On the drive home from Green Bay yesterday, I found myself running the game back in my head, desperately trying to think of what play to use in this spot. I was going to roll with the Drew Brees sneak that gave the Saints a 9 point lead with less than 5 minutes to go, but I found it wasn’t interesting enough to take up more than a couple lines. I try to keep these articles short, but I don’t want them to be that short.

Ultimately, I decided to write about the Brett Hundley interception that essentially ended the game. In the full Eye in the Sky, I’ll break down more of the passing game, but, for now, let’s look at the final nail in the coffin.

The Packers faced 3rd and 6 with 4:28 remaining in the game, down by a score of 26-17. The chance of a comeback was slim, but slim is better than none. The Packers send four receivers on routes: Jordy Nelson [87], Randall Cobb [18] and Martellus Bennett [80] run go routes from the right side, while Davante Adams [17] runs a curl on the left. Aaron Jones [33] stays back to help in pass protection.

When I saw this live, I was thinking Adams was open on the curl, but he’s really not. After starting close to the line on a blitz look, Marcus Williams [43] drops back underneath the route of Adams. If Adams were running a dig – or drifted to the middle after seeing Williams – Brett Hundley [7] would have an opportunity to get this ball to Adams for the first down. Hundley checks to Adams first, but he sees the underneath coverage and moves on.

By this point, pressure is starting to come up the middle. Hundley looks deep and chucks the ball to the middle. Bennett and Cobb are both firing up the middle. Hundley seems to throw this ball more towards Bennett, but he may just be throwing it up and hoping someone is able to make a play on it. Kenny Vaccaro [32] is roaming deep and is able to run under the pass and pick up an interception. Even if Vaccaro wasn’t back there, this ball had no hope of being completed.

Nelson flashes open on the outside, but Vaccaro hasn’t committed to the middle until the ball is thrown, so that’s a pretty tough throw for Hundley: dotting the hole in the zone between corner and safety on the sideline. It takes a high level of anticipation and timing. Still, I’d rather see him try to hit this throw than chucking down the middle.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this play and how another play would have worked better against the same coverage.

Aaron Jones [33] is still held back to block, Davante Adams [17] is still running a curl and Martellus Bennett [80] is still running a go route, but I’ve altered the routes of Randall Cobb [18] and Jordy Nelson [87]. Instead of Cobb running a go route running alongside Bennett, I’ve got him running a corner route over a curl route from Nelson. Here is why:

On that side of the field, we have four defenders on three receivers. AJ Klein [53] starts near the line, but he backs out at the snap to take Bennett man-to-man. Marcus Williams [43] drops into a zone between Bennett and Cobb. In the actual play, this works out well, as it takes away the outside throw to Bennett and the inside throw to Cobb.

Meanwhile, Marshon Lattimore [23] drops in zone over Nelson. In the actual play, he’s looking back at Hundley, waiting to jump a curl route. He doesn’t start backing up until Nelson keeps running down the field.

Finally, we have Kenny Vaccaro [32], playing as the lone deep safety to that side. He’s playing over the top, looking not to get beat deep. Because of that, he’s deeper than the deepest man, which puts him playing over the top of Cobb.

Here’s why this works. Klein drops back on Bennett and Williams drops back in his zone, but without Cobb running a go route, Williams is really just sitting in his vacant zone, not appearing instructed to drop any further than he does in the actual play. Instead, Cobb runs a corner route, away from Williams. Vaccaro is committed to taking away the deep route, so he plays over Cobb. Nelson runs the curl Lattimore expects, pulling him up.

With Lattimore pulled in on the curl route and Vaccaro playing over the top, Hundley has the opportunity to hit Cobb on the corner route. Throw the ball to the sideline and Cobb has a decent chance at this.

This also gives Bennett a chance to get open. With Williams settled into an underneath zone and Vaccaro pulled to the sideline by Cobb, Hundley could look to throw to Bennett’s outside shoulder, away from Klein.

I fully understand that this is all being thrown out there with the advantage of hindsight, but it’s always a fun thought experiment.

Album listened to: Eric & Magill – Peach Colored Oranges