Get ready to hear plenty about the Packers’ “Big Five” leading up to Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, in which Green Bay is a 7-point favorite over the visiting New York Giants on WagerWeb.com.
Green Bay’s five-receiver set " nicknamed "The Big Five" by coach Mike McCarthy, offensive coordinator Joe Philbin and wide receivers coach Jimmy Robinson - has been a huge success for the Packers this season and could be a big factor Sunday against a beat-up Giants secondary.
It features Donald Driver, Greg Jennings, James Jones, Ruvell Martin and Koren Robinson all split out (three on one side, two on the other) with an empty backfield and Brett Favre in the shotgun.
"We love that," Jennings said of the five-wide formations. "It definitely puts some extra excitement under us knowing that somebody is going to get the ball. We all feel like we're going to get open at some point, and it's all about yards after the catch once we get it. There is only so much the defense can do when you see those kinds of sets."
Favre said he wouldn't want to be a defensive coordinator charged with trying to figure out how to cover five good receivers at once.
"I mean, how do you cover that?" Favre said.
Because of the heavy snow last week against Seattle, Philbin said coaches went into the game planning on using the five-wide formation, but decided to steer clear of it as the game unfolded.
"We just felt like we had better things in our game plan to utilize," Philbin said. "And obviously the score being what it was, the weather being what it was later in the game, it didn't make a lot of sense at that point."The Giants went into their NFC divisional playoff game at Dallas without starting cornerback Sam Madison (strained abdominal muscle) and nickel back Kevin Dockery (hip flexor) " both of whom were inactive " and lost rookie starter Aaron Ross to a dislocated shoulder just after halftime.
So despite that secondary holding Dallas to 182 passing yards, expect Green Bay to exploit it.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin was vague about the availability of Ross, Dockery and Madison for the title game.
"It's a game of matchups. It always is," said Jimmy Robinson. “You don't know who's going to play right now for them. (But) I don't think you game-plan any differently, honestly. We're going to do what we do, and we feel like we do what we do pretty well. And regardless of who they have covering us, we feel like we're going to win (the matchup)."
Green Bay unveiled formation against Minnesota on Nov. 13 and used extensively thereafter. It was installed once suspended wide receiver Koren Robinson was reinstated.
"You're trying to find ways to score points, by hook or by crook," Philbin said. "You don't care if it's five tight ends or five wideouts, shoot, you're just trying to get the ball in the end zone. But it's been a nice little part of our package. There's no doubt about it."
The “Big Five” formation makes defenses make difficult choices. Do they sit back in a zone, or do they play man-to-man coverage and blitz? Teams have tried both approaches, and neither has worked consistently.
But at the same time, the formation leaves Favre by himself in the backfield, relying solely on his offensive line and his ability to dump the ball off quickly to avoid sacks.
"There are some risks, the biggest being you have to protect your quarterback in this league," Philbin said. "Everybody needs to know who's getting blocked, who's assigned to getting blocked and who isn't.
You'd better be ready."
The Packers didn't go into this season expecting to regularly spread the field with five wide receivers, but needed something to kick-start the offense.
The intent is all about finding a matchup to exploit.
Is there a fourth- or fifth-string cornerback lined up against one of the receivers? Is the defense trying to cover a receiver one-on-one with a slower safety or linebacker? Favre can survey the defense before the snap and have a pretty good idea who's going to pop open first.
"You're just looking to get a better athlete on one of their lesser athletes if at all possible, or possibly get them into a designed coverage," Philbin said.
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