Budding LaFleur-Flores rivalry on display in Jordan Love's interception

Matt LaFleur is one of the best playcallers and play designers in the NFL, but Brian Flores proved to be more than a worthy adversary in Minnesota's Week 4 win.

Jordan Love’s first interception looked bad. Worse, I had to mention which of one because Love tossed three in a 31-29 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. A throw into a crowd, Christian Watson gets wrenched backward, injuring his ankle, and the ball careens into the arms of Kamu Grugier-Hill. But Love was right, sort of. The “sort of” typifies the way defenses are fighting back against modern offenses and no one is doing it better right now than Brian Flores. Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, one of the best offensive minds in the sport though, has answers of his own.

Let’s start before the interception. The Packers have Jayden Reed and Watson condensed to the top of the formation. Watson runs a clear-out and Reed runs in behind on an in-breaking route. Watch the linebacker, that pesky No. 54 Grugier-Hill, see Watson running the seam, so he bails to take it.

Reed is wide open.

Love finds Reed late because he’s working the bottom of the concept first, potentially because he thinks they’re getting man coverage with a single-high safety. Green Bay has a little pick route to get the ball to the tight end but the Vikings rotate to a version of Cover-2, which why the middle linebacker runs with Watson. Watch No. 54 even stop for a second, anticipating the route combination.