How Sean Payton's Approach vs. Packers Led to the Best Game of Bo Nix's Career

Against the Packers in what could be a Super Bowl preview, Bo Nix played the best game of his young career. He completed 23 of 34 passes for 302 yards with 4 touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 134.7 passer rating against one of the best defenses in the NFL.

More impressive was that he succeeded in several different ways. He threw with anticipation, made some great downfield throws, won with the quick passing game, and used his legs to buy time and keep plays alive.

It certainly helped that Sean Payton was calling plays, though. He put Nix in position to succeed throughout the afternoon. For instance, two of Nix’s four touchdown passes came via the use of 4x1 formations, which put the Packers defense on their heels and created space for Nix to find his receivers.

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This first example was a 3rd-and-3 in the 2nd quarter with Denver trailing 6-0. This is the type of situation where you’ll find defenses being more aggressive and bringing their most complex blitzes and disguises.

Packers Defensive Coordinator Jeff Hafley has been excellent in this department, and Payton didn’t want to give him the chance to use disguise or dictate to the offense.

So the Broncos broke the huddle, raced up to the line, and quickly snapped the ball:

Denver also aligned in a condensed 4x1 formation into the boundary:

Between the quick snap and the formation, the Packers defense was reactive instead of being in attack mode.

They were forced to get aligned quickly and play a vanilla cover-3 defense with most of the coverage pushed towards the 4-receiver side. Notice 10 of Green Bay’s defenders were to the right of the left hash marks. That will come into play in a bit:

The play that the Broncos had called was “Mesh Rail.” You can see the concept with the progressions and “alert” route illustrated below: