I missed the first quarter of this game live, as my softball team was putting the finishing touches on an undefeated regular season (every win coming by way of mercy rule, I might add). By the time I got to a TV, thunder and lightning had descended on Lambeau and the Packers held a 14-0 lead. I told everyone that would listen last week that this game scared me. If a 35-14 victory is the end result of a game I’m scared of, I think I need to find reasons to be terrified every week.

I will admit that the vicious hit on Davante Adams took the wind out of my sails a bit. The Packers were up 21-7 when it occurred and I was feeling pretty good. After that hit, all I wanted was for the game to be over as soon as possible and to get some good news on the status of Adams. I think that was true of all Packers fans. Thankfully, Adams seems to be recovering well. The offense will certainly miss him while he’s gone, but I hope he’s able to take off as many games as he needs to fully recover.

Even after all the injuries, the Packers are 3-1. I’ll take it.

Let’s get to the film.

I wrote about the fake slant/flat call that led to Randall Cobb’s touchdown in One Big Play this week. You can read that here.

The Bad

We all know the end result of this play: Kendall Wright [13] scored a touchdown and Damarious Randall [23] went home.

On the initial play, I was thinking that Randall had responsibility on the inside route and over the top should the route be run to the sideline. In which case, he would be looking for help underneath this route.

Upon further inspection, that was not the case. Wright gives a step inside, leading Randall to think he may be running a slant. Randall bites hard on that route, looking to knock the ball away or grab an interception. When Wright cuts back left, Randall is in no position to catch up and make a play on the ball. Mike Glennon [8] picks up an easy touchdown here.

The Packers are in man coverage across the board, so this is absolutely, 100% on Randall.

Here’s a little food for thought on this: this play takes place on 3rd and 2. Randall appears to have his eyes on the sticks with this break. After all, if the Bears pick up 2 yards, they’ll get 3 more chances to get a touchdown. I wonder if that’s on his mind here. That’s not an excuse, but rather something to think about when looking at this play.

The Good

There’s a lot of good things to unpack here.

First we have the obvious: Clay Matthews [52] doing a great job of never letting Dion Sims [88] get good position on him. Matthews keeps hand-fighting and is eventually able to rip through Sims, get outside and pick up a strip sack of Mike Glennon [8].

Next up is Kenny Clark [97]. Clark was a monster all game – we’ll get to more of him in a minute – and he certainly pulls his weight here. He gets double-teamed and is still able to push both blockers into the backfield.

Clark giving Cody Whitehair [65] and Kyle Long [75] all they can handle opens up a lane for Jake Ryan [47], who plays this extremely well. Glennon doesn’t give a great playfake to Jordan Howard [24], but it’s enough of one to give Ryan pause. Ryan is initially playing the run. When it’s clear Howard is not running the ball, he makes his way into the backfield, knowing Blake Martinez [50] will pick up Howard on the route. But Ryan doesn’t want to get picked off by Howard, so he pauses for a beat to see if Howard is going to try to block him. Howard never does, so Ryan is free to run into the middle, jumping at the last minute to close off a throwing lane.

Kyle Lowry [94] gets leverage on Bobby Massie [70] and doesn’t let up, driving him into the backfield.

Ahmad Brooks [55] collapses the left side of the Bears line by driving Charles Leno [72] back with a powerful punch, followed by a terrific bull rush.

Quinton Dial [91] gets a nice initial push against ex-Packer Josh Sitton [71], but Sitton ends up holding his position pretty well after that initial move, because Josh Sitton is still pretty good.

The Packers brought 6 on this play, and had good enough coverage down the field to force Glennon to hold the ball. The rush didn’t allow for any space for Glennon to move when things got uncomfortable and the result was a turnover in the Packers favor.

Packers are in Cover 2 Man Under. Josh Jones [27] starts this play aligned in an inside linebacker role, matched up with Zach Miller [86]. At the snap, Miller runs to the flat and Jones runs with him.

The call is a wide receiver screen. The ball is thrown to Deonte Thompson [14] on the outside while Miller and Kendall Wright [13] act as blockers. Watch Jones react when he sees Thompson curling back for the screen. He peels off coverage and cuts underneath Miller, making a nice tackle.

Great recognition and pursuit by the rookie. He has been a game-changer the past couple weeks.

The Packers came into this game with 0 interceptions on the season. As it turns out, all they had to do was go against Mike Glennon.

I have nothing clever or insightful to say about these: I just wanted an excuse to watch them over and over again.

If you want to, you can make a case that pressure up the middle aided in both of these, and that’s fine. But I know deep down in my heart that Glennon would have thrown these exact same passes with a clean pocket.

I also wanted an excuse to look at Glennon kneeing a snap 10 yards down the field as well. His arms immediately thrown to the side absolutely kills me. Who am I kidding? Every single thing on this play kills me.

Kenny Clark time.

Kenny Clark [97] has been great this season. He and Mike Daniels are going to be incredible in the middle, but it’s nice that Clark is able to be a disruptive force while Daniels is forced to sit on the sideline.

The Bears are blocking to the right and Clark ruins this entire play. He’s able to get up on Cody Whitehair [65] immediately. He gets good leverage and forces him deep in the backfield. By the time Jordan Howard [24] gets the ball, all he can see is Whitehair’s back in his face. There is no hole. There is no cutback. There is nothingness, and it was put there by Clark.

Clay Matthews [52] holds the edge and picks up the tackle, but this play was over as soon as it started.

Once again, Clark gets inside the block from Whitehair. Even then, Clark is able to stay upright and turn his body to read the play. He flows down the line and helps to block up the hole Jordan Howard [24] was looking at.

Clark is strong, man. Even if you get position, it’s hard to move him and nearly impossible to take him down.

Clark draws the initial double-team in the middle, but it doesn’t matter too much. He gets moved a bit, but he keeps his head up and holds his ground after Kyle Long [75] disengages. He peeks out from behind Cody Whitehair [65] right as Jordan Howard [24] thinks he has a hole to hit. Clark keeps Whitehair stacked up and doesn’t allow anywhere for Howard to go.

Nick Perry [53] easily gets around Charles Leno [72] on the edge. Leno reaches a bit on Perry, which puts him out over his feet. Perry simply knocks Leno hands down and slips by him to get to the backfield. Nice move by Perry. Terrible blocking by Leno.

Zach Miller [86] does a really nice job here pulling behind the line and turning the right side of the line into bowling pins. Good thing the Packers had that left side stacked up, eh?

If you’re missing both your starting tackles and wanting to hit some quick passes, having Randall Cobb [18] on the field is huge. He starts this play in the backfield and motions out. Danny Trevathan [59] follows him, signaling man coverage. Cobb pushes up the field at Trevathan before sticking his foot in the ground and cutting inside.

Aaron Rodgers [12] checks the end of the line to make sure Willie Young [97] isn’t dropping back under the route. He’s not, so Rodgers knows he has Cobb out of the break.

There seems to be a little miscommunication between Rodgers and Cobb: it looks like Cobb is running a curl while Rodgers thinks he’s continuing his route across the field. Rodgers throws to the middle just as Cobb is slowing and turning towards the line. Somehow, Cobb is able to reach out and stab the ball with one hand.

Here it is from another angle.

Incredible catch.

After catching the ball, he’s able to turn, see DeAndre Houston-Carson [36] coming, and cut straight up the field to avoid the hit. I say this all the time and it’s always true: Randall Cobb is so good.

Speaking of Randall Cobb, let’s look at this little beauty. Bears are in Cover 1 Man Under. Cobb finds himself matched up with Kyle Fuller [23]. It’s 3rd and 6 and the Packers use that to their advantage. Cobb is supposed to sell the out route at the sticks before wheeling up the field. The thought is that the Bears will be looking to protect the sticks and that would help spring Cobb open.

It works like a charm. Fuller reads the out route and rushes towards Cobb, only to be caught out of position when Cobb turns up the field. Fuller actually ends up playing this pretty well, but the damage had already been done. Aaron Rodgers delivers a nice pass to the outside shoulder of Cobb, who is able to go up and get it. Great playcall. Great route by Cobb. Great throw by Rodgers. Great great great.

I have one other thing I wanted to point out on this play.

The Packers have two long developing routes – Cobb and Jordy Nelson – on the right, so Rodgers’ reads start to the left. Watch him go through his reads here and watch his feet. He goes through all of his reads (5 receivers on this play) in roughly 2.4 seconds. He has a relatively clean pocket, so he’s able to step back and go through all of them.

His footwork is incredible. He bounces between reads, pivoting on his back foot. That keeps him in a position to throw at any time. If any of the receivers are open, his load-up-and-release time is incredibly short, simply because he doesn’t have to adjust for it. This is beautiful to watch.

I also love how he throws in that little half-hearted pump fake halfway through. Just to maybe get an extra moment of hesitation by the defense.

Ty Montgomery [88] hasn’t had a ton of room to run behind the line this season. He’s not bad, and he’s certainly not useless as a running back, but a lazy person may look at his numbers through 4 games and say that The Montgomery Experience at running back has failed. He’s averaging 3.3 yards per carry, which is not good.

But he’s good. He looks like a natural in the backfield. He has missed a few blocking assignments, but he has been much better in that respect than he was last year. I’m still extremely excited about what he brings to the running game.

Here’s a good example from this game. The line is blocking left and Aaron Ripkowski [22] runs underneath the formation to block the outside, opening a cutback lane for Montgomery. Montgomery plays this perfectly. He sells the run to the left, getting close to the line before cutting back to the right. Ripkowski completely whiffs on his block, but Montgomery is able to sidestep the tackler and put a spin move on the oncoming tackler to pick up some extra yards. He ends up picking up 11 yards on the play.

I like what I’ve seen out of Aaron Jones so far, but I’m hoping Montgomery is able to get back to the field sooner rather than later.

3rd and 1. Packers go with a heavy look, with Martellus Bennett [80], Lance Kendricks [84] and Richard Rodgers [82] on the line.

Aaron Rodgers [12] playfakes to Jamaal Williams [30] to the left then bootlegs out to the right. Keep an eye on how that influences the linebackers in the middle. They rush the left of the line and are forced to recover when Rodgers bootlegs. Also keep an eye on Kyle Fuller [23]. Fuller is watching the edge and doesn’t react to the fake until Bennett is well into his route.

Leonard Floyd [94] doesn’t overpursue off the edge, which means Rodgers has to get rid of it pretty quickly.

The Packers are running a levels concept on the right; basically, Rodgers has 4 options, all available in his line of sight on that side of the field. By looking down the field, he can read the coverage on all of his receivers.

The linebackers selling out for the run puts them in scramble mode. Given the fact that they’ve been pulled up to the line, Danny Trevathan [59] and Eddie Jackson [39] don’t see Bennett breaking behind them and converge on Kendricks running under the formation. Between that and Fuller being held up on the edge, Bennett is able to sneak behind the defense and get open for a 26 yard gain. Great playcall and execution on third down.

The touchdown to Randall Cobb was a beautiful piece of playcalling and terrific execution. It was a nice piece of psychology, playing on the fact that the Bears know the tendencies of the Packers. They predicted how their opponent would react, maneuvering the pieces perfectly to get an open receiver.

This is none of that. This is Randall Cobb [18] running a slant from the slot and clearing out room, while Davante Adams [17] catches a quick pass behind the slant and bulldozes his way into the end zone. This is smashmouth football in passing form.

Aaron Rodgers [12] sees the rusher off the edge and gets rid of the ball quickly, with a slightly elevated sidearm delivery.

Rodgers gets it off quickly here because he has to: the Packers are running an RPO (Run Pass Option). With the offensive line run-blocking, he needs to get rid of the ball quickly or risk being flagged for ineligible man downfield.

Another goal line throw, another touchdown. Unlike the Cobb touchdown, this one to Jordy Nelson [87] is a slant/flat combo that they don’t fake. You can see just how difficult this is to cover: Martellus Bennett [80] runs a slant from the outside while Nelson runs a flat route underneath. The Bears are in man coverage and Eddie Jackson [39] simply can’t get over the route of Bennett to get to Nelson in time.

Bennett runs this route at the perfect depth. If he pushes too far upfield, Jackson would have a better shot and fighting underneath the route. If he runs a quicker slant without pushing upfield, Jackson would have an easier time getting over the top. Good route-running here by both Bennett and Nelson.

This touchdown happened on the play after the injury to Davante Adams, leading to this Nelson celebration. Quite possibly the most appropriate celebration I’ve ever seen. It captured exactly what I – and many of us, I’m sure – were feeling at that time.

4th and 1. Packers go with a stacked look at the line, packing the box. The Bears are selling out to stop the run, which works out perfectly for the Packers. Jordy Nelson [87] is lined up just off the right side of the line, and he is also selling run. As soon as Aaron Rodgers [12] completes the playfake and bootlegs out, Nelson disengages with Kyle Fuller [23] and runs to the boundary. That creates immediate separation. Just to be sure it’s complete, Rodgers throws the ball high to Nelson. Nelson is able to turn back to the ball, using his body to shield the oncoming Fuller.

The Packers did something similar to this with Randall Cobb in Week 1. The timing of this is perfect.

Random Thoughts

As I do every year, I went to ScareFest – local horror convention – this past weekend and it was delightful. I got to sit in a Nightmare on Elm Street panel and hear Freddy Krueger and an assortment of his victims recount stories from the series. I also spent entirely too much time walking the floor, taking pictures of as many people dressed up in horror costume as I could. It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year and it didn’t disappoint this year. I’ll have a post up of my adventures soon.

I just finished the first season of Wynonna Earp. It wasn’t amazing, but it was pretty fun. I can’t say I highly recommend it, but if you’re looking for something to throw on, you could do a whole lot worse. It gets better as the season progresses, so keep that in mind.

A change has already occurred at the cornerback position

When targeting Randall Cobb, Aaron Rodgers was 4/4 for 44 yards and a touchdown, good for a QB Rating of 152.1.

Aaron Rodgers’ lowest QB rating came in the 2nd quarter, where he put up a paltry 104.2. He proceeded to go 8/10 for 53 yards and 2 touchdowns in the 3rd quarter to essentially ice the game. He only threw 1 pass in the 4th quarter: an 8 yard touchdown to Jordy Nelson to open the quarter.

Hey! Speaking of QB Rating, here is QB Rating by Depth. You’re seeing that correctly: Mike Glennon had a QB Rating of 2.78 when throwing more than 15 yards downfield. He was 1/6 for 22 yards and an interception.

Albums listened to: Jidenna – The Chief; Tom Petty – Wildflowers; Johnny Jewel – Windswept; Portugal. The Man – Woodstock; Haim – Something to Tell You