How a little Matt LaFleur wrinkle leads to explosive plays

Football is constantly evolving. Attacks adapt to the latest defensive trends and defensive counters, and attacks find counter after counter. Nowhere is this more evident than in how the league is adapting to Kyle Shanahan’s offensive tree with its wide zone runs and passing plays in the middle of the field.

Matt LaFleur is no exception. The good coaches find ways to optimize their basic concepts, even if they use them two or three times next season. When yards and points are scarce and the offense has struggled to score points this year, LaFleur’s tweaks have kept the Packers’ offense humming along, generating 27.1 points per game, 7th in the NFL.

An adjustment to a basic concept has been made to the dagger/staff concept in recent weeks. Dagger/Stick was a common offensive scheme last season, winning some key games against the Chargers and Vikings.

The game consists of a dagger concept on the back of the game and a simple stick/flat combination on the front as the primary progression. It is a purely comprehensive reading that extends from the flat side to the stick to the back dagger. The inside crossing route is an alert route, one that Jordan Love hit against Christian Watson against the Chargers last season.

On Sunday night in Seattle in Week 15, Love made a great third-down conversion to Watson on an off-target throw to the tagged adaptation of the concept the offense had adopted this year.

The adaptation to the main concept is to label the backside dig route as an out route or “shake” route. There is no stick/flat combination on the front. Instead, it is a slot recess and an outside receiver recess. The out cut to Love’s left is the primary receiver.

On a shake route, the receiver should sell the dig portion of the stem for at least five steps and get flat away from the defender.

The shake route puts the flat defender in a high-low conflict, whereas the traditional dig route to that side would put the weak hook defender in a conflict. Against Seattle, the Packers have man coverage disguised as a zone. The ball is designed in such a way that it reaches the slot receiver on a quick exit down the sideline.

Love doesn’t throw and sits back as there is pressure in the middle of the offensive line. He escapes to the right and finds Watson for the beautiful finish.

However, with Watson’s route, notice how he sold the in-cut and broke outside as soon as the defender covering him wanted to cut off the dig portion of the route stem. He jumped in with all his might as Watson stormed back out. Love places the ball low and away from the defender as he rolls to the right, and Watson makes a lovely reach onto the turf.

Also here is the Week 13 game against the Dolphins.

The weak hook defender jumps out with the flat, so Love immediately throws the stick.

Here’s a small sampling of the top Dagger/Stock play calls from last season.