Back in Week 11, I wrote about Christian Watson’s two-touchdown game against the New York Giants. The Green Bay Packers wide receiver followed that up with a 5-catch, 49-yard game against the Vikings and a 4-catch, 80-yard, 1-TD game against the Lions on Thanksgiving. With Watson fully integrated into the offense after returning from his injury — and the Packers going up against a Bears defense that loves to give up explosive plays through the air — what would Watson do in Week 14?
As it turns out, he would score touchdowns. In the game, Watson caught all 4 of his targets for 89 yards and 2 TDs. His +9.6 EPA was the 3rd-highest among receivers in Week 14 (per NFL Pro), behind Tee Higgins (+10.9) and Puca Nacua (+10.0). The crazy thing is Watson posted his +9.6 on 4 targets, while Higgins and Nacua each had 11 targets on the day.
We’ll get to the full passing breakdown in the next day or two. For today, we’re just taking a look at both of Watson’s touchdowns.
TD 1: 3rd & 10, 9:25 remaining in the 2nd quarter
The Packers are in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR), in a 3×1, Trips Left Nub alignment (“Trips” indicates 3 receivers spread to a side, while “Nub” indicates the lone receiving option on the other side of the field is a TE aligned either on the line or tight to the line). The Bears are in a 3 safety alignment with a lot of bodies at the line. The Bears had shown looks like this already in the game and had been unpredictable with the post-snap picture. Sometimes they’d bring heat, sometimes they’d drop bodies back into coverage.
On this snap, they bring heat, with the defender over Jayden Reed [11] blitzing off the edge. They’re playing Cover 0, with the players aligned at safety each picking up one of the Trips receivers in Man coverage. The man in the middle picks up Reed, the man just inside the numbers picks up Christian Watson [9] and the man on the outside picks up Romeo Doubs [87].
The Packers have a perfect call dialed up, provided they have time to get it off. They’re running something that looks an awful lot like their Shadow concept. Watson is running a Thru route while Reed is running a Shallow Cross. Against this coverage, the Thru route becomes a deep over route. Reed cuts off his route to sit in the middle of the field, pulling his defender up and providing an ocean of space over the top for Watson.
Watson’s defender is backpedaling and the cut across the field gives Watson the separation he needs.
The line does a tremendous job up front and Jordan Love [10] puts the ball up for Watson. Watson does a nice job of coming back and attacking the ball and runs in for a touchdown.
The Packers kick the extra point to take a 7-0 lead.
TD 2: 3rd & 3, 6:17 remaining in the 3rd quarter
In the 3rd quarter, the Bears started clawing their way back into the game. They had just completed a 10-yard, 64-yard drive that ended with a TD (and 2 point conversion) to tighten the game to 14-11. The Packers started the ensuing drive with a 15-yard end around by Reed, then gained 7 yards in their next 2 plays. They were now facing 3rd & 3 on the Bears 41 yard line in a 3 point game.
Once again, they’re in 11 personnel in a 3×1, Trips Nub alignment. Before the snap, Love gives a hand signal to the right side (Watson then relays the call with his own hand signal to Doubs on the outside). When asked about it in his post-game presser, Love said “we just changed the route with Christian and he did a great job just kinda creating that separation and be able to win across the field and just beat the guy with speed.”
This is an RPO (Run Pass Option), with the run call being a Wide Zone run with Josh Jacobs [8] and the pass tag being a variant of a WR Screen they’re fond of using on these RPO looks. This is a fairly standard call for them: the outside receivers to the pass side will block, while the inside receiver runs underneath them in the flat. Love has the option to hand the ball off to Jacobs or pass to Reed. It’s a pre-snap read, and it’s a numbers game: if the offense has more players on the passing side, Love will throw it. If they do not have a numbers advantage, he’ll hand it off.
If I were to hazard a guess (always a dangerous proposition), I’d say the original call was their standard WR Screen RPO tag, with Watson and Doubs blocking for Reed. With the Bears once again showing bodies at the line, the signal was for Watson to run a Stalk-and-Release: fake the initial block, then cut on a slant. It basically converts the play from a pre-snap RPO (count the numbers and make a decision) to a post-snap RPO (read a defender and make the decision to run or pass depending on his post-snap movement).
The Bears cornerbacks are tight to the line and their single-high safety is playing deep, so this looks like Man coverage, with the Bears bringing heat up front. At the snap, Love checks the line to the pass side. Based on what the Bears had been doing, it looks like Love is reading D’Marco Jackson [48] as the conflict defender. If Jackson breaks toward the line, Love pulls and throws. If Jackson drops off the line, Love will hand off to Jacobs.
At the snap, Jackson breaks toward the line, so Love pulls and throws.
Watson does a good job selling the block, gets inside position and breaks to the inside. Love gets the ball out on-time and out in front of Watson. With the safety breaking to the passing side and Watson catching the ball in-stride, there’s no one deep to the side Watson is running.
I’m sure you’ve heard about Watson erasing angles with his speed and that’s fully on display here. Both CJ Gardner-Johnson [35] and Kevin Byard [31] take angles to make the tackle, but Watson simply outraces them to the front pylon.
The Packers kick the extra point and take a 21-11 lead.
It’s rare, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen this from the Packers. We saw it twice last season. The first one came in Week 1 against the Eagles in the low red zone, which Watson brought in for a TD
The second one game in Week 16 against the Saints. With the Packers up big, Malik Willis was in at QB and Dontayvion Wicks was the target. The Saints are in Cover 0 and there’s nothing but green grass, but the throw is low-and-behind and Wicks can’t haul it in.
It’s a beautiful little twist on a core concept of the Packers and I’m thrilled to see it result in such a huge play in such a huge game.
Albums listened to: Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s – Not Animal; Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot; Sufjan Stevens – Illinois; Hum – Inlet
