More Adams Adds Up to More Success in Red Zone
GREEN BAY, Wis. – If you want some newfangled math, check out this one.
12 + 17 = 6.
The Green Bay Packers have hit their stride down the stretch, and it doesn’t take a 300-level college math professor to figure out why.
Over their last six games, the Packers lead the NFL with 34.0 points per game. Why? Because the red-zone offense has improved. And why has that happened? Because Davante Adams has spent a lot of red-zone time in the end zone. During that span, Adams leads the NFL with seven red-zone touchdowns.
“I don’t think anything specifically changed,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “I think it was more targets and the approach. I felt like we may have thrown it a few more times in the red zone as the weeks have gone on a little bit more. But also a lot of that dictates on coverage. We’ve done a good job of moving him around a lot, which sometimes we can avoid some of those doubles that he gets in the red zone. Because of that, he’s had more targets. You look at the two touchdowns he had (against Cleveland) were both against single coverage. One was against an empty pressure and the other was against more of a goal-line-type defense. He’s obviously had a lot of success when he’s single-covered.”
The tale of the tape is as simple to understand as 2 + 2.
Red Zone, Games 1-11
Packers: 53.8 percent touchdowns (No. 25 in NFL).
Adams: Seven receptions (No. 16), 12 targets (No. 11), three touchdowns (No. 20).
Rodgers: 55.4 percent (No. 18), 14 touchdowns (No. 7), 3.0 yards per attempt (No. 27), 85.4 rating (No. 23).
Red Zone, Games 12-17.
Packers: 64.3 percent touchdowns (No. 5 in NFL).
Adams: 11 receptions, 15 targets, seven touchdowns (all No. 1).
Rodgers: 58.8 percent (No. 12), 13 touchdowns (No. 1), 3.4 yards per attempt (No. 16), 105.0 rating (No. 10).
With Adams scoring as many red-zone touchdowns in the last six games as he had red-zone receptions, period, in the first 10 games, Green Bay has gone from one of the worst red-zone attacks in the league to one of the best.
“I think just the commitment to getting the play made at the end of the day,” Adams said. “I think they’ve done a lot of different things. And we’ve gotten some matchups that we didn’t expect. Against the Browns, to be 1-on-1 with No. 3 and to be 1-on-1 with No. 2 on back-to-back scores, we weren’t anticipating that, so as soon as we seen it, we seized the opportunity. And we haven’t really missed on too many of them, which is biggest thing. I think the execution has been really, really high this year, capitalizing on those few opps that we do get. So, a little bit of the hunger, ‘12’ just saying, ‘F it. Tae’s over there somewhere. I’m just going to toss it,’ and just coming down with the play.”
The red zone still isn’t a sure-fire six points, like it was for so much last season. With Green Bay’s unparalleled 80.0 percent touchdown rate, it led the NFL in scoring. As part of that, Adams led the NFL with 23 receptions and 14 touchdowns. Only three players in the NFL had as many red-zone receptions as Adams had touchdowns. With that, Rodgers led the league with a 119.1 passer rating.
The Packers went just 3-of-7 in the red zone last week, including three consecutive first-half failures that let the Vikings hang around. And Rodgers’ numbers down the stretch still lag well behind his full-season numbers from last year (72.0 percent, 35 touchdowns, 4.2 yards per attempt).
So, there’s room to improve. Still, by focusing more on Adams, Green Bay has been much more productive and efficient. They’ll try to keep that going on Sunday at Ford Field against the Detroit Lions, who are 31st in red-zone defense with an opponent touchdown rate of 70.2 percent.
“I think it’s just more or less kind of moving him around as much as possible, putting him in different spots – whether it’s the No. 1 spot, whether it’s in the slot, whether it’s at No. 3 – and trying to, as best we can, predict how teams are going to try and play him,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “You know, there’s some things that you can’t foresee, like what happened in Baltimore where you had double-coverage or sometimes triple-coverage on him. But he’s such a talented player, he’s such a talented route-runner. A lot of it’s just building off routes he’s already put on tape. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
