The Green Bay Packers went into their Week 8 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at 5-2, having just rattled off three straight victories (over the Rams, Cardinals and Texans). But, in the fourth quarter, they had their hands full against the 2-5 Jaguars.

On their first drive of the second half, nursing a 13-10 lead, quarterback Jordan Love left the game, giving way to Malik Willis. Willis had won his two starts earlier in the season, but both of those games came with a week of game prep. How would he do when pressed into action mid-game?

The Packers went run-heavy, with Willis only attempting 5 passes in the half. The Packers were able to tread water, but a late touchdown drive by the Jaguars made it 27-27 with 1:48 remaining in the game.

On the first play of their drive, the Packers ran Josh Jacobs up the middle for a four-yard gain. They didn’t call a timeout, so the next time the ball was snapped, there was 1:14 remaining in the game. It was a playfake, with Willis booting right and…well…let’s back up a full quarter.

With 1:13 remaining in the third quarter, the Packers ran PA Boot (“Keep”, in their playbook). It’s a core passing concept of the Packers (as it is with all teams that run some wide zone). Fake the run one way, boot out the other and find receivers running parallel to the line on different planes. The route distribution is usually Sail, with a receiver in the flat, a receiver running an intermediate crossing route and a deep corner (“Sail”) route.

There are a lot of variations to this. In this version, Jayden Reed [11] is running a Slam route. He starts in-line on the right and fakes a block down the line before releasing with the boot. His job is to sell the down block, then work in the space created by the flat route as a potential late option.

As a note, they’re running this out of 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) in a formation called Deuce LT Off (the strength of the formation is on the left and the TE is to align off the line instead of on the line).

The way Willis moves here is interesting. Usually, the QB continues the boot to the sideline and throws on the move. On this play, Willis pulls up short even though there isn’t pressure forcing him to do this. Based on how the Packers teach this play, I have to assume that the movement from Willis was intentional. We usually only see this type of half-boot-pull-up on a designed throwback.

Fast forward a quarter to where we started. There is 1:14 remaining in a tie game, and the Packers are facing 2nd & 6 from their own 34. They are in 11 personnel in Deuce LT Off, with Jayden Reed in-line on the right. They fake the run to the left, then Willis boots right, pulling up short of the usual mark. No big deal there, since they already ran PA Boot with Sail in this exact manner exactly a quarter ago.

Then things change. Instead of releasing to the flat, Tucker Kraft [85] pulls up to protect Willis. Reed releases down the line like he did when running the Slam route, but this time, he keeps running. He puts his head down, sneaks down the line, then explodes once he clears the last LB. It’s not PA Boot; it’s Leak, and Jayden Reed finds himself all alone up the left sideline.

Willis puts it on the money and Reed catches it on the run, picking up an additional 25 yards after the catch. By the time the dust had settled, it was a 51-yard gain. The Packers ran two more plays (for 11 yards) and kicked a game-winning, 24-yard field goal as time expired.

After the game, LaFleur said that this was a “Can” call by Willis. Meaning, he went to the line with 2 calls and had the option to “Can” the first play for the second play at the line. You can see Willis putting his hands to his ears pre-snap: that’s Willis signaling to the offense they’re checking out of the first call – a run – and into Leak. (I wrote about the Can mechanism last offseason if you’re interested.)

The Can likely was the result of the Jaguars’ safety rotation when they ran PA Boot earlier. On that 3rd quarter play, the Jaguars showed single-high safety pre-snap with the corners walked up. When the Packers ran Sail, the safety vacated the middle to follow the flow of the receivers with the boot, leaving the entire left side of the field wide open.

On this 4th quarter play, the Jaguars initially align in a two-high look, but they rotate down strong-side (over the TE) pre-snap. That’s when Willis Cans to Leak, anticipating the same coverage.

Sure enough, the safety bails from the middle and the left side of the field is open.

This is a play that was in the Packers’ playbook, but was apparently not part of the game plan that week. They made this adjustment in-game due to the looks the Jaguars were giving. Kudos to the coaching staff for picking up on this and putting this in as an option during the game, and good recognition by Willis to see the rotation and Can it to give the Packers a huge play.

Here are the two plays back-to-back:

Albums listened to: Slow Salvation – Gemini; Matt Berninger – Get Sunk