Jordan Love in Week 1 of the 2023 preseason
or, those who don't want to watch 40 minute videos, we salute you
As you may have heard, Jordan Love - THE Jordan Love - played in a preseason game last Friday. I’m sure nobody is talking about it.
Anyway, I decided it would be cool to take a look at all 10 of Love’s throws from that game through the lens of the passing concept itself. Basically, what is that concept trying to do against that defense and how did Love navigate it? Did it seem like he was making the right reads?
What followed was this ~40 minute video, going through all 10 throws and really digging into them through that lens.
But I know that most people don’t want to sit through 40 minutes of me rambling. I don’t even want to sit through 40 minutes of me rambling. So, for those who prefer to read, I thought I’d throw the clips and my thoughts into this post.
So let’s go.
Throw 1: 1st & 10
A nice, easy little concept to kick things off. Dragon (aka Slant/Flat aka the McCarth and/or Rodgers special) is a two-man West Coast concept. Simple yet effective ball control concept.
Tucker Kraft goes in motion pre-snap and the linebackers respond by bumping coverage slightly, but not following. More importantly, no one on defense bumps out to the offensive right, so Love knows he either has Aaron Jones with outside leverage on a linebacker, or being picked up by the defensive end.
Jones is, indeed, picked up by the defensive end, so Love hits the top of his drop and fires for a 6 yard gain. Easy-peasy. (This was Jones’ only snap of the game.)
Read: Good
Throw: Good
Throw 2: 2nd & 4
A staple of this offense, and something we’ll see 2 more times over the course of this little look. PA Boot to a Sail concept. It plays off of the wide zone action, then boots out the other way to find three receivers running parallel to the line on separate planes. You have a deep option, middle option and flat option. On this play you also have a Slam route (down-block off the line, then release behind the flat and look for space). That’s fun because it’s being run by Jayden Reed. A lot of times you’ll see a TE or big receiver on that, so it’s interesting to see Reed - a relatively small, rookie WR - in that role. If they can move him around like that during the regular season, he’s going to be a ton of fun.
Anyway, the QB is typically looking for that middle route (the crosser from the opposite side of the formation) initially on this. It’s covered up, so he takes the throw to the flat. 4 yards and the chains keep moving.
Read: Good
Throw: Good
Throw 3: 2nd & 7
Here’s the deep shot to Christian Watson. Packers have a little follow-dig concept on the right, with Watson isolated on the outside. Bengals are showing a single-high safety pre-snap. And, unless the Bengals are trotting out some crazy invert coverages in the preseason, they’ll be in single-high post-snap.
The Bengals look to speed things up by bringing a delayed blitz by a LB.
After the snap, Love confirms the single high safety. Knowing that means he has Christian Watson man-to-man, he hits that back step and lets it fly. (If you watch his footwork, you can see that he’s in position to throw to the middle if he didn’t like the shot to Watson.)
It looks good initially, but Dax Hill breaks from his centerfield spot and swats the ball away.
A couple things on this one. First things first, it’s a great play by Hill.
Watson could leave a little more room between himself and the sideline to give Love a bigger window to fit the ball away from the safety. He didn’t, which makes this a tougher throw, and it’s ever-so-slightly underthrown and inside. If this ball is out in front of Watson and fading to the boundary, it’s probably complete.
Read: Good
Throw: Fine
Throw 4: 3rd & 7
Here’s the miss to Luke Musgrave. Packers have Musgrave on a crosser and are running a curl/dig combo behind him. The Bengals are mugging the A gap, but spin one of those guys out at the snap to drop into zone.
That man is the cause of all this. Well…part of the cause.
Love works hard to keep that man frozen in place to help spring open Musgrave behind him. He’s looking straight down the middle and has his feet set to the middle. Once Musgrave starts to clear, Love shifts his feet and fires an absolute rocket, missing high and wide.
It’s a shame too, because it could have been a big gain. And also because he completely fooled the LB. Watch how hard that LB breaks when Love starts his throwing motion.
Unfortunately you don’t get credit for fooling the defense.
Read: Good
Throw: Bad
Throw 5: 1st & 10
I saw “throw” because it was a forward pass, but it’s just a little touch pass. A fun play, but not much there in the terms of evaluating Love.
Read: Good
Throw: Good
Throw 6: 2nd & 5
The failed TE screen to Musgrave. The decision-making doesn’t really factor in here, as there’s really only one option on the play.
Musgrave engages with the block and slowly loses, as he is supposed to do. When the time is right, Musgrave disengages and turns for the ball. The problem is that the defender is now directly in the path of Love and Musgrave.
Love turns, sees the defender, then tries to adjust his arm angle and fire it past (through?) the defender. The ball is knocked up in the air and falls harmlessly to the ground.
There are a couple of things here. First of all, the throw. It’s easy to nitpick here, but, from my vantage point (a comfy chair with the advantage of hindsight, multiple angles of replay and no men trying to knock my head off), the best option for a throw seems to be a little loft over the top of the defender. You’d really have to lollipop that sucker to not get knocked down, but that’s the option. That or just throw it into the dirt and live to see another day.
The other thing is the block from Musgrave. He does what he needs to do, but, when it’s time to disengage, you’d really like to see a little chuck to the inside to clear the throwing lane. Doesn’t have to be much more than a nudge: just a little push to the inside and Love has a clear lane. That’s something that will come with experience.
Decision: Good
Throw: Not great
Throw 7: 3rd & 5
Let’s pick up the 1st down here. Christian Watson starts on the left side of the line then shifts over to the right pre-snap as the outside receiver. The coverage bumps and sees Watson matched-up with Sidney Jones IV, who is playing off the line. Love reads Jones on the dropback. Jones is backpedaling as Watson breaks towards him, which leaves the quick-out to Watson wide open. Love hits the top of his drop and hits Watson for a 1st down.
Read: Good
Throw: Good
Throw 8: 1st & 10
The Packers go back to PA Boot at the 20. This time the crosser is open and Love delivers a strike to Doubs for 12 yards. As I mentioned above, that crosser is what the QB is really looking to hit on this concept, and it all works out.
Decision: Good
Throw: Good
Throw 9: 1st & goal
They go back to PA Boot here in the Low Red Zone. As a general rule, I don’t like this concept in this area. It’s a concept that thrives in space. That Sail/deep corner route is designed to take the top off the defense to create space for the crosser, and the crosser creates space for the flat route. In the confines of the low red zone, you just can’t generate the necessary space for this to be effective.
Watson works as the slicer/flat option. With the deeper options covered - and a man running right at him - Love takes the throw to Watson. Watson brings in the catch but is immediately brought down for a loss of 1.
Decision: Good
Throw: Good
Throw 10: 2nd & goal
Love ends his day with a TD to Doubs on a high-cross look. They had good luck with this last season. Speed can really make this an effective concept in this area, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see it even more in 2023.
The Bengals are in man-free coverage - a common look in this area of the field - and this concept is designed to attack that coverage. Watson runs a crosser from the left, while Doubs runs a delayed dig/crosser from the right, with the routes crossing right in front of the single-high safety.
So we’ve got two receivers - both with inside leverage on their defenders - crossing in front of the safety. That puts him in a bind. Which receiver do I run with? The safety breaks on the deeper receiver (Watson), leaving Doubs open on the left. As soon as the safety declares, Love lofts a throw to Doubs and Doubs makes an aggressive catch for the TD.
The throw could be a little better. There’s room to the back pylon, so ideally you’d like to see this ball put a little deeper into the end zone and away from the defender. This throw gets the job done, but you’d like to see it put in a spot where the defender doesn’t have a chance at it.
Last thing on this play: Love has all the time in the world, in part because Zach Tom has his man in the Walls of Jericho over on the right side.
Decision: Good
Throw: Fine
Overall, I thought this was a nice showing from Love. I thought he made the right read every time, which carries over nicely from last season and shows how much progress he has made since he has been drafted.
There are a couple throws he would likely want back (the Musgrave one for sure), but, for the most part, I was impressed with what he showed. He displayed a nice command and understanding of the offense. Not a perfect showing, but an encouraging one and helps to confirm a lot of priors from what we saw in the Eagles game.
Obviously 10 throws in a preseason game won’t tell the whole story, but, for me, it showed that what we saw from him in limited time wasn’t a mirage. If nothing else, Love has grown a lot over the last 3 years and I’m excited to see what he does next.
Here are all the throws in a single video, if that’s your kind of thing.
If you’re a true sicko, I walked through 17 throws from Sean Clifford and looked at decision-making and all that as well.