Packers Film Room: Green Bay’s 3rd down defense against the Cardinals
The Green Bay Packers easily handled the Arizona Cardinals 34-13 in week six in Green Bay. The defense forced two turnovers in the form of two fumbles, both of which they recovered, and recovered a third self-inflicted fumble by Kyler Murray, giving them three total turnovers for the game and two pass break-ups. The defense did all of this without registering a sack or interception.
Instead, the defense did its damage on third down, holding Arizona to 4-for-10. Three of those conversions came in the late third and fourth quarters when the Packers were already up by three scores.
Kyler Murray was 1-for-6 for three yards on third down passing through the entirety of the game. The first downs they did pick up late in the game were by running on third and short but they were insignificant to the outcome in what was already a blowout by then. In the running game, Murray tried to run a zone read, only to have it blown up for a loss by Evan Williams.
The defense had several stops on third down in the portions of the game that did matter however, through the first two-and-a-half quarters.
The Packers are in “cover-1 plug,” which is becoming one of their preferred coverage calls on third down. It’s a good call for them because it gets a faster safety in man coverage to match-up with the interior slot receivers rather than a linebacker and it lets a linebacker play the low hole and rob any crossers or chase the back out of the back field.
Here, Keisean Nixon is in the slot covering Michael Wilson. Wilson gets a free release to run the crossing route but Nixon stays with him about 1-step behind. As the ball arrives, Wilson goes to secure it but Nixon forcefully knocks the ball out of his grasp and forces a punt situation. The linebackers, Quay Walker and Isaiah McDuffie, clog the interior passing lanes with Walker locked on the running back and McDuffie playing the low hole.
Second play
Later in the game, on a zone read attempt, Evan Williams blitzed off the edge in a safety blitz to shut down the quarterback run.
The play is just a classic zone read from the Cardinals with Murray reading the unblocked defensive end for his cue to give to the running back or keep.
The defense is again in cover-1 but this time with a safety blitz off the edge to the side of the running back.
Williams triggers quickly off the edge at the snap (run blitz indicator) but feels that there is no blocker sliding to him, sees the run option mesh between the quarterback and running back and halts his momentum to play the quarterback. His responsibility on the zone read is to play the quarterback.
The defense under Hafley has been focused on forcing the ball to the running back but changed up the look on Murray by having the defensive end chase down the play. Murray keeps and bounces outside to Williams who stayed square and didn’t turn inside and was in prime position to make the play.
Third play
Later in the third quarter, the defense forced another third down incompletion by making Murray throw into tight coverage. It would have taken the perfect throw to beat the coverage. He nearly completed it as the window was tightening but it was just out of reach of his receiver.
The Cardinals appear to be running an “arches” concept with a crosser from the tight end, a corner route by the slot #2 receiver, and the arches route by the #1 outside.
The defense is in cover-1 again, playing the trips side at different levels so they don’t get caught in the traffic. The rest of the front is sending a 5-man pressure at Murray.
The slot receiver beats Nixon’s on the corner route but McKinney is racing over the top and Nixon recovers somewhat. The pressure forces Murray to hold the ball a second longer and forces him to escape before throwing. The result is that the pass was just out of reach or he might have threaded the needle from a clean pocket.
No big deal, the defense forced them into a field goal situation when a touchdown would’ve closed the gap further. The field goal accounted for the last points Arizona put on the board in this game.
Outlook
In the next article, we’ll take a look at a specific third down call by Hafley we haven’t really seen and it’s a creative way to get pressure and get to a preferred zone coverage concept.
