Last week, we looked at the mechanics of a Can call in the Week 14 Giants game. We’re jumping forward a bit this week to Week 17. There are a couple of reasons for that, the main one being, “Time is much shorter these days than it had been and I don’t know how many more of these I can write, but there are a couple I feel like I absolutely need to hit.” There are some fun plays to look at in the Bucs and Panthers game, but I just didn’t have the energy. So we’re at Week 17.

And what a week it was. This was a really fun game for a handful of reasons. The Packers went into Minnesota and beat the brakes off the Vikings in their own building, continuing to show off just how far the offense had come since the shaky days in the early part of the season. Beyond that, my daughter couldn’t sleep, so we watched this game together. We talked about some of the things the Packers were doing offensively, celebrated a stress-free win, then watched the ball drop at midnight. Certainly one of those nights I’ll remember for a very long time.

So let’s get to this play. Jayden Reed scored 2 TDs in this game, with this play being the first one. It’s a play I typically tag as Four Verts, but we’re digging a little deeper today.

We’re looking at the call itself and the responsibilities. As a reminder, this is how the Packers structure their calls (although not every section is used in every call):

1. Motion/Shift
2. Formation & Strength
3. Formation Variation
4. Motion
5. Run Concept or Pass Pro
6. Pass Concept

Playcall: Y Mo Gun Dixie LT Off 2 Jet F Flag Aggie

Here’s how that may sound when called in the game:

Motion: Y Mo

This tells the Y TE to align away from his spot in the Dixie LT alignment, then move over to his spot when the QB gives him the signal. So he originally aligns in-line on the right, then simply swaps over to the left side in the same position.

Formation & Strength: Gun Dixie LT

This is a 2x2 formation, with the Y aligned in-line on the left (as a reminder, the Y is always aligned on the strongside of the formation). 

Formation Variation: Off

This tells the Y to line up off the ball next to the tackle. Dixie LT calls for the Y to be on the line, so this tag moves him off the line, which puts the Z on the line to that side.

Pass Protection: 2(00) Jet

This is a 5 man slide protection, which calls for the line to block 4 down to the 2 widest rushers. Against the 5 man look the Vikings are giving, the 3 linemen to the strongside will block left, while the right guard and right tackle will block right. The running back reads inside-out for support, then releases through the line.

Pass Concept: F Flag Aggie

The Aggie concept is something we typically think about as Four Verts: go routes on the outside and seam routes from the inside. The F Flag tag indicates that the F receiver should run a Flag route as opposed to the Go route he would typically run in Aggie.

(As always, I used Dan Casey’s Play Caller’s Club book as a template for the above image. It’s a really fun book to mess around with.)

The Vikings are showing heavy pressure up front and a single-high safety pre-snap, but Jordan Love is able to use his cadence to get them to tip their hand a bit. We see a couple rushers on the right dropping back into coverage and we also see Cam Bynum [24] rotating over to the offensive left side. 

That’s a huge tell. Instead of expecting a single-high, man-to-man look behind a blitz, Love is looking for a two-high safety look with 4 or 5 rushers up front. That changes the back end of the defense from a Middle Field Closed (MFC) to Middle Field Open (MFO), which is important for how Jayden Reed [11] and Tucker Kraft [85] will run their seam routes (as detailed in the diagram above).

Kraft is uncovered, so Love looks that direction first, but the Vikings drop the mugger off the line and have a safety over the top, which doesn’t allow for any space to fit the ball. He rules that out quickly and moves over to Reed. 

With the Vikings dropping into MFO, the Seam route calls for more of a bend to the inside. However, they’re running a linebacker up the pipe into a Tampa 2 look. So the middle of the field may be open, but that ball has to go up-and-over the linebacker. Still, Love likes the look. And why wouldn’t he? He’s got Reed running full speed over a backpedaling linebacker. So he hangs in against a lineman in his lap and throws a dart off his back foot, over the linebacker and splitting the safeties.

As I mentioned, Josh Myers [71] is getting driven back by Harrison Phillips [97] into the lap of Love, but Love doesn’t want to bail the pocket or he’d miss his window. So he steps slightly to his right - mirrored by Phillips - and launches a perfect pass 45+ yards on a line off his back foot. 

Look at that throw, man.

Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/YSArDUNXCo

— Dusty (@DustyEvely) June 27, 2024

After the extra point, the Packers took a 10-0 lead in the 1st quarter and coasted to a 33-10 win, then got to ring in 2024 in style.

gonna tweet this every New Year’s Eve for years to come pic.twitter.com/uyoVQED0sg

— CheeseheadTV 🧀 (@cheeseheadtv) January 1, 2024

If you want to go back through the rest of this series, I thought I'd gather all the links up here. Hope you're learning half as much reading this as I am writing them.

Week 1: Gun Trio RT Open 2 Scat H Choice Buffalo
Week 2: Motion Sink LT Zoom Z Fly P19 Waggle Z Dagger
Week 3: Shift Gun Trips RT G Open H D 3 Scram Z Shot Bow
Week 4: Gun Dyno RT 2 Jet Coco Stitch
Week 5: Bunch LT FK 19 Keep LT
Week 7: Shift Crush LT Z Insert 12 Dos Shield
Week 8: Shift Gun Crush RT Z RT 365 Shield Return
Week 9: Motion Gun Trips RT F Behind FK Mirror Swinger Y Cross
Week 10: Motion Gun Crip LT Open F Counter 2 Jet Coco Swab
Week 11: Motion Gun Bin RT Z Fly 2 Jet Y Surge Z Dagger
Week 12: Motion Gun Trio RT Clamp Y LT P18 Weezy Z Strike X Blaze Out
Week 13: F Mo Gun Bin RT 3 Jet Arches Y Corner
Week 14: Z Mo Gun Dixie LT Lox 38 Wanda Can H2 Z Stick X Pile

Albums listened to: Tom Waits - Bad As Me; Kate Nash - 9 Sad Symphonies; Gracie Abrams - The Secret of Us; Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.