As I mentioned last week, I wanted to try to be a little more deliberate about posting here. Sure, everyone loves the weekly RPO Report (I don’t know that anyone loves it), but I spend a lot of time every week charting data so I thought it was only right if I post some cut-ups somewhere. And hey! This is somewhere!
So here’s the non-RPO screens the Packers ran this past week.
The reason I’m looking at non-RPO screens is because RPO screens are…different. Those are quick-hitting tags to a run concept. That feels like a different animal than trying to set-up an actual screen. The mechanics are different, the idea is different, etc. They may share some of the same blood, but they are different creatures in my mind.
I’ve got the Packers with 5 screens on the day, which is tied with the highest number of screens they’ve run on the season, but not an outlandish amount. On the season, the Packers have run 5 screens in 3 other games and average 3.7 screens per game.
They averaged 4.8 YPA on screens, their 3rd highest rate of the year. Their highest was week 1 with 17.0 YPA, bolstered by a 51 yard throwback screen to Aaron Jones. (They ran that same screen this week and it went for 8 yards. A nice pick-up to be sure, but not 51 yards.) They averaged 5.8 YPA in week 3, so this week’s performance is a yard short of that, but much better than the 1.6 YPA they averaged on 5 screens against the Broncos in Week 7.
This week, two of the screens came on 1st down. They needed an average of 10 yards and gained an average of 4.5 yards. That 45% of yards needed is the exact threshold needed to qualify as a successful play on 1st down.
Three of the screens came on 2nd down. They needed an average of 5.0 yards and gained an average of 5.0 yards for a 100% conversion rate.
That’s the trick with averages, though. While the Packers averaged success on these calls, they were really only successful on their 1st 3 screens. On their last 2, they picked up 1 yard on 1st & 10 and 0 yards on 2nd & 1 (that last one was the lone incomplete screen pass on the day).
Is that enough about screen passes? It feels like it might be.