In Week 1 we saw Justin Jefferson torch the Packers’ defense to the tune of 184 yards and two touchdowns. There was a lot of talk ahead of their Week 17 rematch about whether he could do the same again. It turned out he couldn’t, as Green Bay exacted their revenge and secured a crucial 41-17 win. Jefferson was held to a paltry single catch for 15 yards. That marked his second-lowest single game yardage and the first time in his three year career that he has been held to just one catch.
So how did the Packers do it? Let’s dive into the film and find out.
Jaire Alexander
This might sound like I’m stating the obvious, but we can’t talk about the Packers’ game plan without mentioning Alexander. Whilst Joe Barry did a great job of scheming up the defense to stop Jefferson (more on that later), it wouldn’t have been possible without Alexander playing some superb football. He was consistently able to lock Jefferson down in single coverage. Jefferson averaged just 2.19 yards of separation, per Next Gen Stats. That is way below the NFL average of 2.93 yards. It is also almost half of the separation he averaged (3.98) when these two teams first met in Week 1.
This was partly because of Barry changing the Packers’ game plan. When the two teams met in Week 1, Alexander lined up across from Jefferson on just 35% of the receiver’s snaps. In Week 17 that number almost doubled to 68%. In that initial matchup Alexander was playing man coverage on just 11.8% of his snaps. That number rose to 20.8% in Week 17.
Plays like this encapsulate what Alexander is capable of when given the freedom to lock down his opponent in man coverage. Here he is aligned opposite Jefferson at the top of the screen in press coverage. Jefferson tries to beat him to the outside, but Alexander does a tremendous job of playing tight coverage throughout the stem. Kirk Cousins tries to take advantage of this with a back shoulder ball, but Jaire reads it well and breaks up the pass.
In this game the Packers also allowed Jaire to get physical at the line of scrimmage and impose himself on Jefferson. It is safe to say that it worked a charm. On the play below the Vikings are running a quick, passing concept from a three-step drop. The crucial thing here is timing – once Cousins hits the top of his drop that ball should be coming out. The problem here is that Alexander jolts Jefferson with an aggressive two-hand punch off the line, which then prevents Jefferson from getting out into his route. The pass subsequently falls incomplete.
Clouding the coverage
The Packers’ gameplan wasn’t all about leaving Jaire Alexander in one-on-ones though. Jefferson is one of the game’s best receivers and that would be a risky strategy regardless of defensive talent. One of the schematic advantages they employed was “clouding” the coverage. If a defense clouds the coverage, it simply means that they play Cover 2 to one side. This is often used against the single receiver in a 3×1 formation.
The play below is a great example of that. You can see from the pre-snap alignment that the Packers are clouding the coverage to Jefferson’s side. Safety Adrian Amos (#31) is aligned outside the hash marks, as you would expect for a safety in Cover 2. Cousins knows he would have his work cut out to get the ball to Jefferson on the fade route with Amos over the top, and he never even looks that way.
You can see another great example of it here. This time Jefferson is one of the receivers to the trips side, but the result is the same. At the snap Alexander comes down and helps to reroute Jefferson inside. With Alexander walling off any out-breaking routes, the deep safety is able to keep his eyes on the quarterback and prepare to jump any in-breakers. Add in the two linebackers underneath and Cousins would be crazy to even attempt this pass. He smartly checks it down for a one-yard completion.
Bracketing
There was one other central tenet of the Packers’ plan to stop Jefferson, and that was bracketing. In simple terms, bracketing is a form of double coverage. It aims to position two defenders either side of a receiver to cancel out different routes.
There are two types of bracket coverage that you will see – vertical brackets and horizontal brackets. The former sees one defender play underneath the receiver and the other play over the top, whereas the latter sees one defender play inside the receiver and the other play outside. The Packers used both bracket concepts in their attempt to stop Jefferson.
On a number of occasions the Vikings tried to counteract the Packers’ cloud coverages by moving Jefferson inside to the slot. One of the benefits of playing in the slot is it gives the receiver a two-way go. The Packers prevented that by employing a horizontal bracket.
You can see it on the play below. With Jefferson lined up in the slot on the trips side of the formation, the Packers are responding with a coverage known as “1 Double”. This is a standard Cover 1 play, but instead of a safety playing as a robber in the middle of the field, they act as the inside bracket on the slot receiver. Jaire Alexander is bracketing Jefferson to the outside, with safety Rudy Ford (#20) covering the inside. This neutralises Jefferson’s dig route and forces Cousins to look elsewhere.
When Jefferson aligned as the isolated X receiver, the Packers tended to use a vertical bracket instead. On the play below they have Jaire Alexander lined up in press coverage with Darnell Savage over the top. As soon as the Vikings snap the ball you can see Savage turn his eyes to focus on Jefferson. His job is to get depth and stay over the top, whilst Alexander drops off and plays routes from underneath.
This presents a hugely difficult throw for Cousins, who would have to layer the ball over Alexander without letting Savage make a play on the ball from deep. Once again, Cousins doesn’t even entertain the option, and instead makes a quick throw underneath to KJ Osborn.
The Packers’ plan to stop Jefferson worked to perfection. Their mixture of on-field talent and clever schematics were the perfect combination and should stand them in good stead as they look to make a push for the postseason.
