The NFL curtain-raiser, played on the customarily bizarre Thursday night, pitted two of the best offenses in the league against each other.
The Packers and Saints both boast two extremely accurate and intelligent quarterbacks. Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers have won consecutive Super Bowls.
And while of some teams it could be said that their quarterbacks played a backseat in those Super Bowl wins to other, more important facets of the team, no one is saying that about either Brees or Rodgers.
Yet in this game, the initial difference wasn’t so much about quarterback excellence (though they certainly were excellent) as it was about YAC. Yards After Catch.
The Two Most Explosive Players on the Field
Two players had a particularly severe impact on the proceedings. And neither of them plays quarterback.
The first was undoubtedly Darren Sproles. The diminutive running back swapped San Diego for New Orleans as his football home during the shortened off-season.
And right away, he made an impact.
With just over five and a half minutes to go in the first quarter, the Saints were already down 14-0 thanks to the ruthless efficiency of the Packers offense and a Marques Colston fumble.
Taking the ball deep inside their own territory, Brees and the New Orleans faced a 3rd and 6 at their own 24 yard line.
In came the shifty Sproles, who stands only at 5’6” but fully exploits his lower center of gravity.
As you can see in the above picture, the Saints went four wide in a shotgun set. Brees obviously identified the rolled up man coverage on each receiver (the Packer Db’s have blue dots over their heads).
What he also saw was Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk lined up over Sproles (each is circled in red). That’s a mismatch waiting to happen.
Sure enough, at the snap of the ball Hawk found himself trying in vain to cover Sproles one on one, a recipe for disaster.
Brees, unruffled by only a four man Packer rush, found Sproles over the middle and the former Jayhawk sprinted away downfield from the bigger, slower Hawk.
What made the problem worse was that neither Packer safety was in a position to make a tackle right away, since (as can be noted in their absence in the above picture) both safeties were playing extremely deep cover two zones.
The other major difference-maker was Packer rookie and former Kentucky standout Randall Cobb. To some it seemed less sensible that the defending champions would spend a third round pick on another receiver.
And though the Packers are already very deep at receiver, the addition of Cobb appears to be paying immediate dividends.
Leading 14-7, Green Bay was churning out another solid drive when they inserted Cobb into the game as a slot receiver on 1st and 10.
The Saints showed many defensive looks, and on this play opted to go with very soft coverage. The two corners (circled in light blue) stand almost 15 yards off the line of scrimmage.
At the snap, both outside corners dropped into two deep zones on each sideline. The defensive backs close to the line shifted to short, outside zones (shown by the dark blue arrows).
Cobb however (with the red dot over his head), ran a quick-slant. This is a classic route and the rookie showed exactly why, as he simply ran into the space over the middle (the giant blue square).
He was more than New Orleans safety Roman Harper could handle and, after putting a move on Malcolm Jenkins, dove into the endzone (becoming the first NFL player born in the 90’s to score a touchdown).
Kickoffs altered with mixed results
The ever-increasing subplot to the lockout aftermath has been the rule changes, particularly the change in kickoffs.
Instead of kicking from the 30, teams now kick from the 35. It seems a minor tweak, but the repercussions will probably be much larger.
A difference of five yards now puts majority of kicks in the endzone, increasing the number of touchbacks exponentially.
This showed up immediately on Thursday night, as there were only five kickoff returns, including a squib kick recovered by a backup Saints fullback.
That meant more touchbacks (10) in one game than had occurred at Lambeau all of last season.
And yet, special teams wasn’t totally killed. First, Darren Sproles to a punt 72 yards for a touchdown.
Then, as if to match his partner in explosive football play, Randall Cobb took a kickoff return deep out of his endzone for a 108 yard touchdown return.
So we can still expect to see limited greatness on special teams, but it will certainly be a minority of the time.
Conclusion
In the end, Sproles and Cobb were the most devastating weapons on single plays. Certainly Sproles looks to replace Reggie Bush’s role in Sean Payton’s offense as a running back who’s more of a threat catching passes and making yards after the catch.
And Cobb, as another weapon for the prolific Rodgers, will thrive in an offense which is predicated on spreading things out and making space for YAC.
Yet the two most valuable players in each team’s case was their quarterbacks. Like in the Super Bowl last year, the Packers used the pass to setup the run. Despite having a lead which they were trying to protect, Green Bay continued to pass more than run.
When the Packers finally did elect to run more, their drives stalled and New Orleans nearly mounted a miraculous comeback.
In fact, other than forcing the Colston fumble in the first quarter, it wasn’t until the second half that either defense made any serious plays.
The biggest play made by either defense had to have been the Packer stand at their own goaline at the end of the game. Following a questionable pass interference call on A.J. Hawk against Sproles, the Saints got one last chance at the Packers one yard line even though time had expired (since the game can’t end on a penalty).
But the Packer defense held, stuffing Mark Ingram (in his first NFL game) for no gain and, more importantly, no touchdown.
It was an excellent win for Green Bay, and it illuminated a lot of what we can expect from football this year. Namely, the kickoff quandary. And also the continued tactical trend toward more spread passing games.
More to come from week one early next week.
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