I started this Substack for 2 main reasons:
Give myself an outlet to talk about football on my own schedule. I may have some weeks where I post nothing and other weeks where I post multiple things. It allows me to operate a little more outside of my typical schedule, and I have found it to be invigorating.
This is the bigger one: I wanted an outlet to talk about non-Packers football if I wanted to. I don’t have that currently, but I see fun plays in football that don’t involve the Packers and I want to talk about them.
The second point is one I want to dive a little deeper into during the offseason, as I haven’t been able to leverage it as much as I would have liked so far. But this first play kind of fits into that bucket. Yes, it’s from the Packers game, but we’re flipping it to talk about a Lions TD and the design that led to it. I wanted to be able to talk about it in terms of the fun play design on the Lions offense, instead of any particular failings from the Packers defense. It’s a fine line, but it’s there.
Play 1
As I just spent entirely too many words on, this first video covers the Amon Ra St. Brown TD in the low red zone. Really great use of motion to create confusion in the defense, then St. Brown settles into a nice little pocket of space. Really nice play design.
Play 2
This next play ends in an incomplete pass for the Packers off PA Boot, but it looks like the Packers are throwing in a wrinkle based on how teams have been playing them: it’s the traditional PA Boot, with a half-boot option if the defensive end screams off the end.