Another week, another win. The offense still isn't 100% there, but I'm fully confident it will get there. As long as they keep racking up wins while trying to "figure it all out," I'm perfectly fine with that.

Let's get to the film.

Play 1: 1st & 10, 13:49 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers tied 0-0

The Packers are looking for a shot down the field with a double-post look with Davante Adams [17] and Marquez Valdes-Scantling [83] from the left. The Broncos are moving before the snap and end up showing a single-high safety look. As we talked about on the Geronimo Allison touchdown last week, double-post is a good way to attack that single-high safety. If the outside receiver - Adams, in this case - can get inside position, the slot receiver should clear the safety with his post, opening up room to the post behind it. 

Keep an eye on Von Miller [58], highlighted with the blue spotlight. It looks like he's rushing, but he drops back into coverage and is watching Aaron Rodgers [12] the entire time. 

Rodgers looks to have Valdes-Scantling in the middle of the field, but the rush is starting to break down the pocket, so Rodgers flees. By the time he gets set up, the defense has recovered and has fallen under the route of Valdes-Scantling. 

Rodgers sees the defense falling back and knows he has Marcedes Lewis [89] releasing as a late outlet, but there's the Von Miller problem. Rodgers keeps his eyes down the field, selling the Valdes-Scantling pass. Miller stays in place, looking to knock the ball down. By staring at Valdes-Scantling, Rodgers holds Miller in place and doesn't allow him to widen his drop to pick up Lewis. Rodgers gives a little pump fake to get Miller in the air then dumps the ball to Lewis, who picks up 19 yards.

Play 2: 1st & 10, 9:42 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers lead 7-0

Nothing huge here. Just a little quick-hitter to the left. Valdes-Scantling is running an out route as the under man in the stack look, while Geronimo Allison [81] is running a curl route. Jamaal Williams [30] releases through the middle and pushes up the field before curling in the middle of the field. A cornerback follows Valdes-Scantling on the out route while the release from Williams holds the linebacker on that side in place. With the defender over Allison retreating, it's an easy read for Rodgers. The ball is out of his hands on time and it would have been a nice gain on 1st & 10 if Allison could have hung on. 

Just a nice, quick bit of spacing. Everyone runs nice routes and Rodgers gets the ball out of his hands on-time and in-rhythm. Things don't always have to be complicated to be beautiful.

Play 3: 2nd & 15, 9:38 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers lead 7-0

Another week, another Smash Fade concept from the Packers. You can see that action on the right, with Valdes-Scanting running a fade from the right slot over the curl route from Robert Tonyan [85] on the outside. Traditionally, a Smash concept is a corner route over a curl. This takes the Smash concept and turns the corner route upfield. It's a nice little concept that keeps the defense on their toes. On this play, the defense falls back with the fade, leaving Tonyan open on the curl. Rodgers looks his way late and tries to hit him, but there's a rusher in his face and he sails the throw. 

There is something else I want to talk about here, and that's the pre-snap motion. Jamaal Williams motions out to the wide spot on the left, and you can see how the defense reacts. There's a shift, leaving a cornerback on Williams and a linebacker on Adams in the slot. The linebacker immediately calls for the safety to help, which is smart on his part, because that is a mismatch of the highest order.

That's the second week in a row that motion has gotten Adams matched-up on a linebacker. Last week the throw to Adams was taken away when another linebacker fell under the quick route from Adams. But I still like seeing this, for multiple reasons. For starters, using shifts and motion to get favorable match-ups is always a good thing. The Packers have obviously been looking to do this and have gotten those match-ups. Due to adjustments by the defense, it hasn't paid off yet, but not every defense is going to be able to adjust before the ball is snapped.

Here's another reason I like this. Look at how the safety shifts and comes up to help pick up Adams. That leaves the Broncos in a two-high safety look with a wider split than they would like, and with one of the safeties coming up to help on a receiver. That could help open up the middle of the field, or open up something over the pulled-up safety. Just something to keep an eye on in the future.

Play 4: 3rd & 15, 9:33 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers lead 7-0

This play does a good job of showing the Packers attacking a team based on down and distance. They are facing 3rd & 13. Two receivers are running routes exactly at the 1st down marker, while Valdes-Scantling slips in behind on a deep crossing route. 

The defense on Valdes-Scantling's side crashes on the dig, cutting at the 1st down marker. On the left, the defense is pulled up by a curl at the sticks. That leaves Valdes-Scantling one-on-one with the safety. As Valdes-Scantling rounds his cut, the safety is still backing up, leaving a ton of space to run into. By the time Rodgers throws, there's even more space, as the edge cornerbacks have been completely pulled away from that area.

Play 5: 3rd & 13, 8:07 remaining in the 1st quarter, Packers lead 7-0

Another 3rd and long, another nicely drawn-up play. The Packers are running a nice little mesh concept with Jamaal Williams out of the backfield and Jimmy Graham [80] off the right side. I dug into the mesh concept in the offseason, but let's revisit that real quick.

Mesh was a staple of LaVell Edwards' West Coast Offense at BYU. Hal Mumme fell in love with the concept and made it a staple of his Air Raid offense. If we're looking at what we're used to seeing - both from LaFleur and McCarthy - it looks something like this:

Two receivers crossing each other roughly 6 yards down the field (Edwards taught it exclusively to be run at 6 yards and close enough so the receivers could give each other a high five on crossing each other). A common way to run this now is to have a receiver come over the top and curl over the mesh point, looking to find a window just after the receivers cross each other.

The Packers are running that concept here, but it is run from a different angle. The receivers are crossing each other, but they're crossing from a tight formation, and Geronimo Allison is running a well-timed dig behind the Mesh action. 

Everything is extremely well-run and well-timed. It's a great call and it works great, until it doesn't. Rodgers sails the throw and the Packers punt. 

I don't really write this to cast blame on individual players. I'm here to look at concepts. What are they running? Why did it work? Why didn't it work? We're focusing more on the thought process than the result. Yes, Rodgers missed the throw and that's too bad, but the concept itself worked like a dream, and it appears as though everyone ran it well. I really like this one.

Play 6: 1st & 20, 5:30 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Packers lead 24-16

I didn't want to spend too much time on this, but I did want to take a quick look at this failed RPO (Run-Pass Option). The Packers are running a double-slant on the right. With the run-blocking line, the ball has to come out fast so the offense doesn't pick up a penalty, so there isn't really time for a second read. Rodgers is looking at Allison out of the slot pre-snap. Both the cornerback and the safety back off at the snap, telling Rodgers he has an open throw.

But that darn Von Miller off the edge. He's looking at Rodgers and looking to knock the pass down. Again, Rodgers is looking to get the ball out quick. If he releases this on-time, there's a good chance this ball is batted. Rather than risk the chance of having it batted up in the air, Rodgers escapes. Due to the offensive linemen pushing downfield, he can't hold onto the ball for much longer, so he just throws it away. It was a good read by Rodgers, but it was also a nice play by Miller. Pulling the ball down was absolutely the right call there.

Play 7: 1st & 10, 13:44 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Packers lead 17-0

The look at this play is less about this specific play, and more about how it sets up what comes next. The Packers come out in I-Formation, with Danny Vitale [45] as the up-back and Aaron Jones [33] lined up behind him. Vitale sets up to block while Jones releases through the line and to the right. The result of the play is a quick-hitting curl to Valdes-Scantling on the left for a pick-up of 9 yards. 

If you look at the formation, you'll see Lewis tight on the line at the right. That leaves two wide receivers, one on either side. With that 21 personnel grouping (2 running backs, 1 tight end, 2 wide receivers), the Packers could easily call a power run out of this formation. 

Vitale played on 33% of the offensive snaps on Sunday (19 total) and, when he was out there, we saw a lot of this. Come up and block, either in the run game or the passing game. 

Play 8: 2nd & 1, 13:05 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Packers lead 17-0

Now it's 2nd & 1. The Packers are still in 21 personnel, but it's a tighter grouping. Valdes-Scantling is wide to the left, but even as the widest man, he's aligned inside the numbers. Allan Lazard [13] makes an appearance (one of his five snaps on the day), but he is offset over Vitale. This is a power run look in a short-yardage situation and the Broncos are stacking the box. 

By getting Vitale on the field throughout the game and using him primarily as a blocker, the defense is reacting as if that is what he will be doing here. Valdes-Scantling pushes his route at the single-high safety, dragging his defender with him and tying up the safety. That leaves a lot of green space on the left sideline.

Josey Jewell [47] is looking to meet the run in the hole. He's reading Jones, who makes a move to hit the A gap (between the center and guard) while Vitale is running through the B gap (between the guard and tackle). Jewell isn't even really thinking about Vitale as a receiving option; he's simply reading the run. By the time he sees Vitale releasing vertically up the field, he is already beat. He recovers pretty well and is able to chase down Vitale, but not before Vitale gets inside the 1 yard line. 

By the time the dust settled, the Packers took advantage of a match-up they had been setting up all game and picked up a cool 27 yards as a result. Beautiful sequencing to set this up and really nice execution.

Albums listened to: Angie McMahon - Salt; Blink 182 - Nine; Vivian Girls - Memory; Work Drugs - Fantasy File; Efterklang - Altid Sammen