Nihilarian Posted February 3, 2021 Author Posted February 3, 2021 Take a long hard look at the 2020 Green Bay Packers. A pass heavy spread offense? The #1 offense points scored, #5 in yards. #24 in passing, yet #9 in passing yards. 12th in rushing attempts, #8 in rushing yards. Aaron Rodgers 4299 yards passing, 48 TDs, 5 INTs. RB Aaron Jones 201 rush attempts, 1104 rush yards, 9 TDs. The 2020 Packers became much more efficient in running play action passing. Rodgers went from a 91.3 passer rating to 135.9 off play action drop backs. The Packers have also had a much better "clean pocket" for Rodgers that went from 6 percent in 2019 to 2.8 in 2020. Aaron Rodgers 62.0% completion percentage in 2019. Rodgers with a 70.7% completion percentage in 2020. The tight end position with Robert Tonyan over Jimmy Graham who caught 88% of the passes thrown his way. The point here is the Packers are utilizing the run game with play action to run a more balanced offensive passing attack. Three receivers, two RBs and a TE. Running the ball more actually helped the passing game. *One of the primary reasons play-action passing works so well is that players, linebackers in particular, are coached at a young age to stop the run at all costs. When they see a quarterback hand the ball off, the instinct has been instilled to stop the run. Even if it creates only a second of hesitation when an offense uses play-action, it could put the defender out of position. Analytics shows that using play-action heavily is wise as it can prop up a quarterback and the passing game overall.
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