Another week brings another blitz-heavy opponent that the Green Bay Packers offense is going to have to contend with in the passing game. This week, it’s the Wink Martindale-led New York Giants.
“He’s (defensive coordinator Wink Martindale) a guy that does a great job just putting people in position,” said coach Matt LaFleur. “He presents a lot of different challenges for an offense. I got a ton of respect for what he’s capable of doing and what he’s done over the course of his career. I think their defense, they present a lot of problems.
“You never feel easy going against a team that he’s coaching because you know that he can deploy a number of different blitzes and a number of different looks. I’m certain coming off a bye week that there’s going to be something different that they haven’t put on tape, that’s typically the case, and our guys are really going to have to trust their rules in terms of preparing for that.”
The Packers are coming off a game against the Kansas City Chiefs, who blitz at the sixth-highest rate in football. Two weeks prior, the Los Angeles Chargers blitzed Jordan Love on over 60 percent of his dropbacks, according to PFF. This week, the Giants will enter this game with the second-highest blitz rate, a calling card of Martindale’s.
Along with the rest of the offense, against the blitz is another area where Love and the Packers have been much improved. Throughout the season, opponents have blitzed this young Green Bay offense fairly often, but in recent weeks, they’ve been better equipped to handle it.
When facing the blitz against Kansas City, Love completed 12 of his 16 pass attempts for 97 yards and a touchdown. Against the Chargers, he was 16-for-24 for 156 yards.
“I think that throughout the course of the season,” added LaFleur, “we’ve encountered a ton of different challenges from different schemes that have prepared us for some of the things that could potentially come up. That’s just kind of how the year has worked out.
“I know we’ve put a lot of time and emphasis in the offseason in terms of preparing for some of these pressure situations. It’s served us well up to this point. Now we’ve got to go and do it again.”
Having any sort of chance against the blitz begins pre-snap with Love, and the offensive line, making the proper adjustments at the line of scrimmage based on how the defense is aligned or through any tells that motion or a hard count may draw out.
To help remove some of the bite from the Chiefs’ blitz-heavy approach, the Packers utilized motion on 61 percent of their snaps this past Sunday, forcing the defense to adjust late, giving Love some insight into what was potentially coming based on their movement.
At the snap, all 11 players must be on the same page. Protection responsibilities are paramount for the offensive line, as are the tight ends and running backs picking up any free rushers or chipping, along with the receivers knowing they may not have a lot of time to create separation.
Quarterbacks coach Tom Clements recently pointed out that one area where Love has improved the most has been in his decision-making, specifically knowing when to go to his check-down when the pressure is closing in, which of course, is vital against the blitz.
A lot of the growth that we’ve seen from the Packers offense in this regard is simply due to the experience they’ve gained and having a better idea of what’s coming, how the defense is going to attack, and how to counter an unscouted look.
“I think we’ve done a really good job at handling the different pressures we’ve been seeing,” said Love. “The O-line has done a terrific job at picking this stuff up, giving me enough time to make the plays downfield. But like I said, those are all the little things that it takes everybody doing their 1/11th. The O-line picking their protections up, the running back knowing where he needs to be in the protection, and obviously the routes coming open and me putting a good ball on the receiver.
“But I think the O-line has been doing a terrific job and an area that we’ve improved at is just picking up these pressures. The different looks we haven’t been able to practice for at times and haven’t seen, but they’ve been doing an awesome job at that.”
One additional challenge that the Packers will face this week against the Giants is that they are coming off their bye week, which means new looks will be thrown at the offense. When asked about this, offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said that you try to gain some insight from past tendencies and have answers for that while also making sure not to put too much on each player’s plate. For the most part, players have to trust their fundamentals, execute on the play-call, and then adjust in-game as needed.
Unlike the Chiefs and Chargers games, Green Bay will be on the road in this one, making that all-important pre-snap communication more difficult with the opposing crowd noise.
If the Packers can give Love time, the opportunity to move the ball through the air against the Giants defense will be there. This is a unit that is allowing 6.7 yards per pass this season, which ranks 22nd. As always, having a strong run game to lean on can help mitigate an opponent’s ability to blitz, and this is an area New York has struggled in, giving up 4.8 yards per rush this season.
Conversely, pressure can disrupt the timing and the rhythm of the play and potentially lead to turnover opportunities, something the Giants have been excellent at generating as of late. In the last three games, New York has forced eight interceptions.
“We are going to be tested again,” said Stenavich. “Wink’s got his plethora of blitz packages. They do a great job just like Spags does. So it’s going to be a challenge. It’s going to be a road environment, so we will see how that atmosphere is.
“But we’ve faced a lot of teams like this this year. There’s been a bunch this season that will bring their all-out pressures. It’s been good for us to train the guys into that and it’s been really good for Jordan, just different answers he can get into, whether it’s protection or working different routes down the field. It’s good for just all of them to keep progressing, keep communicating, and seeing different things.”
