur will need to be creative to get his best receiver the ball.
Pettine’s plan
Mike Pettine, the Packers' defensive coordinator, had a good plan to keep Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson in the pocket, and it worked well in the first half, until Wilson's elite scrambling skills wore down the Packers' defensive front in the third and fourth quarters.
Pettine kept his outside rushers wide even on stunts to keep Wilson from escaping around the edge and tried to get pressure up the middle, sometimes by having Za'Darius Smith roam the middle of the line and rush like a blitzing inside linebacker. Pettine also had his rushers try to keep Wilson in front of them, or at least to not rush past him.
The result was a first half that saw Wilson put up only three points and a measly 74.2 rating, get sacked three times and run only twice for 16 yards.
But in the second half the Packers weren't as disciplined on their rushes, perhaps in part because of fatigue, and Wilson took advantage (five rushes for 48 yards and 172 yards passing). On a Seahawks' touchdown drive late in the third quarter, for instance, Smith used an inside move from left end, which allowed Wilson a huge escape hatch to the outside that the quarterback took for an easy 11-yard pickup.
Wilson got the Seahawks back into the game by leading three touchdown drives, and he did it by escaping rushers on play after play. Still, the Packers sacked him five times (six if you count cornerback Jaire Alexander's on a twopoint conversion attempt), including
Preston Smith's on the big play that ended the Seahawks' final drive. That says they executed Pettine's plan at least well enough against one of the game's premier quarterbacks.
Extra points
❚ The Packers will need Alexander and fellow cornerback Kevin King to tackle as aggressively and well against the 49ers as they have for much of this season, including against the Seahawks on Sunday. King had one particularly tough tackle that dropped the physical Marshawn Lynch on a 1-yard gain early in the second quarter. The 49ers are the NFL's most run-oriented team and live and die with the outside zone run, which will test Alexander and King repeatedly.
❚ LaFleur ran a three-tight-end personnel group about 10 times Sunday but threw almost every time out of that runoriented personnel. One of the reasons LaFleur used three tight ends so much was because fullback Danny Vitale (illness) didn't play, so the coach lined up rookie tight end Jace Sternberger at fullback on a few snaps. But LaFleur must like the element of surprise throwing the ball from that personnel group, as well as the extra pass protection. Adams' 40-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter came on a three-tight-end grouping, and two of the tight ends (Marcedes Lewis and Sternberger) stayed in to block.