Attacking the middle of the field is a key element of the Matt LaFleur offense, and over the last four games, Jordan Love has been lights out throwing between the hash marks.
During that stretch, Love has completed 45 of his 59 pass attempts over the middle of the field, according to PFF, or 76.2 percent. He’s totaled 604 passing yards at a whopping 10.2 yards per attempt. To put that figure into perspective, San Francisco’s Brock Purdy currently leads the NFL in yards per attempt with 9.4. Love has also thrown two touchdowns with one interception.
Here is a game-by-game breakdown of Love’s performance over the middle in each of the last four outings:
— vs. Detroit Lions: 13/15, 172 yards, one touchdown
— vs. Los Angeles Chargers: 11/15, 164 yards
— vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: 13/19, 196 yards, one interception
— Los Angeles Rams: 8/10, 72 yards, one touchdown
In terms of Love’s usage over the middle of the field in these last four games compared to the previous seven games before that, it’s actually pretty equal. However, the difference is in his performance. Through the Packers’ first seven weeks of the season, Love had completed 63.7 percent of his 102 pass attempts over the middle for 652 yards – barely more than what he’s totaled in the most recent four-game stretch – at 6.39 yards per attempt with five touchdowns and five interceptions.
Leveraging the middle of the field is a key aspect of the Kyle Shanahan offense, which is the origin of the LaFleur system. From 2019 through the 2022 season, no quarterback utilized the middle of the field at a higher rate than then-San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Purdy has since continued that trend.
Going after a defense over the middle creates yards after-the-catch (YAC) opportunities by getting the pass-catchers the ball on the move and in space. As we’ve seen, especially as of late, there is a lot of YAC potential within this skill position group with the speed and playmaking that they have.
Play-action is another important element of the LaFleur offense, and when done effectively, it opens up opportunities over the middle of the field with the linebackers creeping towards the line of scrimmage. A downside of throwing over the middle is that things can be congested with a lot of bodies in a confined space, and that can lead to interceptions on inaccurate passes or if poor decisions are made.
After attending minicamp and each of the Packers training camp practices over the summer, you could tell right away that there was going to be an added emphasis on throwing over the middle of the field. It wasn’t uncommon for the majority of Love’s pass attempts in a given practice to go to that part of the field.
There really isn’t any one thing to point to for the sudden wave of success Love and the offense has had between the hash marks. I would say the most obvious change has simply been the growth of the offense, from Love to his skill-position players.
Although not great by any means, the Packers’ run game has been better over this stretch as well, assisting with their play-action game, and offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich pointed out that Green Bay has seen a lot of cover-2 and throwing over the middle towards the soft spot of that zone is a great way to attack that coverage.
As the offense hopefully continues to progress, finding success over the middle will likely play an important role in that, with it being a foundational aspect of what LaFleur wants to execute on from a play-calling standpoint.
