Davante Adams played a pivotal role in the Green Bay Packers advancing in the Divisional Round over the Seattle Seahawks, catching 8-of-11 targets for 160 yards and two touchdowns in the 28-23 victory.
Carrying the Packers passing game isn’t something new for Adams. Since returning to the lineup in Week 9, Adams has accounted for 33.9% of the Green Bay targets in the passing game, 40.2% of their receiving yardage, and 58.3% of their receiving touchdowns. Over the past four weeks, Adams has turned in lines of 7-103-1 (13 targets), 13-116-0 (16 targets), 7-93-1 (13 targets), and 8-160-2 (11 targets).
Adams has commanded at least 30% of the team targets in eight of the nine games he’s played since missing four games with turf toe earlier in the season. Over that span, Adams has totaled 102 targets, while the next closest Green Bay offensive player, Allen Lazard, has 38 targets. Since that return to the lineup, Adams has totaled 66 catches for 779 yards and seven touchdowns while the rest of the Green Bay wide receivers have combined for 49 catches for 561 yards and two touchdowns.
After three straight seasons with double-digit touchdowns, Adams only found the end zone five times in the regular season this year, but his scoring prowess has returned the past several weeks. After failing to score a touchdown in each of his first six games this season, Adams has gotten back into the end zone regularly, scoring seven times over his past seven games played.
In that Division Round game versus Seattle, Adams only caught 1-of-3 targets for 11 yards in the coverage of Seattle’s best coverage corner in Shaquill Griffin, but the Packers repeatedly schemed Adams open. That’s something they’ll have to do once again this week against the 49ers if they are going to have success.
That’s because the Packers will want to avoid Richard Sherman. Of all players to play at least 50% of their team snaps defensively this season, Sherman has allowed just a 38.8 quarterback rating on throws into his coverage per Pro Football Focus. That mark is good for second in the NFL. The season totals for Sherman this year have him allowing 28-of-54 targets to be completed (51.9%) for 236 yards with one touchdown surrendered and four interceptions.
Teams know what they’re getting from the 49ers defense and where Sherman will be. He has played 98% of his snaps at left cornerback (the right side of the offense) and 2% of his snaps in the slot. If desired, teams can just avoid throwing at him and to that side of the field. Sherman has been targeted just once every 10.2 coverage snaps per Pro Football Focus, trailing only Casey Hayward (10.9) on the season. Opposing teams throw to their left 36.2% of the time against the 49ers, the seventh-highest rate in the league.
Sherman has allowed fewer than 20 receiving yards in his coverage in 12-of-16 games this year. The first time these teams played in Week 12 was no different, when he was targeted just three times, allowing one catch for seven yards. The Packers still ran Adams on the right side heavily, but as you can see from his full route chart, the crux of his targets and air yards came on the left side of the field.
And here’s Davante Adams’ full route chart from that game. Look at all that nothingness on the right.
Red = complete
Blue = incomplete
Green = TD
Gray = no target pic.twitter.com/MYwhidpt4B— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) January 15, 2020
The Packers’ success in the passing game all falls on getting Adams the ball. In the first meeting between these teams, non-Adams wideouts for Green Bay caught 5-of-10 targets for 23 yards.
In that Week 12 game, Adams totaled 96 air yards while the rest of the Green Bay team totaled 89. Of course, air yards are an opportunity stat, and Adams still only managed to catch 7-of-12 targets for 43 yards and a touchdown, with the touchdown coming on a jet motion pop pass in the second half already down 23 points on the scoreboard. Adams’ 3.6 yards per target in that game were his fewest in a game this season.
When Adams is away from Sherman, he will likely draw Emmanuel Moseley this week when he moves to the left. The 49ers benched Ahkello Witherspoon for Moseley last week two drives into the game after he allowed his fifth touchdown in three games and had struggled over the final five weeks of the season.
Over the past five games, opposing passers against the 49ers have gone 51-of-78 (65.4%) for 7.1 yards per pass attempt and eight touchdown passes and zero interceptions throwing to the left side of the field. That is good for a 120.2 quarterback rating. Throwing to the right side, they are 45-of-70 (64.3%) for 6.4 yards per pass attempt with three touchdowns and two interceptions (84.8 rating).
Last week was the second time in as many games Witherspoon was benched. After he exited last Saturday, San Francisco went on a defensive tear, so it’s fair to assume that Mosely will draw the start there this week. But in that first meeting, the 49ers got heavy usage from all of their defensive backs, with Sherman (65 snaps), Witherspoon (49), Mosely (44), and slot-corner K’Waun Williams (46) all playing over 50% of the team snaps. The results didn’t show up for Adams when these teams met earlier in the season, but all of his significant opportunities came away from Sherman’s area of the field.
