Deceiving a defense is the best way to keep them on their toes. If you become too predictable, the defense will know what to do to stop you, and they'll keep pinning their ears back and attacking. One element of predictability in the history of the Green Bay Packers that I like to think of is the 2011 season.

The Packers had one of the deadliest passing attacks in their long history. Aaron Rodgers threw for 4500 yards and 45 touchdowns to his weapons Driver, Jennings, Jones, Nelson, Cobb, and Finley. All five of those pass-catchers deservingly, have a special spot in Packers history. You might look at that offense and think they were unstoppable, they had everything, and that team went 15-1. Well, they were pretty excellent at running up the score, the only times they scored less than 20 points were the only two games they lost. However, that passing attack wasn't as unstoppable in those two games. The Chiefs and the Giants were able to limit the passing attack from destroying them. That's where the 2011 Packers' weakness showed. They didn't have a great running game to pick up the slack. They couldn't use play-action to deceive a defense with their running game. You could say the Giants dared them to run. "You want to run? Okay, we'll take our chances with your average at best running game while we stop the pass." And it worked. 

The Packers today are a bit better at running the football. In fact, after only nine games, they only need 165 rushing yards on offense to equal the entire 2011 season's total. That could be accomplished in a single game with 2024's rushing attack averaging around 154 yards per game. If they keep it up, they're also on track to shatter last year's rushing totals by over 700 yards. But what's something that's not as efficient this year? Jordan Love's success. 

Perhaps you can blame that on his injury status. Love was injured in the first game of the season and held out for two games. He was also hurt again against the Jacksonville Jaguars missing half the game. It's been noticeable that Jordan Love is not quite as mobile as he has been before. As a result, one other offensive weapon that's struggled is the play-action pass. In the final stretch of the 2023 season, Love was deadly off the play-action. The threat of handing the ball off to Aaron Jones who averaged 4.6 yards per carry was enough to make defenses hesitate. This, coupled with Love's mobility allowing him to move the pocket when needed led to lots of success through the air. 

So, how can the Packers get this success back this season?

Opening up the run and pass

A successful play-action game doesn't just benefit the pass. It can also benefit the run game. When you look at the majority of Jordan Love's snaps on offense in the last few games, they come out of the shotgun or pistol formation. This benefits a Quarterback who may be struggling with mobility, giving him a head start on the pass rush. Also handing off the ball on a running play from a shotgun or pistol formation, minimizes the QB's need to be mobile. All he has to do is turn and hand the ball off with little footwork. Unfortunately, though, this takes away some of the power for the running back. A running back like Josh Jacobs, who's a downhill runner in between the tackles loses a bit of his burst when handed the ball from the shotgun. If Jordan Love is under center and Jacobs is a few yards back, he's able to get a head start of a few steps before he's taking the ball and hitting the line of scrimmage. This increases his burst to the line and decreases the defense's reaction time. 

Once those hand-offs from under center start working, that's when play-action starts working as well. If Josh Jacobs is hitting the hole off a handoff and gaining 4-5 yards per carry, defenses are going to notice. So, when Jordan Love fakes a handoff from under center, it's going to cause the defense to hesitate for a few seconds questioning the play being run or pass. Those few seconds can give receivers just enough time to get separation from defenders and end up wide-open. Primarily with inside linebackers hesitating on attacking the run or dropping back in pass pro, this could open the middle of the field for tight ends and slot receivers. With the success Tucker Kraft and Jayden Reed have already had this season, they could see a whole lot more if play-action starts to open things up. 

Not only does play-action benefit the playmakers but it also helps the offensive line. The Packers' offensive line has done a pretty decent job so far this season of keeping Quarterbacks clean, but if play-action opens up, it's going to help them even more for the same reasons already mentioned. Pass rushers aren't able to pin their ears back as much when they aren't certain of a play-call. This gives the offensive line the edge in hitting their blocking assignments before they know what to do and creating a higher success rate. Higher success rates for blocks means more big plays. 

The Packers utilizing play action all depends on Jordan Love's mobility. Following the Bye, we're hopeful that mobility has gotten better. If so, I'd look for Matt LaFleur to utilize play-action to help out his QB and his running game moving forward.