Apologies for missing last week. I was out of town for a couple weeks and tried to write enough articles to run while I was out, but this one took a little longer than I had anticipated, so we were left with a dead week. But I think it’s worth it because the play we’re looking at is a fun one, with a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous.

I had a couple of plays I wanted to look at and couldn’t quite decide. One of them was a bit earlier in the game, and I decided to fire up ye olde film room and talk about it for a bit. The main reason I wanted to look at it is because it involves a quick-game staple in this offense, but I also wanted to point out how Jordan Love sorted protection after finding where the blitz was coming from.

For the play we’re looking at in this space, we’re trying something new. That’s right; we’re going to attempt to assemble a “Can” call. Without being in the huddle, it’s impossible to know the first call in the Can series. But, based on alignment, personnel grouping and what play they ended up running, I thought I could make an educated guess. Is it a correct guess? Probably not! But buddy, we’re gonna give it a shot, just to see how it looks.

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: Z Mo Gun Dixie LT Lox 38 Wanda Can H2 Z Stick X Pile

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

Motion: Z Mo

As we talked about a couple weeks ago, “Mo” is a shift that calls for the tagged player to align away from the call, then motion across the formation to the final formation called. This is calling for the Z receiver to align away from the formation strength, then motion to the formation strength when the QB indicates.

Formation & Strength: Gun Dixie LT

This is a 2x2 formation with the formation strength on the left, with the TE in-line and on-the-ball and the Z receiver wide and off-the-ball. The weakside sees the X receiver in the slot and off-the-ball, with the F receiver outside and on-the-ball.

Formation Variation: Lox

I couldn’t find this exact formation or tag in the playbook, so I had to make up my own tag. I created “Lox” as a simple tag to tell the weakside X receiver to align on the ball (which also bumps the receiver who was originally on the ball to off the ball). 

Run Concept: 38 Wanda

This is a weakside run play from Gun. It’s typically something I’ll tag as “Wide Zone”. The line will all block down away from the Y, while the H will cross the QB’s face for the handoff, then follow the blocking and look for the hole.

Can: Can

We’ve talked about it before, but here’s a refresher: on some plays, two plays will be called in with a “Can” option. Basically, you go up to the line planning to run the first play, but the QB has the option to “Can” it and run the second one instead. To do this, he will say “Can,” (usually multiple times) and put his hands up to his ears. The skill players will then put their hands to their ears to indicate that they heard the call.

The section below covers the post-Can call.

Pass Protection: H2(00) 

This is a 7 man slide protection away from the strength of the formation, with the Y blocking out away from the slide. The H reads from the inside to the strongside.

Pass Concept: Z Stick X Pile

With this being a 7 man protection, there are only 3 receivers to run routes. Z will run a Stick route from the left, while the X and F will run a Pile concept. (Pile is a concept that only shows up in the Packers Red Zone package.)

(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.)

That’s a lot, so we’ll try to show how that all works on this play. 

As noted above, I believe the original call was 38 Wanda, a weakside zone run. That would see Patrick Taylor [27] crossing Love’s face to take the handoff, then run to the right. With Tucker Kraft [85] on the line, the Packers have a blocking surface of 6 men. The Giants have 8 men at the line, because Wink Martindale is the DC and that’s what Wink Martindale does. That’s two more defenders than the Packers have blockers, which spells doom for a run but means man-to-man coverage for a pass.

Love “cans” the run, causing Taylor to shift to Love’s right. H2(00) is a 7 man pass protection scheme, which means the Giants still have 1 more rusher than the Packers have blockers, so Love knows he’s going to have to get the ball out quickly.

As Love surveys the defense, he sees that the defender on the left is lined up inside of Malik Heath [18]. Heath is running a Stick route, allowing him to maintain that leverage to the sideline.

On the other side, Romeo Doubs [87] and Jayden Reed [11] are running the Pile concept. It works out extremely well (which we’ll get to in a second), but the situation with Heath is cleaner, so that’s Love’s only read. Given all the circumstances, that’s absolutely the right call.

It’s a difficult throw, but Love puts this ball in the perfect location. Heath comes down with the throw, then waits to celebrate until the ref - taken to the ground after the play - can get up and signal the TD. Kudos to the All 22 camerman for letting the tape run from this angle to see the full celebration.

Even with the Giants having a 1 man advantage up front, the Packers do a good job with protection. Jason Pinnock [27] is the rusher who almost gets home, but Love backpedals away from danger and Taylor gets just enough to keep him from landing a hit.

Look at that placement, man.

Absolutely perfect location. pic.twitter.com/4k02keCZ8l

— Dusty (@DustyEvely) May 29, 2024

If you’re interested in a video breakdown of this that talks a little more about why Love didn’t go to the Pile concept, well, you’re in luck.

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

Albums listened to: Luxury - Like Unto Lambs; DIIV - Frog in Boiling Water; Jinjer - Wallflowers; Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral; Bully - Lucky for You; Phoebe Go - Marmalade; Daniel Davies - Ghost of the Heart; D’Angelo - Black Messiah; Ola Podrida - Ghosts Go Blind