The Green Bay Packers used a double-crosser concept to help spring open Romeo Doubs on Jordan Love’s 9-yard touchdown pass in the preseason opener on Friday night in Cincinnati.
Love helped explain the red-zone concept — which the Packers actually used for a score in the joint practice on Wednesday — following the team’s 36-19 win over the Bengals.
“We ran a crossing pattern against Cover-1,” Love said. “We ran the same concept at practice earlier in the week. Kind of just reading off the safety, seeing which crossing route he’s going to take. Earlier in the (joint) practice, he took Romeo, that’s when Christian had that touchdown. This time, he choose Christian, and it opened up Romeo. I saw the DB trying to make a play underneath, tried to put it up over the top, and Romeo made a great play.”
Love said the quarterback’s key is the single high safety. When the safety tracked Watson going left to right, Love went to Doubs who was crossing right to left.
“You’re just trying to play off the safety,” Love said.
The double crosser is a staple red-zone play for Matt LaFleur and the Packers. In fact, backup quarterback Sean Clifford hit Malik Heath for a touchdown on the exact same concept during Family Night.
Bobby Peters has more on the “Double Cross” concept:
Packers scored on this again tonight https://t.co/LTwWhhvHCF pic.twitter.com/HE6NuRrQwj
— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) August 12, 2023
The Packers ran a lot of Double Cross in 2020:
The 2020 Green Bay Packers Complete Offensive Manual https://t.co/oyu3EEOPJc https://t.co/LTwWhhvHCF pic.twitter.com/GczQWdBOkC
— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) August 6, 2023
Against Cover-1 coverage, the double crosser concept puts the safety in a bind and simplifies the read for the quarterback. In most cases, one of the crossing receivers is going to have one-on-one coverage.
On the touchdown Friday night, Doubs won inside leverage off the line of scrimmage, showed good pacing on the route and then made a terrific leaping catch against veteran Sidney Jones in the end zone. Love showed excellent touch in getting the ball over Jones, who tried to cut underneath to take away the throwing window.
