Dominate the Super Bowl-Chapter 1101 - 1100 Keeping Up with the Times

Before gaining an in-depth understanding of the Green Bay Packers’ offense, it’s necessary to understand that the two successive head coaches, McCarthy and Lafleur, belong to entirely different systems.

McCarthy, with a traditional West Coast offense system, is also an offensive system that has been prevalent in the league for a full thirty years. This strategy focuses on short passes and precision passing, emphasizing the quarterback’s accuracy and quick release, with the quarterback acting as a metronome to control the rhythm, mitigating the impact and pressure from the defense.

This offensive strategy originated with the San Francisco 49ers and spread throughout the league, ultimately establishing the quarterback’s supreme status.

Lafleur, with a modern outside zone offense system, stems from the current San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, but its first success was with the Atlanta Falcons—

In the 2016 season, Shanahan served as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons and Lafleur was the quarterbacks coach for the Falcon. They relied on this offensive strategy to bring Matt Ryan a regular season MVP and came within one step of the championship trophy in the Super Bowl.

Shanahan with the San Francisco 49ers, McVay with the Los Angeles Rams, and Lafleur with the Green Bay Packers are all proponents of the modern outside zone offense system.

Last season, McVay relied on this strategy to let Goff have a fantastic season, unfortunately meeting the relentless suppression of the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

So, what is the modern outside zone offense system?

Everything originated from the Washington Redskins during the 2010 to 2013 seasons. At that time, Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins, and Lafleur was the quarterbacks coach, with McVay later joining them as an assistant to the offensive coordinator and also serving as the tight ends coach.

A group of young people, under the shadow of Shanahan’s legendary coach father, tapped into creative ideas and clashed in inspiration, finally devising a brand-new strategy.

In some respects, it bears some similarities with the philosophy of University of Alabama’s legendary coach, Saban: to run the ball.

When the whole league was tilting overwhelmingly towards passing, quarterbacks were under immense pressure, and even top elite quarterbacks like Big Manning and Brees could not repeatedly turn the tides to save the team.

While the New England Patriots were able to break through in the passing era not only because of Brady’s mastery of the short passing zone but also because Belichick laid the foundation with the defensive group and Special Duty Group.

This group of young people believed that they should find a breakthrough in ground offense.

"Modern outside zone offense system," simply put, is based on the classic outside zone ground advancement strategy, incorporating various pass fakes and Read Option offense, to ultimately create a bewildering and unpredictable offensive system.

The first step is the fake movement cooperation between the quarterback and the running back.

After the snap, the quarterback uses fake movements with the running back to observe the defensive players’ movements, then adapt and decide on the spot whether to choose to run or pass—

Actually, this is Read Option offense. But the real difference lies in the subsequent running routes.

The second step is the running route cooperation of the running back, wide receiver, and tight end.

If it is a ground offense, then it relies on the running back’s breakthrough ability on the outside.

If it is a passing offense, the running back will also play the role of receiving, running dazzling routes on the wings, connecting with the quarterback’s throws.

In traditional West Coast offense, the quarterback often needs to drop back two steps to create space; but in this modern outside zone offense system, the quarterback does not retreat and maintains a parallel position with the running back.

The advantage is that the entire offensive rhythm is accelerated.

The disadvantage is that the quarterback has no time for reflection and adjustment and faces more pressure.

In the West Coast offense system, Big Manning is undoubtedly the legendary master who often changed offensive strategies at the snap or right after, relying on his observation, judgement, and unparalleled tactical knowledge, disrupting the defensive layout, equivalent to another on-field offensive coordinator.

In the modern outside zone offense system, quarterbacks also need real-time judgment and choices, but unlike Big Manning, they do not have the time for adjustments, often everything happens in the blink of an eye, and if the defensive group can exert enough pressure, the quarterback might make mistakes.

Precisely because of this, the cooperation between the quarterback and the head coach often requires a period of adaptation, possibly taking an entire season.

In the last five seasons under McCarthy’s coaching of the Green Bay Packers, the offensive strategy became rigid, lacking in variation, and often placed all the burden on Rodgers’ shoulders, making the Packers’ offensive strategy easy to decipher.

This is also the reason Lafleur was able to obtain this job, as Shanahan and McVay had already proven the feasibility of this strategy with the Atlanta Falcons and Los Angeles Rams respectively.

In this system, even quarterbacks with obvious talent ceilings can play brilliant games, like Goff.

So, imagine what happens when such a completely new modern tactic meets an elite quarterback?

After Lafleur took over the head coaching responsibilities of the Green Bay Packers, he immediately promoted a brand-new tactical system within the team, which Rodgers is also adapting to.

Although Rodgers doesn’t have unmatched tactical reserves like Big Manning, in fact, adjusting tactics before the snap and changing strategies on the spot is also one of Rodgers’ strengths:

Everyone in the league should know that Rodgers is a master of drawing offside, and his fake adjustment tactics before the snap often cause judgment errors in the defensive group.

This season is Rodgers and Lafleur’s first season working together: still in the adaptation phase.

Imagine, even during the adaptation phase, and despite Rodgers making numerous mistakes, the Green Bay Packers still leisurely secured seven consecutive wins.

If the adaptation is completed?

However, precisely because they are still in the adaptation phase, Green Bay Packers’ offensive tactics still have many loopholes and shortcomings.

The most typical point is that the Packers’ poor offensive line is not trustworthy, they cannot provide more protection for Rodgers.

As a result, Rodgers is exposed to pressure for a long time, and coupled with the Packers’ running backs not being top-notch in the league, just at average level.

Therefore, in this new offensive system, Rodgers often relies on fake movements to deceive the defensive group but ultimately chooses to trust himself and choose to pass the ball on his own.

Thus, this scene appeared—

According to Lafleur’s original intention, the Packers should begin to rely on ground offense, using running to share the offensive pressure and gain passing space for the quarterback.

However, so far this season, the ratio of passing to running remains severely unbalanced.

Ultimately, it presents an illusion that the Packers are still relying on Rodgers to win, and Lafleur’s and McCarthy’s tactics seem no different.

But Lafleur understands, the victory formula for the team has completely changed, despite seeming similar on the surface, the entire tactical core is already fundamentally different.

The question is, Lafleur knows this himself, but can other teams see through the phenomena to perceive the essence?

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