There aren’t many quarterbacks playing better than Packers QB Jordan Love. After an up-and-down start to the year, Love has stabilized significantly and over his last nine games he’s thrown for 2,422 yards with 21 touchdowns and only one interception. His mobility and big arm make him a threat to take over any game, and slowing him down is a tall task for the 49ers defense and their coordinator Steve Wilks.
Wilks on Wednesday in his press conference talked about how the team might slow down the Packers’ young signal caller. Given all of his physical gifts it won’t be easy to simply bottle him up, so Wilks pointed to stopping the Packers run game first.
“Well, I think the number one thing is we have to try to stop this run to try to make them one-dimensional,” Wilks said. “They’re very effective running a ball. I think it just opens up the play action. That’s where you see him being extremely effective in taking the shots down the field and finding an open receiver. So, that’s number one. Then again, we’ve just got to try to mix things up on him a little bit to give him something to think about and figure out where he needs to go with the ball.”
There weren’t a lot of areas where Love struggled this year. He was dynamite on play action though.
Pro Football Focus gave Love the 10th-highest grade overall on play action throws this season. He completed 72.4 percent of his play action passes, averaged 9.7 yards per attempt, and tossed 11 touchdowns against just three interceptions.
Those numbers are stellar, especially up against his non-play action stats. On straight dropbacks Love’s completion rate dips to 61.9 percent, his YPA plummets to 6.6, and he posted 24 TDs with 8 INTs.
Stopping the run isn’t enough to make play action ineffective. Packers running back Aaron Jones is an extremely talented player who the 49ers will need to account for regardless of how productive Green Bay has been on the ground. A good RB forces defenses to respect the play fake, which moves defenders out of throwing lanes and allows for easier completions.
Wilks’ point about making the Packers one-dimensional is the key, but they have to do that via game script. Winning on first down and getting an early lead are two quick ways to push Green Bay into obvious passing situations where play action becomes a less effective means of bending defenses to an offensive play caller’s will.
This, of course, will be the 49ers’ plan. Given how Love is playing though it may not matter. He’s been excellent in virtually any situation over the last half of the season. Pushing Green Bay into a one-dimensional version of its offense would be a good start though, and then the 49ers’ defensive success may just come down to whether they can win individual reps.
