New York Giants Week 14: Examining the Green Bay Packers Offense

So what do we need to know about the red-hot Packers offense?

Author:
Brandon Olsen
Publish date:
Dec 8, 2023 12:00 PM EST

In this story:

Due to the bye, the New York Giants have had an extra week to prepare for the Green Bay Packers, and they’ll need all of that time. The Packers are now hitting their stride after beating the Kansas City Chiefs.

Personnel

This season, the big storyline for the Packers has been that they no longer have Aaron Rodgers as their signal-caller and have shifted to giving Jordan Love the opportunity to be a franchise quarterback. Love has always had the tools, dating back to his Utah State days, to become an eventual franchise quarterback, and he’s made strides this season.

Love this season has 2,866 passing yards, 22 touchdowns, ten interceptions, 236 rushing yards, and two rushing touchdowns. His dual-threat ability has been a big part of his game for extending plays with his legs and picking up first downs scrambling.

Aaron Jones has struggled the entire season to stay healthy and is listed as questionable for this game. Jones has just 67 carries on the year so far in seven games, being unable to finish games.

In his place, AJ Dillon has been the lead back. Dillon right now has just 521 yards on 3.5 yards per carry, but he’s made his presence felt as a safety valve in the passing game as well. Dillon has 20 catches right now and has been specifically helpful for the Packers in the screen game.

The receiving room for Green Bay is young, fast, and has great size on the outside, with Jayden Reed emerging as their dynamic slot receiver. Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs have also taken strides on the outside this season.

The trio has combined for 1,440 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns this year. The offense thrives through that trio and their connection with Jordan Love.

At tight end, rookie Luke Musgrave is on injured reserve and isn’t be available for this game. In his place, Tucker Kraft and Josiah Deguara have been the main players, with Deguara playing a hybrid tight end/fullback role.

Scheme

Matt LaFleur is one of my favorite offensive play-callers in the NFL. A primarily zone-based rushing attack with gap-based schemes mixed in with pre-snap motion that operates out of 11 and 12 personnel primarily.

The run game is really where I think LaFleur likes to find his groove offensively. As mentioned earlier, this running back room isn’t healthy and hasn’t been healthy for the entire season, but LaFleur continues to lean on the run game.

The gap schemes mixed in will probably look familiar to Giants fans as two of my favorite concepts that have been pillars for Green Bay are concepts this Giants staff likes as well. Counter and pin-pull concepts get players to lead block for backs across the formation.

Counter is all about misdirection, then accompanies a pulling backside player across the formation. The way that the Packers run counter is usually either GH counter (could be called something different with each system; this is how I know it) or GT counter - GH is when both the guard and tight end pull across the formation, GT counter is the guard and tackle combo.

Given the injuries, Jayden Reed has gotten more involved in the rushing game in recent weeks on jet sweeps and end-arounds.

LaFleur’s offense is often about getting defenders to look one way and send the ball the other. All of the things discussed in this section are about that: the pre-snap motion with Reed, running counter, and what we’re about to discuss in their play-action pass game.

By the way, 25.8 percent of Love’s passes have come off of play action, and that’s where the Packers like to take their deep shots as well. They’ll also call screens off of play action, but the deep shots are where they like to mix in all of the concepts we’ve discussed to create big plays.

Love has been electric with play action this season, completing 70.1 percent of his passes (82 percent if accounting for drops), seven touchdowns to just three interceptions, and a 108.7 passer rating.

Love’s arm strength allows the Packers to push the ball to the sidelines frequently, more aggressively than most quarterbacks.

What This Means for the Giants

Where Jordan Love has struggled this season is when under pressure. When pressure closes in, Love tends to try and force passes downfield - leading to some of his riskiest throws of the season.

However, I don’t think this is a week where the Giants should be over-aggressive with their blitzes, as Love tends to get rid of the ball quickly when the blitz is recognized. Lafleur tends to make over-aggressive defenses pay by attacking horizontally. Whether that’s the Jayden Reed sweep, pin-pull toss, or a simple screen - LaFleur loves it when opposing defenses get too aggressive.

Rushing four defenders and trying to cover downfield routes should be the focal point here for Wink Martindale. Try to hit home with four and get Love to force throws into coverage downfield while sitting in zone, keeping eyes in the backfield to avoid being left vulnerable to trickery.

Final Thoughts

The Giants have strung together defensive performances this season and are coming off a bye week. They should be refreshed to face a Packers offense hitting all cylinders. Hopefully, this extra week of prep can get the front four juiced up to get into the backfield, and the secondary can capitalize on mental errors.