Packers, Cardinals Looking to Continue Big-Play Ways

Explosive plays win football games, and the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals are two of the best teams at manufacturing those big plays.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love will look for a second consecutive win on Sunday against the Cardinals. / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Sunday will be International Skeptics Day, but there’s no reason to be skeptical about the explosiveness of the Green Bay Packers’ offense entering Sunday’s home game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Generally, an explosive play is defined as a pass that gains 16-plus yards and a run that gains 12-plus yards. The Packers are at the top of both leaderboards, ranking third with 46 explosive passes (Houston leads with 48) and second with 20 explosive runs (Baltimore leads with 22).

Another way to define an explosive play is a pass for 20-plus yards or a run for 10-plus yards. From that view, the Packers entered the week ranked first with 20 explosive passes and third with 25 explosive runs (Baltimore leads with 28).

From that standpoint, Football Insights put together this chart, which shows the percentage of plays that gain either 20 yards through the air or 10 yards on the ground.

Explosive play rates through Week 5 pic.twitter.com/aWdXmpDrPY

— Football Insights 📊 (@fball_insights) October 8, 2024

The Packers are second with an explosive-play rate of 13.0 percent. The Cardinals are second at 12.4 percent.

“We’ve got so many playmakers, I think it looks like a lot of guys touching the ball and making explosive plays, whether it’s the run game, the pass game” quarterback Jordan Love said this week when asked when the offense is at its best

“I think where we start finding ourselves in holes is when we have penalties, we have negative plays, drops, things like that that put us in second-and-long, third-and-long, and kind of shoot ourselves in the foot. But I think when we’re finding those positive plays and moving and getting some explosive plays, that’s when we’re at our best.”

With Love, the Packers probably will always rank toward the top of the explosive-pass leaderboard. On passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield, he is 12th with 18 attempts and fifth with eight completions. On a per-game basis, he’s No. 1 in both categories.

“I’m an aggressive quarterback,” Love said. “I’m always trying to push the ball downfield. I believe in my arm talent and the guys around me they’re going to make plays.”

As Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon put it this week: “They throw the ball over people’s heads.”

It’s not just Love. Receiver Jayden Reed is tied for first with eight receptions of 20-plus yards, and running back Josh Jacobs is fourth with 11 runs of 10-plus yards.

“They’re explosive on offense, defense and the kicking game. (They’ve) got some really good players, good scheme,” Gannon said. “I have a very high opinion of Matt (LaFleur) in how he constructs his offense, how he calls plays and how they coach the quarterback.

“They’re a good football team, obviously. (I) know where they were last year, and they’ll be right in the mix.” 

The Cardinals are explosive, too. They are second in 10-yard runs with 26, with running back James Conner third with 12.

“He’s a beast,” LaFleur said.

Quarterback Kyler Murray is ninth with 10 runs of 10-plus yards and eighth with seven completions on passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield.

“Dynamic player, not just as an athlete and a runner like everybody talks about, but he’s got a really strong arm,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said of Murray.

“He’s got a really good release, and he can make some great throws. The ability that he has to make people miss and keep his eyes downfield and keep plays alive because he’s not just looking to run the ball all the time, either. He’s an amazing player and an amazing athlete.”

Whether it’s run or pass, through five weeks the Packers are No. 1 with 27 plays of 20-plus yards while the Cardinals are sixth with 21.

Defensively, Arizona is tied for 12th with 16 plays allowed of 20-plus yards while Green Bay ranks 27th with 20.

A couple years ago, Pro Football Focus did a study on the impact of explosive plays. Drives with at least one play of 20-plus yards averaged 4.79 points. Drives without an explosive play averaged 1.20.

Who will make more big plays on Sunday? The answer could determine which team walks off Lambeau Field victorious.

“On defense, we talk about situation, stress and strength. Where’s the strength and where’s the stress?’ Gannon said. “On offense, there’s certain plays on a game plan that this is what I’m hunting. If it’s there, we need to convert it. There’s few and far between plays that they give you exactly what you want. You call a play that (fits) exactly for what they’re in. When that happens, that has to be converted.

“I always joke about with the receiver (how) sometimes it doesn’t have to get thrown down the field. Sometimes you’ve got to catch it at 5 and get 20 – break a tackle, win a one-on-one, split two (defenders), whatever the case may be. They all have their hand in it. It takes all 11. I think when they know the value of it, it’s something that we talk about daily. The value is very high to us, and they understand that.”

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