Love heaves a bomb against the Rams and Reed brings it in.
We’re continuing our journey through the Green Bay Packers’ top 10 plays of the 2024 season as voted on by the APC staff with play #2 in our countdown (check out #3 here). Today we’re hopping in the time machine and traveling back to week 5, a game that also featured the #6 play on the list.
The Game
The 2-2 Packers headed to Los Angeles to face the 1-3 Rams. The Packers had beat the Colts and Titans with Malik Willis at QB in weeks 2 and 3, but lost to the Vikings in Jordan Love’s return in week 4.
The Packers got the ball first and promptly went three-and-out. The Rams kindly returned the favor, giving the ball back to the Packers with 11:50 remaining in the 1st quarter.
The Situation
On the first drive, the Packers dialed up a couple deep passing concepts, which didn’t go too well for Love. He missed Dontayvion Wicks on a High Cross on his first attempt, then was sacked on 3rd & 7 on his next dropback.
The second drive started a little more promising, as the Packers went with a couple quick-hitters, going 2/3 for 11 yards. With the score 0-0 early in the 1st quarter, the Packers were looking at 2nd & 10 on their own 45.
The Play
The Packers are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) in 2×2 formation. Ben Sims [89] is the TE, and he’s in-line on the left, with Bo Melton [80] split out wide. On the right, Jayden Reed [11] is the point man in the stack, with Malik Heath [18] behind him. Emanuel Wilson [31] is the lone RB.
The Rams are showing a single-high safety at the snap, with the boundary defenders playing off the line. In looking at it pre-snap, it looks like the Rams are going to be playing Cover 3.
The Packers are running a Dagger variant from the right, with Reed on the vertical clear-out and Heath on the in-cutting route behind. On the left, Melton is running a deep curl route. With Reed on the big over route, this plays out like a Portland/Mills concept with a Dagger component.
At the snap, the Rams rotate back into a Tampa 2 look, with two safeties playing half of the field each and a linebacker running straight up the pipe.
As Jordan Love is reading the rotation, the defender over Melton (Ahkello Witherspoon [4]) is staying low. He’s drifting back, but he’s not bailing for the deep half. With Reed easily outpacing the linebacker in the middle (Christian Rozeboom [56]) and with inside leverage on the deep safety to his side (Quentin Lake [37]), Love lets this sucker fly.
However, Witherspoon is keeping his eyes on Love and bails to get deep as soon as the ball is released. He gets a little too deep, outrunning Reed down the field. With Lake leaping over Reed’s back and Witherspoon trying to get back in position, the ball drops in a perfect position and Reed hauls in the pass for 53 yards.
The Impact
Josh Jacobs scored on the next play, giving the Packers a 7-0 lead after the Brayden Narveson extra point. The Packers would go on to win, pushing their record to 3-2 and kicking off what would end up being a 4 game winning streak.
Albums listened to: Brother Bird – Another Year; The Kinks – Something Else; Sarah Bethe Nelson – Weird Glow