Breaking Down How Aaron Rodgers Gashed the New England Secondary
The biggest matchup of the week in the biggest game of the week could have been the Green Bay Packers passing offense against the New England Patriots passing defense. As noted in last week's game plan piece, the Patriots came into the week as the sixth-best pass defense based on opposing passer rating.
New England—armed with three former Pro Bowlers in the secondary—composed one of the toughest units in all of the league. On the flip side, though, Aaron Rodgers—an MVP candidate—Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson—who are two likely Pro Bowlers in 2014—are no slouches.
TOP NEWS
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Colts Release Kenny Moore
Projecting Every NFL Team's Starting Lineup 🔮
Rookie WRs Who Will Outplay Their Draft Value 📈
Even rookie receiver Davante Adams put up a career day during Sunday's 26-21 victory for Green Bay.
Without the effort from the Packers passing offense overcoming the strength of the Patriots defense—their defensive backs—Green Bay might not have come out with a win. Giving the match a deeper look, a few plays flash off the screen as impactful moments of the game.
This first play is a good example of what New England did all game. With a talented secondary, the Patriots elected to play much of the match in man coverage. Up top, there was a single-high safety, giving the Packers a Cover 1 or Cover 3 look pre-snap.
What's interesting, though, is that the free safety, at least a majority of the time, was shaded toward Nelson. So while the Cover 1 is really designed to put a cap on the offense, the Patriots used it in a specific way: To put a cap on Jordy Nelson.
On the wide side of the field—the one where the ball would go and where Rodgers had his initial read—his receivers ran tandem out-and-up routes. Trying to lose the island cornerbacks in the horizontal to vertical transition was the goal of the offense on this play.
The play was executed well and Adams, the X receiver, exploded into his cut, letting Rodgers rip off a pass before the cornerback even finished breaking on his man's route.
The high safety was between the numbers and hashes on the other side of the field, out of play to make a move on the receiver streaking down the sideline.
Adams reeled the ball in and added 45 yards to his receiving total on this one play.
Again, the Patriots would come out in Cover 1 with a high safety shaded toward Nelson, the Z receiver. To take advantage of this, the Packers had both their boundary targets—including Adams, who was playing X—run curl routes. This was designed to get an overaggressive safety to bite underneath, allowing either Richard Rodgers (the H) or Cobb (the Y) to make a play deep.
Initially pumping toward Nelson, Rodgers regained composure in the pocket and threw his eyes downfield when he saw the safety bail. His tight end, the other Rodgers, had inside leverage on an inside-breaking route with only one man on him.
If the Patriots hadn't been telegraphing their coverage and played balanced, Rodgers probably would have thrown to one of the curl routes or checked it down to running back Eddie Lacy in the flat.
Due to their inefficient coverage call, New England allowed Green Bay to score six on the play.
This play was a little different than those previously highlighted. On the left, playing X on the sideline, was tight end Richard Rodgers. Perhaps because of this, the Patriots killed the shade call. Either way, their high safety played more of a true Cover 1 safety look.
On the right is where all the action occurred. Locked up against man coverage, the Packers had two receivers run crossing patterns and another run what looked to be a curl. What this did was attempt to stretch the defensive backs to the other side of the field or keep them near the line of scrimmage.
The real read was on the running back, who wasn't actually a running back. In the backfield was Cobb, the typical slot receiver. On this play, he was matched up against a linebacker in man coverage. Running a wheel route, he was slated to run right through the vacated space his teammates were supposed to create.
Talented and patient, Rodgers kept his eyes downfield, locking the safety in a balanced position. As you can see down the right sideline though, Cobb was running free down a tunnel of green grass, just waiting for a ball to come his way.
He eventually would get his name called. Making the catch, Cobb gained 33 yards on the play.
After losing twice deep with an unbalanced safety, the Patriots seemed to learn their lesson in the second half. Now, their man was playing in the center of the field a majority of the time.
Again against Cover 1, Green Bay ran a different concept on this play: A short combination.
Instead of attacking the defense deep, the team ran what's known as an slant-dart. In the slot was receiver Jarrett Boykin, who started the season as the team's third receiver but has since been replaced by Adams. He ran a dart route, which is essentially a straight line at an angle right off the snap.
The other route in the combination was a slant by Nelson, the Z receiver. He goes vertical until he has leverage on the cornerback, giving the dart route underneath him space to work. Then, he should have inside leverage on an inside-breaking route against man coverage, giving him all the space in the middle of the field.
If he's not open, at least theoretically, then the dart should be.
He was indeed open on the play, and the middle of the field was vacated just as designed. The safety taking a poor angle also didn't help. Nelson was set to make a lot of yards after the catch.
In the end, it was 35 yards and six points which were added after the Kansas State product made the reception.
Final Thoughts
Against a talented pass defense, the Packers showed up. When New England began the game "cheating" toward Nelson's side of the field, Green Bay adjusted and took advantage. The fact that the New England secondary even had to play out of balance is telling of how talented the unit thought the Packers receivers were.
Coming out of the game with a win, this might have been one of the best performances by this squad all season. Winning in multiple ways through the air, Green Bay has to feel confident after last week's performance.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
