I spent this week looking at every sack of Aaron Rodgers in Week 12, but after going through all the passing offense, I had one other angle I really wanted to look at: Matt LaFleur's screen game.

Let's talk about the nature of the screen pass really quick. Traditionally, a screen pass is used to slow down a good pass rush. The idea is to have the offensive line block for a beat, then allow the defender they are blocking to get past them. Once the defender is past them and on their way to the quarterback, the linemen will release downfield and block for a running back who has leaked out of the backfield. The concept itself is simple: use the aggressiveness of the defense against them but letting them think they have a free run to the quarterback, then throwing behind them. The offense is essentially looking to remove all of the pass rushers from the equation. They're flipping the numbers.

We all know the game has a tendency to be a bit more complicated than that. You can't always just throw a screen: you have to disguise it a bit from time-to-time. Beyond that, screens are not just thrown to running backs anymore. A screen can be thrown to a wide receiver on the perimeter or a tight end off the end of the line. It's 2019, man. A screen can be thrown anywhere.

I wanted to take a look at three screen passes from Week 12 and show how LaFleur is mixing things up in the screen game.

Play 1: 2nd & 13, 7:49 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers trailing 0-7

Post/wheel is a really fun concept. I covered it in-depth here. If you don't feel like clicking that link, the basic idea is that the outside receiver runs a post route while another receiver - either from in-line, slot or backfield - runs a wheel route underneath it. You want the boundary defender to follow the post, then run the wheel behind it. Again, it's a really fun concept that can work really well.

The Packers are running that on the left side of the offense.

To add to that, they're also running a wide receiver screen on the right side, with the slot receiver running a quick out under a blocking wide receiver on the outside.

So let's put this together. The Packers are running a wide receiver screen on the right, post/wheel on the left, and a running back screen under the post/wheel. That's beautiful.

Here's what you can do out of this look:

1. Throw the wide receiver screen to the right (Aaron Rodgers' first read on this particular play).
2. Throw the screen to the right.
3. Throw quickly over the top on the post/wheel if you like one of the match-ups immediately.

The tricky thing with any pass play that involves offensive linemen releasing down the field (screen passes or RPOs are the two obvious examples) is that the ball needs to come out quickly or you risk drawing a penalty (either ineligible receiver downfield or offensive pass interference). So if you're throwing downfield, the ball needs to come out as quickly as possible.

The other thing this opens up is a shot on the post-wheel down the line. If you show this look enough, defenses may start to crash on the screen. If you dial up something that looks like a screen but ends up keeping the offensive line back in a pass-blocking scheme, you can take more time on the shot. Run the screen, get the defense leaning, then show them something that merely looks like the screen. Get the safety crashing on the screen and the post/wheel is open.

This specific play didn't end up working, but it's a really nice design and it could set up a big play down the line.

Play 2: 1st & 20, 9:01 remaining in the 2nd quarter, Packers trailing 0-10

Slant/flat is an old West Coast Offense principle. If you've read anything I've written in the past 6 years, you've likely seen this brought up. I covered it in-depth this past offseason, and you can read that right here. It's a simple design: an outside receiver runs a slant and an inside receiver runs a flat. It can cause confusion in zone coverage and can cause defenders to sit back in man coverage. Either way, you can find an opening for an easy 5-7 yards. 

But what of the double-slant flat? It's the same principle, but with a little more to it. In double-slant flat, you're looking at that inside slant route. If an inside defender doesn't fall underneath it, you can hit that route. The inside slant can also create space for the follow-slant. The inside slant can clear the middle of the defense, making space for the slant route behind it. The timing can often be tight, but it can be extremely effective.

The Packers are running that here. We've got a double-slant flat on the right side of the line, with a twist: they're running a screen underneath it. Get the defense falling under the slant look, then hit them behind that movement with a screen pass.

Much like Play 1, this one doesn't work, but I love the thought behind it.

Play 3: 2nd & 6, 11:48 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Packers trailing 0-23

We just talked about slant/flat, so we don't need to rehash it. This isn't playing off the double-slant flat: this is just the plain old slant/flat concept.

The Packers run slant/flat a lot. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I feel like it has been at least 3-5 times a game this season. We can probably expand that to say 3-5 times over the past 10 seasons. They run it a lot is my point.

The Packers know they run it a lot. Defenses know they run it a lot. Here's the cycle: the Packers run it a bunch, defenses start to jump it, the Packers run a variation and the cycle restarts itself. If the defense never jumps slant/flat it can be an easy 5-7 yards, if not more. If the defense jumps it and the offense runs something counter to it, they can get burned. That's the eternal question: get sliced up 5-7 yards at a time or risk giving up 50 yards? 

Over the years, the Packers have run a lot of fun variations to slant/flat. If I've seen this particular one, I don't remember it. The slot and outside receivers start the motion of running slant/flat, looking for the defense to react. Instead of running a straight flat route, the slot receiver peels off to block the outside defender, while the outside receiver falls back for a wide receiver screen. If the defense is looking for slant/flat, the defenders would be charging hard at the line. Throwing a wide receiver screen would catch them off guard and could lead to a big play.

In the theme of this article, the 49ers don't bite and this play only picks up 7 yards. While 7 yards is better than 0 yards, it's still not quite what the Packers were looking for.

I just showed you 3 plays that gained a combined 6 yards. The longest gain was for 7 yards. I fully understand that none of these plays were overly successful. The 49ers have a very good defense and they put the clamps on the Packers this past Sunday, but these concepts themselves are a lot of fun and could lead to some big plays down the line. I wanted to show that, even in a loss, the Packers were running out some cool ideas, some of which are playing off tendencies they've been setting up all season. Just because they didn't work this past week doesn't mean they won't work going forward. Matt LaFleur is running some inventive plays, and I'm excited to see more of this going forward.

Albums listened to: Sarah Bethe Nelson - Weird Glow; Big Thieft - Two Hands