Last Week, We Asked About Play-Action Passing; Packers Provided Emphatic Answer

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Before the Green Bay Packers faced the Chicago Bears last week, we asked why the Packers weren’t leaning into their play-action passing game more.

At the time, Jordan Love had some of the best play-action stats but coach Matt LaFleur used it less than most teams.

“I think you have to stay in manageable situations,” LaFleur said last week. “If it’s second-and-20 and you run a play-action, it’s probably not going to be as effective as if it’s even second-and-7. I think that [not needing an effective run game to have an effective play-action game] could hold true for some of the first-down situations, but it’s more when you’re in get-back-on-track (situations) that I think it’s less effective.”

On Sunday, LaFleur and Love dropped a series of play-action bombs on Chicago’s secondary. The result was one of the best games of Love’s career and a combined 330 receiving yards from Christian Watson, Matthew Golden and Tucker Kraft.

Love’s play-action numbers were downright absurd. Even with limited success running the football again, Love according to Pro Football Focus was 12-of-14 passing for 245 yards with one touchdown and a 142.6 passer rating.

According to Sumer Sports, Love was 10-of-12 for 212 yards. That’s not just the most play-action yards for a quarterback this season but the most in a regular-season game since Jared Goff in 2024.

Why? And how? It’s not as if the Packers ran the ball well. They finished the day with 2.7 yards per carry, though a solid 4.0-yard average in the first half helped. They finished last in the league last week with 1.1 yards per first-down carry.

Taking out Tyrod Taylor’s kneel-down to end the game, the Packers had as many first-down runs that gained 0 yards or worse as 3 yards or better (four apiece). MarShawn Lloyd, Pierre Strong and Kaleb Johnson combined for 11 carries for 14 yards.

But the Packers kept dialing up play-action passes and Love kept answering with big-play completions.

“Ultimately you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to execute, though,” LaFleur said before practice on Wednesday. “Whether you’re dropping back, screening, throwing the quick game, play action, you’ve got to go out there and execute. And our guys went out there and did a really good job.

“It all starts up front, just giving Jordan the time to be able to allow some of those long-developing plays to develop. It starts up front. It’s not just the O-line. MarShawn (Lloyd) had a key block on the first one in terms of when they brought the corner blitz.”

Even without run-game support, Love had 66 more play-action yards than any other quarterback last week, according to Pro Football Focus. Among quarterbacks with more than five play-action dropbacks, he was first in completion percentage (85.7) and yards per attempt (17.5).

“I felt like we were rolling, definitely, play after play, drive after drive, making big plays,” Love said after the game. “It’s definitely a good feeling when you’re having a lot of explosive plays (and) putting up a lot of points. Obviously, defense played a huge part in that, getting us the ball back with all those turnovers, keeping them out of the end zone.

“It’s one of those things we’ve talked about. It’s flow state – feels like you’re flowing out there – just play after play we’re making those. It felt good to be able to do that at home.”

With Love flowing, Watson and Golden were exploding. They combined for 266 yards.

“I’ve said this a million times, I feel like – every week’s a new week,” LaFleur said on Monday. “Obviously, we’re always trying to get our playmakers the ball and those two guys are our best playmakers in that room right now. So, if their number’s called and the coverage presents itself the way that it did, then they’re going to get opportunities.

“You can’t control what the defensive call is, but you want to try to as much as possible put those guys at the point of attack and in position that if the coverage plays out the way you want it to, they have opportunities to go make plays. I can’t say enough about those two guys, just the plays that they made.”

While the data shows teams don’t need a successful run game to have a successful play-action attack, it doesn’t hurt. Whether it’s the mere threat of the run or the difference between second-and-7 and second-and-10, the Packers probably know that last week’s success against Chicago isn’t sustainable until they build some semblance of a relevant run game.

“We’re inconsistent, but yeah, there’s been some good ones,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “I think we still need to just be more consistent. We’ve had some negative runs put us behind the sticks in every game, so we just got to make sure we’re finding yards in those plays and not losing yards. I think once we do that, we’ll be able to get more runs called, we’ll be able to be more consistent and just be better as an offense.

According to PFF, 29 quarterbacks have at least 100 total dropbacks. Comparing play-action passes to standard dropbacks, Love is plus-19.8 in completion percentage (second), plus 4.1 yards per attempt (second) and plus-67.8 in passer rating (first).

Ten quarterbacks are averaging at least 1.7 yards more per play-action dropback than traditional dropbacks. Two of those quarterbacks have top-10 rushing attacks, three have bottom-10 rushing attacks and the other five are in the middle.

Why doesn’t it matter? Because linebackers are trained to stop the run.

“What I like to say is that you don't have to establish the run because the run was established in Pop Warner,” said Aaron Schatz, a founder of Football Outsiders and now with FTN Fantasy.

Can the Packers keep it going against the Cowboys? If so, it will be up a lot more than Love, Watson and Golden.

“It’s everybody,” LaFleur said. “It falls on everybody who’s in protection, and then obviously the wideouts have got to go do their thing, and those guys were making plays. They made some tough contested catches, and that’s part of the reason it was so effective.”

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