Fumble and Fall Set Up Packers’ Clinching Touchdown

“Certainly, isn’t how you draw it up,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of the 37-yard completion from Jordan Love to Luke Musgrave on a play called “Leak.”

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Sep 10, 2023 10:45 PM EDT

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Green Bay Packers

CHICAGO – David Bakhtiari wanted it. Ben Sirmans suggested it. Jordan Love made it happen.

One of the big plays of the Green Bay Packers’ 38-20 victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday was Love’s 37-yard completion to Luke Musgrave early in the fourth quarter.

“Certainly, isn’t how you draw it up,” coach Matt LaFleur said.

After Love converted a third-and-8 with an 18-yard completion to Jayden Reed, Sirmans, the team’s longtime running backs coach, suggested LaFleur run a play called “Leak.”

“And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, Ben, I love it,’” LaFleur said. “So, give him a lot of credit on that one to put that in my brain.”

“Leak” is a play-action pass in which the tight end – Musgrave in this case – comes horizontally down the line of scrimmage as if he’s going to block on a running play. After colliding with the linebacker, Musgrave redirected straight upfield.

It worked just like it did against the scout team.

“I’m going to be honest,” Bakhtiari said. “When I heard that play call, I was like, ‘Yes.’ That play was money all practice. I was just on them, like, ‘Please call this at some point.’ It was that wide open. You could fumble it, flip it up, roll over your back shoulder and then just toss it because the closest guy was like 20 yards, and that’s what it was in practice, too.”

Luke Musgrave (Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images)

Oh, yeah, the fumble.

At the snap, Love was supposed to fake the handoff to AJ Dillon. Instead, Love fumbled the snap. It could have been a disaster but the ball bounced into Love’s hands. After a bobble, he dropped back to pass and, just as he was about to get hit, found Musgrave open by at least 10 yards.

“It is a little chaotic fumbling the snap,” Love said. “I knew we had a great play dialed up so going through my head, I was like, ‘Man, I might be messing this one up.’ But picking the ball up, I was just hoping nobody was about to blast me because the timing gets messed up trying to scramble for the ball, but was able to get out clean and we had a great play drawn up and Luke was wide open. so I just chucked it out there for him.”

It should have been a touchdown but Musgrave cramped up. He caught the ball around the 12 and stumbled to the turf. Rather than run after catch, it was roll after catch. Give Musgrave 8 yards of RAC to the 4. On the next play, Love threw a perfect fade to Romeo Doubs to make it 31-14.

“I was giving Musgrave some crap in there,” LaFleur said of the locker room. “I was like, ‘Man, I’ve never seen a guy so wide open not catch the ball and score.’ He got a cramp on the play, so thankfully, Jordan and Rome came through on the next play; Rome made a hell of a catch on the fade. That was big time.”