Last week, we looked at Jordan Love’s passing chart and I wrote “Love was absolutely chucking the ball,” because it was true. Love had an ADOT (Average Depth Of Target) of 14.5 yards. That was never going to be the norm, but his Week 1 ADOT of 11.5 yards suggested that the Packers were looking to push the ball vertically as their main mode of attack.

It’s hard to do that when the interior of the line is getting caved in, apparently. The Browns have a very good defensive line – the best they’ll face until the Week 10 Eagles game – but it’s still weird to look at the passing chart this week. It’s like an entirely different quarterback.

Just a single attempt over 10 yards (and that attempt was a beautiful ball that looks like could have gone for a TD, had Matthew Golden been able to stop veering to the sideline).

On the day, Love’s ADOT was 1.9 yards (per RBSDM). The interception was bad (we’ll get to that), but, on the whole, I thought Love played well, given what he was asked to do. His +0.08 EPA per dropback was far below his level from the first 2 weeks, but that’s a number that puts him right around where Dak Prescott has been this season. By no means a great game, but it was a perfectly cromulent one.

Per NFL Pro, Love was under pressure on 38.7% of his dropbacks, despite having an average of 2.56 seconds to throw. As a point of reference, Patrick Mahomes has the quickest time to throw in the NFL this year at 2.51 seconds and is being pressured on 27.8% of his dropbacks. On the day, the Browns defensive line combined for 10 quick pressures (pressures within 2.5 seconds of the snap) on Love’s 31 dropbacks.

Love’s completion % of 72% is solid considering the ADOT. A couple missed swing passes he would certainly want back, and a back-breaking interception he certainly wants back.

Last week I brought up Love’s willingness to scramble this season. We got one of those this week, going for 4 yards on 1st & 10. But we got to see something else from Love this week: he was pulling the ball on read option plays, using his legs to get around the edge. He did this twice against the Browns, picking up 10 yards on a 3rd & 2 and 5 yards on a 2nd & 6 (a shame he couldn’t have kept upright for another yard on that last one, as they ended up getting a penalty on the next play and didn’t convert on the 3rd & 6).

Alright, let’s get to the film and take a look at a few plays. Generally I take a look at a big play or two – or some cool concepts – but there’s time for that later in the week. Today, I wanted to take a look at the biggest play in the game: Jordan Love’s interception. To properly do that, we’re going to look at two plays from earlier in the game.

I went through all of Love’s dropbacks from the game, looking for passing plays from a 3×1 formation with the wide receivers in Trips (all 3 receivers spread wide to the same side) and seeing how the defense played against those. There were two relevant plays, so that’s where we’re going.

We’ll do things slightly different this week, in that we’re focusing less on the concept on the first 2 plays and more on how the defender over the inside receiver in Trips reacts.

Play 1: 3rd & 6, 8:01 remaining in the 2nd quarter

This ends up going to Romeo Doubs [87] on the outside. Love liked the one-on-one on the outside and took it. But, like I said, we’re not overly concerned about that at the moment. We’re looking at the top of the screen.

The Packers are in a 3×1 formation with no motion. The Browns align a single high safety away from the Trips side (the passing strength) and look to be in man-to-man coverage over Trips. When talking about wide receiver alignment, you number them from outside-in. So the outside man is #1, the second man is #2 and the man closest to the line is #3. That’s the terminology we’ll be using going forward.

The Packers are running Smash Fade on the Trips side (#1 runs a short route, #2 runs a deep fade route) with the #3 running an in-cutting route that starts off with a vertical step.

At the snap, the defender over #3 follows him to the inside.

Play 2: 3rd & 1, 00:01 remaining in the 3rd quarter

This is the last play of the 3rd quarter: the play that looked like should have been whistled dead because the game clock hit 00:00 before the snap. The Packers hit a big play against the Lions in the same situation in 2023 – off a Smash Fade concept, because the past harmonizes with itself – so I guess it all evens out.

This time Love takes a baffling sack, but we’re not concerned about that now.

The Packers are in a 3×1 formation with no motion. The Browns align a single high safety away from the Trips side and look to be in man-to-man coverage over Trips. The Packers are running Smash Fade on the Trips side with the #3 running a vertical clear route.

At the snap, the defender over #3 follows him up the field.

Play 3: 3rd & 3, 3:18 remaining in the 4th quarter

We’re to the interception. You know the song. Sing it with me.

The Packers are in a 3×1 formation with no motion. The Browns align a single high safety away from the Trips side and look to be in man-to-man coverage over Trips. This time the Packers are running Lion (quick slants from the #1 and #2), with #3 running a vertical clear route that bends back to the outside.

Based on the previous 2 plays from the same look, Love expects the defender over the #3 to run vertically with the #3. That would free up space for the quick-slants from the outside. There’s a LB sitting to the inside, so Love is making sure he’s not buzzing under the slants, then sets to throw to the left. Love is reading the slants inside-out. If Dontayvion Wicks [13] doesn’t win on the slant from the #2, Love will work to Matthew Golden [0] on the slant from the #1.

Love is mainly concerned with the LB, but the #3 defender initially responded how you’d expect: he takes a step with the #3 up the field.

Love sees the LB holding in place, assumes the #3 defender is clearing, and fires to Wicks.

But the #3 doesn’t run up the field. Based on the defender from the other side of the field buzzing over to pick up the #3, I think this is part of the defensive playcall rather than a bit of freelancing from the defender. Either way, after taking an initial step with the #3, the defender fires back under the slant from Wicks and comes up with a huge INT.

The Packers went with something they thought would work given the information they had gathered in-game, but it ended up biting them. Great play from the Browns, but this is also something that Love will tell you he should have seen. He was focused so much on the LB that he barely glanced at the defender over the #3.

Albums listened to: Rose Blossom Punch – Sorry to Disappoint You; Biffy Clyro – Futique; The Cure – Songs of a Lost World; Lathe of Heaven – Aurora; John Carpenter & Alan Howarth – Halloween III: Season of the Witch