During the season, I have too many plays to write about every week, so ~60% of them end up in a Twitter thread. As I try to figure out what I’m doing in this space, I think I’m going to start putting them here instead. And we’ll do that starting now! Right now!
The idea of dumping them to Twitter is because it takes much less time to do that than to write up an article. Beyond the business of writing an intro and all that, the act of opening a document and typing up plays makes my brain think I should take more time with the plays than I would in a Twitter thread. Still, outside of this initial post, I’m going to try to keep to my Twitter ethos: rapid-fire analysis. I’m not always going to be specifying the players or anything. We’re just getting some thoughts out and moving on. Cool? Cool.
This first post is less “I have too many plays to talk about” and more “I only had time to dive into one play in-depth this week and got around to the others too late for anyone to care about.” But you care about them, don’t you?
Play 1
“The Benkert Throw.” One of the big highlights in this game. It’s a two-man route with a defensive pre-snap alignment that looks like single-high. Packers have a vertical route on the outside and a deep crosser from the other side. The idea would be to take advantage of that single-high safety. If he drops over the vertical route, there’s no deep help for the crosser. If he stays on the crosser, you’ve got man-to-man on the vertical route.
The post-snap picture looks a lot different, with the Jets dropping into a Quarters shell with deep drops from the second level of the defense. One of the dropping safeties is capping the vertical route, while the other is playing over the crosser. With immediate pressure off the edge, Benkert escapes the pocket and looks downfield.
The boundary defender had been dropping into a deep zone under the vertical route, but he breaks toward the line when Benkert breaks contain. That allows Taylor to get behind the spot-dropping linebacker and find space on the boundary.
And Benkert hits him with a beautiful throw on the run.
Play 2
An RPO that turns into a nice TD run for rookie Kylin Hill.
The Packers run a lot of WR screens for their RPO package, and they make the decisions based on pre-snap numbers. Do the Packers have numbers to the pass side? If they do, throw the WR screen and pick up an easy 5-7 yards. If they don’t have the numbers, hand it off. Easy peasy.
The Packers have a bunch to the left and are running a WR screen. The Jets have 3 defenders to that side. Even numbers is losing numbers, so the screen is out. Instead, Benkert hands off to Kylin Hill.
Royce Newman loses his block from his RG spot, but Ben Braden executes a nice block on the linebacker screaming down the line and Taylor runs the boundary defender inside to clear the edge. There’s some penetration from Newman’s spot, but Hill hits the jets and dives to paydirt.
Nice block by Braden and nice burst from Hill. Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.
Play 3
This is one that, at the time, all I could think was, “Man, how could Sternberger drop this.” And sure, I’m still thinking that to some extent, but I’m more impressed with the read/throw from Benkert than I am disappointed about the drop. (Still a little disappointed in the drop, though.)
Packers with trips right. Vertical route on the outside, curl from the slot and a dig from Sternberger just off the line. We’ll see this again in a minute, but the Jets are doing something they did quite often in this game: showing lots of pressure up front, then dropping back at the snap. On this play, it looks like Amari Rodgers is uncovered in the slot, but that picture changes post-snap.
The defender lined-up outside of Sternberger buzzes under Rodgers, while the mugging LB turns to run under Sternberger.
You know one of the problems of showing pressure at the line and buzzing out late? You’re trying to get to your spot and may not always be in the best position to defend.
That’s exactly what happens here. The LB is turning to run under Sternberger. Benkert sees that and throws back-shoulder to Sternberger in the middle of the field. Nice read of the defense and a perfect throw. Sternberger just couldn’t turn and haul it in.
Really unfortunate he couldn’t come up with this, but everything else is gorgeous. The decision/timing of the throw. The pocket. The throwing lane. It’s all lovely.
Play 4
Remember what I said about the Jets showing pressure at the line and then dropping out of it? Buddy, we’ve got another one!
The Jets have a lot of bodies at the line and aren’t showing anyone deep. Not a single soul. At the snap, they drop back into a Quarter-Quarter-Half look. The Packers are running Middle Read Dagger from the left - a concept we saw a lot of last season - which is totally blown up with the defensive drops. Both routes are capped and the deep-dropping linebackers at the second level leave no room for either route underneath.
But all those bodies in the middle means a one-on-one match-up on the outside. Away from the mass of bodies now mucking up the middle, a lonely receiver is running a curl to the sticks. And fella, it’s a beautiful route.
Benkert doesn’t panic. His first look is right down the middle of the field, so he sees the picture changing before his very eyes. He hits the top of his drop, hitches and throws the curl route. Good read. Great decision. Good throw.
Look how quickly he resets his feet at the top of the drop. The throw is originally intended to go to one of the receivers in the Dagger concept, so the top of the drop gets him in position to fire to one of those. But he knows from his dropback read that he’s not throwing to those routes. So as soon as he hits the top of the drop, he steps into the pocket, resets his feet and fires to the outside.
Really nicely done.
Play 5
4th & 2. What’s your go-to concept? In this instance, the Packers went with slant/flat. Not really shocking.
Reggie Begelton is on the outside running the slant, while Patrick Taylor is running a flat from the backfield. Jace Sternberger is running a stop route from his in-line position. It’s unclear what the Jets are doing defensively pre-snap, but they settle into a man look post-snap.
Against man coverage, the quarterback is just kind of waiting for the flat defender to cross under the throwing lane of the slant. With the stop route occupying the middle, you just need that flat defender running to the sideline, then fire the slant.
Begelton does a nice job on the route. Gets inside off the line and does a nice job creating some late separation and giving Benkert a target to hit.
There’s a slight delay in the throw, but that’s due to the flat defender. He doesn’t commit to covering the flat immediately, so Benkert has to wait until he clears. Eventually the defender follows the flat, because he has to. If he hung around that slant throwing lane, Patrick Taylor would have been wide open and the throw goes to the flat.
But eventually he clears and Benkert throws a nice ball up-and-away from the defender.
Play 6
Last one and we’ll make it quick, because I’ve already been droning on way longer than expected. (Although, let’s be honest: we were all expecting this.)
The Packers have a Drive concept from the right side and a vertical route from Taylor on the outside. The Jets’ safeties are moving around a little pre-snap and they rotate to a single-high look post-snap. That gives Benkert all he needs. He likes the match-up on the outside, so when he sees the single-high safety, he reads the single-high safety and takes the shot on the outside.
The defender is playing inside and over-the-top on Taylor, so Benkert can’t drive this ball over the top. With that coverage, he throws back shoulder and Taylor comes up with the catch.
This certainly went longer than expected. We’ll see what happens in the future. Maybe I’ll break it up into separate posts. Maybe I’ll make the breakdowns shorter. Or maybe I’ll just keep doing this exact same thing and keep thinking I’ll make some kind of change. That seems like the most likely scenario.
Thanks for joining me in this space! It’s gonna be a good year.