The Green Bay Packers and quarterback Jordan Love have been very willing to push the ball downfield for the majority of this season. However, Love and the offense have been consistently ineffective on such pass attempts and those issues were magnified under the bright Las Vegas lights on Monday night.
Love entered Week 5 ranked fourth in both pass attempts of 20-plus yards and 10-to-19 yards. But on those downfield attempts, Love ranked 31st in completion rate and 30th on yards per attempt. On intermediate throws, he was 22nd in completion percentage and 26th in yards per attempt –illustrating his inefficiencies.
Buy Packers TicketsAgainst the Raiders, these issues were magnified. The Packers were able to find some success on the ground, but the passing game was completely disjointed. Love was either choosing uninspiring throws to the flat to his tight ends and running backs or random heaves downfield to Christian Watson that reeked of desperation.
There seemed to be little rhyme or reason behind any play call or decision that was made, and after giving Love the freedom to try and make plays through the first four games, it felt like the game plan handcuffed him a bit against Las Vegas.
As a result of busted coverage, Love was able to connect with Watson for a 77-yard gain, but otherwise, the offense came up empty. Along with Love’s deep ball struggles, Watson, as a frequent target in Monday’s game, didn’t position himself well to make plays on those 50-50 balls either.
“I thought there was some opportunity there,” said Matt LaFleur after the game. “One thing that we’ve really stressed because Christian, he gives you everything he has every time out there. I just think that there’s a tendency for wideouts, and you see it with a lot of younger wideouts, but when look back for the ball, you’ve got to really accentuate your arm movement so you don’t slow down.
“I think that is one thing that a lot of our guys need to continue to work on. We’ve got to do a better job of coaching that. Stressing that and putting guys in positions. I don’t think it’s a lack of fight after the ball. I just think there’s somethings we can do better to maybe come up with some of those big shots down the field.”
On passes of five or fewer yards, Love was 14-for-20 against the Raiders. On pass attempts of over five yards, he was 2-for-10 with three interceptions. Through five weeks, Love has completed just six of his 24 passes of 20-plus yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns.
Of those 24 attempts, PFF has charted only five as being accurate–the third-lowest in football. If it wasn’t for a couple of pass interference penalties, the Packers’ downfield performance would be even worse.
“I have to find a way to make a play,” said Watson following the Raiders game. “I think my number was called way too many times tonight for the plays that I made. I have to make more plays than that.”
The run game, or lack thereof this season, has been a big contributor to the offense’s issues, but the passing game has not been able to shoulder the workload when called upon. Overall, Love ranks 35th in completion percentage, has thrown the second-most interceptions, and the Packers’ leading pass-catcher, Romeo Doubs, ranks 35th among all receivers in total yards.
In part, this is due to Love’s inaccuracy, but it’s also a product of a young receiver room that has dealt with dropped passes and not running routes as precisely as they should and being positioned correctly.
“It’s just something that we’re going to have to work through,” said Jordan Love on Thursday. “We’ve got a lot of young receivers. It’s not easy, we’ve got a big volume offense. Things happen in the game, timing gets thrown off, routes get thrown off. You’re getting looks that you probably haven’t seen in practice.”
The Packers’ passing game and the offense as a whole is seemingly going backwards instead of progressing each week. To a degree, this could be the result of there being more film and opponents adjusting to what the Packers do well and what they struggle with. Green Bay, meanwhile, doesn’t have a core competency on offense to lean on and just hasn’t been consistent enough or perhaps timely enough to counter those defensive adjustments–which, again, comes with the territory with so much inexperience.
Through five games, the Packers have had a run game that has largely been a liability and an ineffective downfield passing game. That is far from a recipe for success. Without at least one of those elements working in some capacity, there is really nothing for a defense to fear.
Schematically, LaFleur has to find ways to get Love into a rhythm and be more deliberate about getting the ball into the hands of his playmakers, even if that requires very specific designed plays. With that said, until Love, Watson and the other pass catchers become more efficient on downfield attempts, this offense is going to be limited. Similarly to what we last season, it wasn’t until Watson’s emergence that the offense really took off. Not only did this add big play ability, but it created better spacing, and more opportunities for the run game and short passing game to get going.
