One of those touchdowns came with a little more than a minute remaining in the 4th quarter and Cincinnati trailing 36-29.

The Bengals faced a 1st-and-10 from the Titans’ 18-yard line. Pre-snap, it looked like Tennessee would be playing some kind of split-safety coverage:

The Bengals seemed to know better, however. As head coach Zac Taylor said after the game, the Titans’ approach all afternoon was a bit different than what they’d done throughout the season:

“Really what they did was they were gonna tighten down the coverage, give us a lot more 1-high looks, not let us do some of the 2-high stuff we did last week. Which they had shown a lot on tape [the 2-high looks].”

So the Bengals were anticipating single-high on this play. And sure enough, that’s what they got:

Taylor had a “glance” route called for Tee Higgins to the right:

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Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing has done a great job of finding a variety of ways to attack the defense with his play-action design all season. We saw that in Week 7 against the Packers, as Detroit’s first 3 play-action passes were completed for 80 yards and a touchdown.

This first play was a 3-level stretch in the middle of the field: A post from the right, an over-route and a dig from the left, and then tight end Sam LaPorta sneaking through the line out of the backfield:

The post knocked the top off the coverage, but LaPorta’s route was key. It ate up the linebacker in the middle of the field, which created a huge window for the over-route behind him:

The result was a 24-yard gain:

I love this next play-action design.

First, watch the motion by Jameson Williams as well as Jared Goff pointing into the secondary. That’s something you might see quarterbacks do on certain run plays, like Duo, where the QB will motion his receiver inside so he can block any safety coming down into the box:

I don’t know if that’s exactly what made the Packers lose track of Williams. But it likely played some kind of role in Green Bay failing to account for him as he crossed underneath the formation.

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“One of those guys needs to step up.”

The Giants entered Week 7 ranked 19th in rushing yards per game and 22nd in yards per carry. But on Sunday against the Texans, who had the 3rd-best run defense in the NFL, they racked up 188 yards and 4 touchdowns on 34 carries.

Each of their running backs (Cam Skattebo, Devin Singletary, and Tyrone Tracy) scored a touchdown.

Clearly, the message was received.

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It wasn’t just the running backs who stepped up, though. The offensive line did a great job and wore Houston down. Defensive-tackle-turned-fullback Patrick Ricard also continued to be a weapon as a blocker for the Giants.

But the approach that offensive coordinator Matt Nagy took might have played the biggest role in the turnaround of their rushing attack.

Specifically, the Giants leaned on “22” personnel (2 RBs, 2 TE’s) to generate yards on the ground. New York leads the NFL in usage of this personnel grouping, but they went into overdrive against Houston, using it a season-high 22 times.

They called run plays on 19 of those snaps, picking up 158 yards (8.3 yards per rush) and 3 touchdowns:

One of the great aspects of the Giants’ game plan was that they used this personnel grouping to set a tendency, get the Texans into a predictable defense, and then attack it.

For instance, with 5 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, the Giants came out in 22 personnel for the 6th time to that point in the game. They had run the ball on each of their first 5 snaps.

On that drive specifically, they had used 22 personnel on 1st-and-10 three times. Each time, even against a few different formations, the Texans aligned with 5 defenders on the line of scrimmage and ended up rotating to single-high.

They appeared to be playing it the same way on this next 1st-and-10, which is exactly what the Giants wanted:

After setting the trap with nothing but runs out of this look, the Giants of course went with play-action. The Texans rushed 5 and played 3-under 3-deep zone behind it. Because of the way they played it with 5 on the line to match up to the run look, there were fewer defenders at the second level:

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It looked like another one of those games where the Ravens were just going to out-class the Bengals.

Then Cincy exploded for 35 points, including 5 touchdowns on their first 5 drives of the second half.

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The biggest difference between the two halves was pressure. The Ravens were able to get it on Joe Burrow 54% of the time in the first half. That rate was cut to 27.8% over the final 30 minutes.

And when you give Burrow and this passing game time, the conflict they put a defense in with Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins is nearly impossible to handle.

On this day, Baltimore chose to give more attention to Chase. That opened things up for Higgins, who caught 6 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown in the second half.

You could see a great example on this 3rd-and-3 during the Bengals’ first drive of the 3rd quarter.

Chase was aligned to the left and Higgins was aligned to the right. The Ravens would play cover-1 (man free):

But watch the hole defender in the middle of the field turn his attention to Chase at the snap. That left space to the other side for Higgins’ slant:

The Bengals would score on that drive to cut the Ravens’ lead to 13-7.

On their next drive, Cincy took advantage of a short field off of a good punt return and marched down to Baltimore’s 13-yard line.

Once again, Chase was aligned to one side and Higgins was aligned to the other:

The Ravens would have 3 to account for 3 to the right. To the left, Marlon Humphrey was responsible for Chase:

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• How Caleb Williams’ maturation resembles Broadway Joe.

• The Bengals find their offense in the second half vs. Baltimore.

• How the Seahawks shut down the Chiefs.

• John Harbaugh pushed all the right buttons.

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On Sunday, the 49ers suffered their first loss of the 2026 season. Turnovers were the main culprit, as San Francisco committed 4.

After the game, Brock Purdy walked through his 4th-quarter interception that all but sealed the win for the Falcons.

The Niners faced a 3rd-and-9 from their own 48-yard line with 2:42 remaining and trailed Atlanta 26-20.

The Falcons were showing pressure pre-snap. As Purdy Said Afterwards:

“[The] linebacker was mugged up on the line of scrimmage.”

You can see below that Atlanta actually had two linebackers, Kendal Daniels (#53) and Harold Perkins Jr. (#56), mugged up to the same side of the center:

At the snap, Daniels appeared to blitz and Perkins dropped out underneath:

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You can see that in the numbers. Williams has completed more than 75% of his passes, for 8.9 yards per attempt, with 3 TDs and no interceptions since his return to the lineup. He’s been efficient. Nearly flawless.

Ben Johnson has helped Williams play in a more disciplined manner with his play-calling. For instance, he’s called play-action on 45% of Williams’ dropbacks over the last two games. Play-action generally simplifies the play for the quarterback, defines his reads, and dictates where the ball gets thrown.

Against New England on Thursday night, Johnson came right out of the gates on the first snap with play-action. Williams hit Luther Burden for 26 yards:

Johnson is near the top of the list in terms of NFL coaches who know how to get their quarterbacks into games with early completions, and Thursday night was no exception.

What followed was another performance where Williams looked like he understood that he doesn’t have to force the issue and try to make big plays every snap. If he just gets the ball out of his hands and takes what the defense gives him, he can keep the offense moving forward consistently:

Perhaps it’s Johnson’s scheme and influence that has helped Williams realize this. But perhaps it’s also just a sign of Williams maturing before our very eyes. Either way, it’s leading to a passing game that is both steady and explosive at the same time.

But probably the most impressive thing about Williams’ performance on Thursday night was his pocket presence.

The term mobility is often associated with a quarterback scrambling and making highlight-reel plays. But the most important type of mobility occurs within the pocket. Being able to stay free from the rush while sticking with the play is one of the key attributes that defines the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.

Williams showed it time and time again vs. the Patriots.

Just take this throw on the Bears’ opening drive of the 2nd half. Williams felt the pressure coming from his left, slid right to find space to throw (all while reading the defense and moving from his first receiver to his second), and then delivered a perfect ball downfield:

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One way offenses will try to uncover a defensive “tell” is by using motion. If a defender follows (and especially if he doesn’t appear to be communicating with the rest of the defense as he does), it likely means they are playing man coverage.

That’s a valuable piece of information for the quarterback, who can get the offense into the right play at the line or pick the best route/matchup.

So how can the defense use this tendency or “tell” to their advantage? Well, by breaking tendency and playing zone despite showing that initial man-coverage look.

You could see a great example of this in last season’s Week 16 matchup between the Rams and Seahawks.

Watch the Rams present a man-coverage look initially with their defensive backs squared up on Seattle’s receivers in press position. On top of that, cornerback Josh Wallace followed Cooper Kupp across the formation pre-snap:

From quarterback Sam Darnold’s perspective, this was man coverage.

Seattle had double-slants called to the left to attack it:

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The move makes sense. Winston has lived up to his reputation, providing excitement and positive plays for both the Giants and their opponents. But he’s missed too many throws, made too many bad decisions, and it’s time for the G-Men to see what they have in McCarthy for the rest of the season.

Not to mention, I think McCarthy showed enough in his first real action with the Giants (243 yards in the 4th quarter alone) to warrant them taking a nice long look at him.

So what do the Giants have in McCarthy? If last week’s game against the Saints was any indication, he unsurprisingly still has the same positives and negatives that have defined his game since college.

We’ll take this breakdown sequentially and work through his key plays from the 4th quarter.

On this first play, McCarthy seemed to get stuck on his first read, the two-receiver route combo to his right. Neither of his receivers were really open, and that unfortunately really ended the play for him. He stuck with the read and threw the ball out of bounds instead of coming back to the middle, where he would have had Malik Nabers wide open:

As you can see from the end zone angle, there was time and space in the pocket for him to move to his next read and hit Nabers:

Plays like this do need to be taken with a grain of salt. This was McCarthy’s first real action of the season, in a game where he sat on the bench for the first 3 quarters, and is playing in a relatively new offense. But that’s definitely the type of play he needs to be able to hit next week and beyond.

This next throw was the interception. Again, I’m not going to react too harshly to this one. He seemed to just not be on the same page as his receiver, rookie Malachi Fields:

McCarthy thought based on the coverage that Fields would sit inside. Fields took it outside:

That’s an example of two players not being on the same page more than it is an egregious error, which makes sense given that they haven’t played much together.

This next play is a great illustration of both what McCarthy can do and where he’s lacking precision to his game. He put this ball over the underneath coverage for a big chunk of yards. But he also put it behind his receiver and made it a more difficult catch than it needed to be:

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Check back before Sunday for the rest of the Week 7 games.

The effectiveness of defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s disguises have played a huge role. And on Sunday night against the Packers, he had Dak Prescott seemingly viewing the game through a kaleidoscope.

Throughout the night, defenders would start in one spot at the snap and finish somewhere completely different. Players came out of nowhere in coverage. Free rushers got home. It must have felt like there were 12 or 13 defenders on the field at times for Prescott.

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It doesn’t matter who you are as a quarterback. If the picture is constantly changing, it just makes life tougher. It’s difficult to get into the right play at the line based on the pre-snap look. It’s difficult to trust what you’re seeing. Your processing and ability to react are slowed since what you think the defense is doing pre-snap might end up being something completely different.

The end result is what you saw on Sunday night; a Cowboys offense that couldn’t get into any type of rhythm.

This first play at the start of the second quarter was arguably the biggest of the game because it had to create uncertainty in Prescott’s mind. And it kept Dallas from putting badly-needed points on the board.

Dallas faced a 3rd-and-8 from the Packers’ 17-yard line. They aligned in a 3x1 formation. Green Bay responded with a single-high blitz look that showed 7 potential rushers on the line of scrimmage:

They would drop out into zone at the snap, however.

Focus on safety Evan Williams, though. He was initially showing blitz on the line of scrimmage but then raced nearly 15 yards to the deep middle of the field:

Prescott didn’t account for him at all. Williams was able to undercut the throw that Dak thought would be open, and the result was a huge interception:

Check it out from the end zone angle. Williams (#33) was all the way to Prescott’s left on the line of scrimmage. You can see Dak staring down the middle initially and then looking right to his #3 inside receiver, never seeing Williams at any point after the snap:

Defenders seemingly coming out of nowhere…That’s the type of play that can spook a quarterback for the rest of a game.

But Gannon wasn’t done toying with the Cowboys.

Take this 3rd-and-7 in the 3rd quarter. The Packers were again showing pressure with 6 defenders on the line of scrimmage:

The Cowboys blocked it as illustrated below:

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• The NFL misses Bill Belichick.

• Sean McVay isn’t having his best season.

• What’s behind Bo Nix’s struggles?

• A refreshing voice in New York.

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You’re not supposed to be able to win playing the quarterback position that way. And yet, the Broncos are somehow 4-2 with wins over teams like the Jaguars, Rams, and Seahawks.

It’s nice to have such a huge problem at the most important position and still be 4-2, but the luck will eventually run out for Denver if Nix doesn’t start to play the way he did at the end of last season.

So what’s wrong with Nix?

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The general answer is he doesn’t look comfortable. He looks uncertain. He’s indecisive as a result, and that’s kept him from cutting it loose on throws that are open at the intermediate level.

Instead of taking those throws that are available and might lead to first downs (or even big-chunk plays), he’s been too quick to check it down, picking up only a handful of yards at a time.

So instead of getting a new set of downs and allowing his play-caller (whether it’s Davis Webb or Sean Payton) to get into the game, call more plays, and take more shots, he’s kept the offense behind the chains, leading to punts and fewer opportunities.

I can’t tell you why it’s happening. Maybe he’s still getting back into things mentally after suffering a serious injury at the end of last season? Maybe the shifts in who’s calling the plays have set him back?

There was a report on Sunday that the Broncos changed their offensive terminology when Webb became the play-caller and then changed it back when Payton took over, which is all hard to believe.

Either way, there have been completions on the field that Nix has failed to take.

This play from Thursday night’s game vs. Seattle is a great example. This was a 2nd-and-10 with 2 minutes left in the second quarter. The Broncos were in an empty formation. Seattle responded with a split-safety look:

To the left, where Nix looked first, the Broncos had a post and a wrap-in called:

The front side of the route concept was designed to hold the deep safety and the middle linebacker:

Nix would read the deep safety to the 2-receiver side to determine which route to target. At the snap, that safety got depth initially, taking away the post:

Nix should have been able to quickly move down to the in-breaker, hit his back foot, and get the ball out right about here:

That was wide open for at least a chains-moving completion. But Nix didn’t pull the trigger. From the screenshot above, you can see that he had already moved on to the other side of the field and targeted his underneath route almost immediately:

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