We did it. We finally did it. After years of watching the Packers live in a world of strictly horizontal RPOs and begging for something more, they finally started incorporating some more vertical-pushing RPOs into their game. I don’t think it’s sustainable in the way they’re running them, but for today? Today, we are kings.
One of the reasons I don’t see this as a total shift is that the vertical RPOs are typically thrown off the post-snap actions of a second-level constraint defender. If you’re curious what that fun bit of word salad is, I covered it in a Stealing Plays segment last week in looking at a Bills TD off a glance RPO (starting around the 11:50 mark):
All of the vertical RPOs this week were pre-snap reads, either based on leverage or a defensive look/alignment that Rodgers liked.
So how did their RPO game look this week? Good on the pass, not so great on the run.
Really great numbers from the pass game, bolstered by those vertical pass tags. It’s also worth noting that both touchdown throws came off of RPOs.
Where did they do the most damage with the passing game?
And what of the running game? Any nice things there?
Their ever-growing power game did the best, but 3.7 YPA isn’t really scaring anybody. Still, it performed fairly well for them against a stout Bucs front, so that’s promising. Two things I really wanted to see from the Packers this year were more vertical RPOs and a more diverse, power-heavy run game. Their usage of power (pulling guards and whatnot) has increased significantly, and they’ve put up some nice numbers with it. I'm truly excited about that.
Lastly, how did the run game do with and without the RPO tag?
Not great in either category, but they did average 0.5 more yards per carry with an RPO tag. Which is what you want! Again, the point of RPOs is to find an advantage in both the run and pass game. When you’re handing off the ball in those situations, it’s because you like the advantage you have in the running game on that look more than you like what you have on the pass tag (usually that means running into a lighter box or better angles). It was always going to be tough sledding against this Bucs team in the run game, but I’ll take the 0.5 advantage with the RPO tag.
As always, I found a few RPOs that I really liked this week, so I wanted to walk through them. This week we’re looking at 3 of the vertical RPOs.