This was the type of game that the Steelers went out and got Aaron Rodgers for, and he delivered in a big way. Rodgers led the Steelers on two 4th-quarter come-from-behind touchdown drives in the final 5 minutes. He seemed to turn back the clock in the second half, completing 16 of 22 passes for 196 yards and the game-winning touchdown.

The biggest plays of the night for Pittsburgh came on third-and-long. This is an area where they had been among the worst in the NFL during the season. Entering Sunday, they ranked 26th with just a 20.5% conversion rate.

On Sunday night, however, they converted a surprising 6 of 9 third-and-longs, including 4 of 5 in the second half.

They’d be on the golf course this week if not for those conversions.

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As has been the case throughout much of the season, the Steelers offense looked ugly in the first half. They got things going on their last drive but were stopped at the goal line on the final play.

They trailed 10-3 and received the ball to start the 3rd quarter. They absolutely needed to get points on the board. However, they faced a 3rd-and-10.

Rodgers would say after the game that some of the little things they had been talking about since training camp finally started to show up, particularly with tight end Pat Freiermuth:

“We had a 3rd-and-10, we went on a first sound […] center snap by Zach [Frazier], where he just kind of goes up, waits, and snaps it.”

“And they bring ‘strong dog.’ They bring the Mike and they bring #44 [Marlon Humphrey] off the slot.”

“And we talked from day 1 when I got here, I like throwing vertical peeks vs. pressure. So start off by looking vertical. And [Pat and I] actually kind of […] made eye contact in the huddle and [I] just said, be alert.”

Freiermuth would run down the seam and was the vertical route Rodgers wanted:

“And then sure enough, he widens slightly like he’s supposed to.”

This little detail, the widening of Freiermuth’s route, was critical. Since the pressure was a “strong dog” with the middle linebacker and slot corner blitzing from the strong side, the defender who would account for Freiermuth (linebacker Trenton Simpson) would be coming from the other side of the field:

Freiermuth widening gave Rodgers more space to fit this throw in before Simpson could get there:

That completion was huge as it kept the offense on the field and seemed to get the passing game going. The Steelers would finish the drive with a touchdown to even the score, and we had a brand new ball game.

In the fourth quarter with Pittsburgh trailing 17-13 and just 6 minutes remaining, they faced another critical 3rd-and-long. Rodgers would say that this play was another great example of how the details the Steelers have talked about all season finally came to fruition. Once again, it was Freiermuth who was on top of it. According to Rodgers:

“We talked on ‘thru routes,’ if you get 2-man, double up, take your time, give ‘em an out-break look, and then go down the middle. And on the second-to-last drive, he ran an absolutely unbelievable route.”

The Steelers didn’t get 2-man on this particular play, but the Ravens did play Tampa-2 with safety Ar’Darius Washington running down the seam with Freiermuth. For all intents and purposes, this matchup was man coverage:

Watch Freiermuth do exactly what Rodgers described. He took his time, gave a little nod to the outside to get Washington to bite on what he thought would be an out-route, and then accelerated down the seam:

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There were 11 seconds left in the first half, the Steelers trailed 10-3 and had 1 timeout remaining. They had the ball at the Lions’ 45-yard line and were seemingly trying to pick up just a few more yards to be able to kick a field goal.

They came out in a 3x1 formation with 3 receivers to the left and tight end Pat Freiermuth to the backside. The Lions were showing a 2 deep look and had linebacker Jack Campbell aligned over Freiermuth on the outside. That was a good indicator that this was man coverage:

You can see the route concept illustrated below:

Based on the play design and the situation, it seemed Rodgers was going to target the quick slant to Scotty Miller on the left to help create an easier field goal try:

As you could see in that NFL Films clip, Rodgers had initially told Kenneth Gainwell to “run a flat to the right” as they were breaking the huddle.

Gainwell’s route would be in the same area as Freiermuth’s, though, so it wasn’t a great combination to that side.

However, the point of that route was likely to remove linebacker Alex Anzalone from the middle since this was man coverage and the intent of the play was to hit Miller’s slant and pick up a few quick yards. Rodgers didn’t want any defenders lurking inside:

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On Sunday against the Lions, Puka Nacua hauled in 9 catches for 181 yards on the way to a 41-34 Rams win. But there were some key receptions early in the game, both before they had any points on the board and before the end of the half, that set the trajectory of the offense for the rest of the afternoon.

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The first key play came on the Rams’ second drive while trailing 7-0. L.A.’s first possession had ended in an interception, and this drive had stalled around midfield.

The Lions were poised to swing the momentum in their favor. The Rams faced a 4th-and-4 from Detroit’s 45-yard line, and Sean McVay decided to go for it.

L.A. came out in empty formation with tight end Terrance Ferguson aligned on the perimeter. Linebacker Alex Anzalone lined up over him, an indicator of man coverage. Then he followed Ferguson inside when he motioned towards the formation:

According to Matthew Stafford:

“They were trying to show me man coverage.”

At the snap, however, the Lions would reveal their hand.

“Then [they] popped out into […] Tampa-2.”

Not only did the Lions pop out into Tampa-2, they would only rush 3. Which meant they’d drop an extra defender out underneath (a “Pee Dropper”):

Nacua recognized the coverage, and instead of hauling ass out of his break, he saw the defender in front of him and settled just enough to catch the ball and get upfield:

As Stafford said:

“Puka did a nice job settling in the hole there, and I just tried to put it on him and he did a great job falling forward.”

Stafford wedged the ball into his physical and reliable receiver in a tight space, and Nacua did the rest:

Later on the same drive, the Rams ran into another 4th down. This time it was 4th-and-8. L.A. once again went with an empty formation, with Nacua aligned in the slot to the right:

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Lawrence’s first touchdown pass of the game gave Jacksonville a 14-7 lead, and they never looked back.

The Jaguars had a 1st-and-10 from Indy’s 14-yard line and came out in a 2x2 formation with the running back offset to the right. The Colts would play cover-3 in response:

Lawrence described what he saw after the game:

“It’s cover-3, and we had a play on that we use, kind of a 3-beater.”

The play Jacksonville had called was a post-wheel:

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Gibbs’ overtime touchdown was one of three runs he had on the afternoon that gained at least 49 yards. And it was a run that needed just about everyone on the field to make it work.

“It’s just Duo, the run play. […] everyone runs it, and he’s dang good at it.”

That was what Jared Goff had to say about the play after the game. Below, you can see it illustrated:

This one worked out a bit differently than your standard Duo play, though. As Gibbs pointed out:

“They brought pressure into the run.”

The Giants would bring a blitz to the right where the run was designed to go. Their D-line slanted right-to-left as a part of the pressure:

The Lions would have to adjust to the blitz on the fly. And they did so beautifully.

First, notice center Graham Glasgow. He was initially supposed to double the nose tackle to his left up to the linebacker:

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When the results are what they were on Sunday against the Buccaneers (357 total yards, 6 touchdowns), I’m sure Sean McDermott is more than happy to live with the roller coaster of emotions that Allen can elicit on any given snap.

Early in the 2nd quarter, Allen had one of those types of plays, and it seemed to set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.

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This was a 3rd-and-3 from the Buccaneers’ 43-yard line. The Bills were trying to get a pre-snap indicator of the coverage Tampa would play. So they aligned with tight end Keleki Latu on the perimeter to the right, running back Ty Johnson in the slot, and tight end Dawson Knox in the backfield.

The Buccaneers matched up with a cornerback over Latu on the outside, an indicator of zone coverage:

Then Allen motioned Knox out to the right. No one went with him or matched up. This was, indeed, zone:

You can see Allen putting his hands up to his head to indicate that he was “killing” the first play called in the huddle and going to the second. As Allen said afterwards:

“We [checked] out into a zone concept.”

To the right, the Bills had an arrow screen to running back Ty Johnson called. To the left, they had a curl-flat combo:

“I should’ve probably thrown it to the back or Gabe.”

As Allen admitted, the Bills probably had an easy first down if Allen targeted Johnson to his right or Gabe Davis to his left:

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Caleb Williams was tremendous on the Bears’ final two drives against New York. He completed 5 of 8 passes for 77 yards and a touchdown, and used his legs to pick up 53 more yards as well as the game-winning score.

That game-winner was set up brilliantly by Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson.

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Trailing 20-17 with 1:54 remaining, Chicago faced a 2nd-and-8 from the Giants’ 17-yard line. They were already well into field goal range.

The Giants had just used their first timeout because they wanted to ensure there was time left on the clock when they got the ball back. They were likely expecting the Bears to run the ball again to force them to use another timeout.

Considering Chicago also entered Week 10 as the #2 ranked rushing offense in the NFL and their running backs had carried the ball 20 times for over 5 yards per clip to that point in the game, there was a high probability that this would be a run play.

This is important for understanding how this play unfolded.

The Bears came out in 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE’s) and a 3x1 formation with 2 tight ends to one side:

Then, they shifted tight end Cole Kmet from one side of the formation to the other. Safety Tyler Nubin followed, an indicator of man coverage (not uncommon in the red zone):

Then, right before the snap, they used escort motion across the formation with tight end Durham Smythe. This is a type of motion used specifically to give the offense a numbers advantage in the run game. That’s because the ball is snapped before the motion man crosses the center, but he ends up on the opposite side of the formation once the blocking commences:

The Bears now had two tight ends to the right side and had used a motion indicating a run in that direction. That all helped sell the run to the Giants Defense.

You can see its effect on edge rusher Brian Burns. Watch him try to get down the line at the snap to chase the ball carrier from behind:

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But the NFL isn’t always about gaudy numbers. It’s often about a handful of plays in key situations that make the difference between winning and losing. And in that area, McCarthy made just enough plays in his return to the lineup to help the Vikings pull off a huge upset on the road against the Lions.

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This first play was a 3rd-and-9 on the Vikings’ second drive of the game with the score tied at 7. Minnesota came out in a trips bunch to the left with Justin Jefferson aligned in the middle of the bunch. The Lions responded by playing cover-1 (man) and doubling Jefferson:

With two defenders accounting for Jefferson and Jalen Nailor taking his route across the field (bringing the deep safety with him), there was a lot of space for Jordan Addison’s route back to the left:

According to Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell, McCarthy did a good job navigating the rush. He made this throw “off some pocket movement, […] kept his base, and gave J.A. a chance to make that play.”

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On this play, the Browns faced a 3rd-and-7 from their own 33-yard line in the middle of the 3rd quarter. They came out in a 1x3 formation with a bunch to the left and tight end David Njoku to the right:

The Patriots would bring a blitz and rush 5. Linebacker Robert Spillane, who started the play on the line of scrimmage, dropped out into coverage:

According to Spillane:

“We were blitzing, I was covering the back.”

“He picked up in protection, so that kind of lets me roam [and] be a free read-the-quarterback player.”

That meant the running back, who Spillane was responsible for, stayed in to help protect against the blitz:

And since he stayed in, that freed Spillane up to read the play and help out elsewhere. He first checked to see if any routes were coming his way from the 3-receiver side:

“I’m looking for anything from the field coming back shallow. Nothing came back shallow.”

Since no receivers from the other side of the formation were running shallow routes in Spillane’s direction or threatening him, he was free to read quarterback Dillon Gabriel and play the ball:

Spillane was then able to get under the intended target, David Njoku, for the interception:

From the end zone angle, you can get a better look at how Spillane went from reading the back, to checking the field side for shallow routes, to reading Gabriel’s eyes:

The Patriots would go on to win the game 32-13 and have now won 5 in a row. There’s a long way to go, but they’re going to be a tough team to deal with down the stretch.

Considering how bad their defense has been and how the performance of the offense is the only thing giving Dallas a chance week to week, Prescott should absolutely be in the early-season MVP discussion.

He’s seeing the field with clarity, processing quickly, and consistently making accurate throws. His 74-yard touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb against the Commanders, which started to open the game up on Sunday, was a great example of this.

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On this play, the Cowboys used a quick count to try and catch the Commanders off guard. Meaning they broke the huddle, got up to the line, and tried to snap it as quickly as possible:

This was a play-action shot play, with George Pickens knocking the top off the coverage and Lamb running a deep crosser to his side.

You can see the route combination illustrated below:

Washington would counter by rotating to a Non-Traditional Tampa-2 coverage after the snap, or what Prescott called, a “Tricky-2.”

After the game, Prescott described what he saw as he worked through his progressions:

“So…[I] go through read one, George [Pickens].”

With Pickens not open, Prescott then moved on to Lamb.

“And then I see the big window […] where if [Lamb] had [run] that route (the crosser), he probably would have had a good play, not a touchdown.”

As Prescott said, had Lamb run the play as designed, they likely would have still had a good completion since Pickens was clearing his defender out of the area. But Prescott didn’t see Lamb entering that open window.

Instead, Dak said that the route Lamb ran “wasn’t the route that we were expecting.” He ran upfield instead of across the field when he saw the coverage.

Prescott continued:

“So then I kind of just looked to find CeeDee, and he’s got his hands up saying, like, I’m here!”

“And so at that point, I saw the safety or the corner to the right, they were in their tricky 2, and I just put about everything I had on it on a line, understanding that I couldn’t just lob it up [because] both guys would be able to make a play.”

So Prescott threw an absolute seed 45 yards through the air to Lamb, who adjusted to the ball and hauled it in:

“He did a good job taking, what, 2 steps back I think, catching the ball, and walked into the end zone.”

That’s a great job by Lamb of finding the soft spot in the coverage, and it was a tremendous job by Prescott of seeing the field and adjusting on the fly.

As Prescott said afterwards:

“Once again, [that’s] a play that’s not made unless you have confidence in the guy that you’re throwing to. And then the guy that you’re throwing to is smart, understands the defense, understands the look, and understood he could take that opportunity. And we were able to capitalize on it.”

The Cowboys have been capitalizing on a lot of opportunities offensively. If their defense could start doing the same, which they showed signs of in this one, Dallas has a chance to make a little noise in the second half of the season.

That was apparently alright, though. Because they had plenty of horses left in the wide-receiver stable. And they still had Baker Mayfield.

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Leading 20-19 with about 3 minutes left in the third quarter, Tampa faced a 2nd-and-11 from the 49ers’ 45-yard line.

They came out in a 2x2 formation, and the 49ers matched up with a 2-shell look:

Pre-snap, you can see rookie wide receiver Tez Johnson alerting Mayfield to the two defenders stacked over him:

Whether he was pointing out the stack as a potential blitz threat or an indicator of the safety likely dropping down, it appeared San Fran would rotate to single-high post-snap either way:

And that’s exactly what would happen, with the 49ers ultimately playing cover-3 buzz:

Mayfield looked to his right initially, and that seemed to hold the safety who was supposed to get to the deep middle of the field:

Mayfield didn’t like what he saw to that side (or he knew he wouldn’t like it all along, looked that way, and then pump-faked to hold the safety). Either way, he then came back to his left, where he saw Tez Johnson:

According to Mayfield:

“Normally Tez is supposed to go across the field.”

But with the safety reacting to Mayfield’s eyes and never getting to the middle, the other side of the field was left wide open. And Johnson spotted it.

“[Tez] recognized a little bit of a hole and void in the coverage, so he took it.”

Whether he recognized that on the fly or was prepared to run down the seam based on the single-high clues he saw pre-snap, Johnson knew he would be open and put his hand up for Baker to see:

Then Mayfield unloaded the ball downfield:

As Mayfield said after the game:

“[Johnson] caught up to [the] ball and made a great catch.”

It looked like he caught the back half of the ball there.

What a great job by the rookie 7th-round draft pick of not only making a difficult catch but also making the proper adjustments based on the coverage.

It was also a great example of how well Baker is seeing the field.

The touchdown gave the Buccaneers a 27-19 lead and put them in control of this game. They would go on to win 30-19.

Tampa now has a 5-1 record and sits at the top of the NFC. They have ways to win on both sides of the ball, and their quarterback is playing at an MVP level regardless of which receivers are in the lineup to catch his passes.

I’ll walk you through Sam Darnold’s critical interception at the end of the Seahawks’ loss to the Buccaneers. But it’s just as informative (if not more) because Darnold describes both what he did wrong as well as what he could have done differently.

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With the score tied at 35 and less than a minute remaining, the Seahawks were attempting to drive for the game-winning field goal. They faced a 2nd-and-1 at their own 32-yard line.

First, notice Seattle’s formation. They came out in a 2x2 with the running back offset to the left:

Look how the Buccaneers matched up. There were 8 defenders near the line of scrimmage and any combination of them could be rushing the quarterback:

I can’t get inside Darnold’s head, but I have to assume that the decision on how to protect against a potential blitz here was a simple numbers game.

Outside of the 4 down linemen, there were 3 potential coverage defenders over the 3 eligible receivers to his left, and 3 defenders over the 2 eligibles to his right. It’s possible that Darnold saw that and viewed the right side as the more dangerous threat for a blitz because of the extra defender:

Or perhaps there was some other tendency that helped Darnold make up his mind. Either way, he slid the protection to the right from the center over:

The left guard and left tackle would account for the two down linemen over them:

Unfortunately for Seattle, the Buccaneers brought a blitz that Todd Bowles said they hadn’t pulled out to that point in the game but were waiting for the right time:

“We were saving that blitz for a rainy day and we brought it out. We’ve been running it a lot. We didn’t run it the entire game. And everybody was waiting on it and it finally came.”

Here was the pressure design. Only 1 of the 4 potential pass rushers from the right would end up blitzing:

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Here was the situation. The Vikings had the ball at the Browns’ 12-yard line and trailed 17-14 with just 30 seconds remaining. They didn’t want to settle for the field goal and run the risk of losing this game in overtime. A touchdown meant victory.

Facing a 2nd-and-5, Minnesota aligned in a 2x2 formation with reduced splits to both sides. According to Addison, he had “an Omaha route.”

You can see the “Omaha” concept illustrated below. The inside receiver runs a stick route and the outside receiver runs a speed out. Here, the concept was mirrored, meaning it was being run to both sides of the field:

The Browns would end up playing cover-2 to Addison’s side, however:

As Addison said afterwards:

It converts vs. cover-2. They went cover-2.

“Converts” means that against press-man, cover-2, or any type of cloud corner, the speed-out changes to a go-route:

According to Addison, he “made a good release.”

You can see that release here. Addison recognized the coverage, quickly changed his route, and Wentz hit him for the touchdown:

According to Carson Wentz:

“It was […] just a […] simple route, simple concept, but he […] saw the coverage and converted his route. And the ball had to come out. I wasn’t going to take a sack in that situation given where we are on the field, so I just tried to put it high and give him a chance, and he made a heck of a play.”

Reading between the lines there, given the situation and the need to not take a sack (and the fact that it was a mirrored concept), Wentz was picking a side and making a decision to get the ball out of his hands quickly. He was likely throwing whatever route Addison was running (the speed out or the conversion), and if it wasn’t there, he was throwing it away.

But with Addison open, he was able to hit him for the touchdown:

That’s a heck of a throw.

If it looked like Wentz was ready for that coverage and ready to make the right throw to beat it, it’s because he was. According to head coach Kevin O’Connell, this was something they had talked about on the sideline:

“You gotta have somewhere to go with it if they do try to play cloud, and Carson was ready for that. It was kind of a coaching point we gave early on in the game that showed up in a gotta-have-it situation.”

The Vikings escaped with the win and avoided an 0-2 trip overseas that may have derailed their season. They’re now 3-2 and very much in the mix in the NFC North.

Here it is just in case you aren’t:

Many accused Montana (particularly in Dallas) of trying to throw the ball away and believe he just got lucky. After all, there’s no way a quarterback could hit his receiver that late in a play by design.

But as we all now know, the 49ers actually practiced that play quite often, and Dwight Clark sliding back to the outside was an intentional part of the concept. In fact before the play, Montana even told Clark to “be ready” as they broke the huddle.

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With all great quarterbacks, almost nothing is by accident. They’re prepared to win early in the play, and they have answers late.

On Sunday against the Ravens, the Chiefs had slightly less at stake than the 49ers did in the ‘81 NFC Championship Game. But Patrick Mahomes’ 4th-and-1 touchdown pass to Hollywood Brown was a similar example of a great quarterback winning late in the play by design.

The score at the time was 30-13 with about 13-and-a-half minutes remaining. The Chiefs wanted to put the game out of reach and ensure Baltimore had no shot of coming back, as Mahomes said after the game:

“We wanted to go for it. We wanted to kind of put that final ending on the game.”

A conversion here would do just that.

First, notice the formation and the personnel. The Chiefs had wide receiver Xavier Worthy aligned in the backfield. They were hoping that the condensed formation would create traffic for whoever was responsible for Worthy to have to fight through:

Given that there were two wide receivers who could release to the right and only two DBs to that side, the Chiefs seemed to assume that safety Kyle Hamilton would be taking Worthy:

“We were talking in the huddle, and I could see that 14 (Kyle) Hamilton was gonna be on that side. So I wanted JuJu to kind of give me a little kind of a pick.”

But the Ravens would play the releases of the Chiefs’ receivers instead of playing the man. The outside defender took the outside release, negating the effects of any pick by Smith-Schuster. And that took away Worthy, Mahomes’ initial read:

Mahomes then peaked at Smith-Schuster and saw that he was still occupied with his defender. He hadn’t turned around yet:

So Mahomes had to turn to his last read, Hollywood Brown. As he said afterwards:

“We knew there was gonna be probably a cover-0 type look.”

That meant no deep safety in the middle of the field:

And so he was the last read. But I told Hollywood in the huddle, I was just like, man if it’s cover-0 man, you’ve gotta win. You’ve gotta win across the field.”

Brown was running a deep-over route. That would give him the opportunity to use his speed and run away from his defender across the field:

As Mahomes said, he needed to win his route.

“And he did that. He beat a good corner and won and was able to get a touchdown.”

It helped that Mahomes delivered an absolutely perfect throw on the run:

The touchdown put the game out of reach. Kansas City won in dominating fashion, 37-20. More importantly, the offense was clicking. Mahomes looked like the Mahomes of old, completing 25 of 37 passes for 270 yards and 4 touchdowns.

I guess the Chiefs aren’t actually done just yet…

But this was a situation where his 20+ years of experience played a significant role in helping him decipher what the defense would be doing post-snap.

This was a 3rd-and-6 with 2:20 left in the game and the score tied 14-14. The Steelers were already in field goal range, but they did not want to settle for 3.

They came out in a 3x1 formation with tight end Pat Freiermuth on the outside to the right. The Patriots matched up with linebacker Marte Mapu over Freiermuth, an indicator of man coverage:

The question was, what type of man were they playing? The Patriots were in a 2-shell look pre-snap:

Would those safeties be staying over the top, allowing their man defenders to play underneath their receivers? Would they rotate down to single-high and take away the middle of the field?

There were clues everywhere. For instance, cornerback Carlton Davis was aligned in the slot to the right over D.K. Metcalf (a high-probability target) and appeared to be playing with outside leverage. This was a sign that he would be playing to some form of help in the middle, which was an indicator that one of those deep safeties would be dropping down inside and that this would be cover-1:

Rodgers also used a hard (silent) count to try and get a read on the defense. Watch closely from the TV copy. It’s subtle, but it looks like those safeties (particularly the backside safety) were caught leaning just a bit:

Given all the info, Rodgers clearly felt good enough that this would be cover-1. And that meant Calvin Austin would have a 1-on-1 matchup to the back side:

So Rodgers gave Austin a hand signal:

According to Rodgers, it was something they had discussed earlier:

“We actually just talked about that in the huddle before the drive about just a subtle signal of what I might want […].”

Whether Rodgers actually changed the route at the line or just confirmed it as a part of the original playcall, the route Austin would run was a fade:

And just as Rodgers suspected, the Patriots did rotate down to cover-1 post-snap:

Austin won immediately off the line and Rodgers hit him for the game-winning score:

As Rodgers said afterwards, “I didn’t throw the best ball, but Cal’s so damn fast. You know, he made a great play.”

It’s worth another look to see how quickly Austin won at the line:

It hasn’t been pretty for the Steelers on either side of the ball this season. But they’re 2-1 nonetheless.

Buccaneers 23, Falcons 20

We’ll start in Atlanta where the Buccaneers got a huge win over the Falcons in a critical early-season NFC South matchup.

Tampa trailed 20-17 with 1:04 remaining. And while they were already in field goal range, they were looking for 6.

The Buccaneers went with an empty formation and had Mike Evans and Emeka Egbuka aligned next to each other. You can see the route combination illustrated below:

While Egbuka’s post would end up being the target on the play, it was set up by Mike Evans. As Baker Mayfield said afer the game: “Mike (Evans) draws a lot of attention. He got the safety to bite down on it.”

The safety biting on Evans’ route left no one to help inside on Egbuka’s post. As Mayfield said, that created “the 1-on-1 coverage for Mek, and Mek makes the easy play.”

Mike Evans said after the game that “Right before he (Egbuka) caught that last touchdown, he called it. He wanted a post route. And he said I’m about to game him. And he did.”

What a huge play early in the season, and what a great NFL debut for Egbuka, who caught two touchdown passes. We heard a lot about his maturity and football intelligence as a receiver from everyone on the Buccaneers who was asked about him throughout the summer. That was on display in his first game.

I broke down Egbuka’s skillset in collaboration with this summer. You can check that out here.

Packers 27, Lions 13

The Packers were in control for pretty much the entire afternoon against the Lions, with the final score of 27-13 being much closer than the game actually felt.

With Green Bay leading 10-3 in the second quarter, they took control and didn’t look back. After a 48-yard completion to Romeo Doubs, the Packers had the ball at the Lions’ 17-yard line.

They came out in a 1x3 closed formation with 3 wide receivers to the right. Based on the way Detroit matched up with a linebacker over the tight end to one side and 3 DB’s over their 3 receivers to the right, it was clear this was man coverage:

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As Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell said afterwards:

“It was a route adjustment there [and] those guys were on the same page.”

Going back to the start of the play, you can see that the Vikings came out in a 1x3 formation before shifting to a 3x1 with Justin Jefferson as the X-receiver to the backside:

The Vikings would run a version of “Dagger” to the front side on what O’Connell called:

“a pretty standard concept just with a little window dressing or kind of sauce to it.”

The “window dressing” and “sauce” he was referring to were the pre-snap motion, formation, and personnel distribution. The Vikings used this particular concept just two plays earlier, which is why O’Connell felt the need to dress it up differently and keep the defense off the scent. Below you can see what that prior play looked like:

Notice that Minnesota was in a stack to the 3-receiver side and Jordan Addison was the X-receiver to the backside instead of Jefferson.

The Seahawks would rotate to single-high on that play, so Addison ran a skinny post up the left seam:

Pressure led to an incompletion, but O’Connell wanted to get back to this play.

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On the game-winner, the Vikings wouldn’t get single-high, though. Instead, the Seahawks would make sure to have safety help over top of Jefferson to the backside. They predictably played cover-2 and pretty much declared pre-snap that Darnold should look elsewhere:

“We had talked a little bit about that sequence. [Jefferson would] be on the back side, and if they wanted to […] shove coverage over to him, we thought […] J.A. or T.J. may be [open] on the front side.”

“But how it played out is [Jefferson] got such a clean good release on the inside release.”

“He felt the vertical grass and took it.”

This meant that instead of running some kind of in-breaker as was likely called (perhaps a post attacking the deep middle?), Jefferson could see that the safety was too far inside and taking it away. So he made an adjustment, got back out to the sideline where there was lots of space, and went vertical:

He was able to do this because his release was so clean and his route wasn’t disrupted at the line.

Darnold then did a great job of adjusting to Jefferson’s route before delivering an absolutely perfect ball to his outside shoulder:

That’s all the more impressive when you factor in the play-action, which made Darnold turn his back to the defense initially, as well as the immediate pressure that made Darnold have to climb the pocket. He was able to react to Jefferson on the fly while navigating the instant pressure. Here’s that end zone angle again:

Just an outstanding football play.

“I want those guys to have some freedom in those moments. Especially, we do a lot of things with Justin and Sam seeing the coverage and then with some route opportunities to get to at the line of scrimmage. And I think those guys have just gotten so comfortable with that stuff that they’re able to execute it like they did, which was […] absolutely the play of the game.”

Being on the same page has led the Vikings to a stunning 13-2 record. Their final two games are against the Packers and Lions and will play a huge role in defining their season. Darnold and Jefferson will need to continue seeing the field the same way for the Vikings to have a shot of getting the #1 seed in the NFC.

Everything seemed to work well for Tampa against the Chargers. They rushed for 223 yards. Baker Mayfield threw for 288 yards and 4 touchdowns, giving him a career-high 32 TD passes on the season. Mike Evans seemed uncoverable, finishing with 9 catches on 11 targets for 159 yards and 2 touchdowns.

And it was his second touchdown that allowed the Buccaneers to break the game open.

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This was a 3rd-and-12 late in the 3rd quarter with Tampa leading 23-17. The Buccaneers came out in a 3x1 formation with Evans to the back side:

To the 3-receiver side, the Buccaneers had a post/stutter-wheel combination called. To the backside, Evans would also run a post:

Baker Mayfield described what he saw:

“They [had] a 3-safety defense. [Derwin James is] playing the middle of the field.”

“They’re basically playing a Tampa-2 invert. So the two high safeties are rolling down. Derwin’s going back to the middle.”

In Tampa-2 coverage, the middle-seam defender (James) generally opens up to the passing-strength side. That was the three-receiver side here. Mayfield recognized the coverage and turned his attention to Evans:

“Mike’s got leverage on that route […]. He knows how to win on leverage on certain routes.”

The leverage Evans had was to the inside, where there was no one in the deep middle of the field. The cornerback over him, Kristian Fulton, was playing to the outside of Evans.

So to keep him there, and even to push him further to the sideline, Evans attacked his outside leverage by running right at him. That widened Fulton:

And that gave Evans the inside. Mayfield just had to put it in a good spot, which he did with an absolutely perfect throw:

Baker Mayfield is playing the quarterback position at an extremely high level right now, and the Buccaneers have won four in a row. They are in sole possession of the NFC South division lead and appear to be peaking at the right time.

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It seems like Barkley has been able to do something special every week since joining the Eagles. However, much of his success is due to the big boys up front, as Barkley said after the game:

“These guys here are amazing. They make my job a lot easier.”

He wasn’t just saying that to be a good teammate. The Eagles’ offensive line hasn’t missed a beat after losing center Jason Kelce last offseason.

All season, they’ve consistently re-established the line of scrimmage. They’re athletic enough to get to the second level. And that combination has helped to spring Barkley for massive plays on a weekly basis.

The O-line was certainly a critical component on both of Saquon’s big TD runs against the Rams on Sunday.

The first 70-yard touchdown was an outside zone with split-flow action by wide receiver Johnny Wilson (#89):

First, check out how the front side was blocked by right guard Mekhi Becton and right tackle Lane Johnson:

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Then, with the score tied at 20 and the game in sudden death, the Rams had the ball at Seattle’s 39-yard line. It was starting to become desperation time for the Seahawks defense.

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So Head Coach Mike Macdonald dialed up a cover-0 all-out blitz. All 11 defenders would align within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage pre-snap:

It didn’t surprise Rams Head Coach Sean McVay to see Seattle getting aggressive, as he said after the game:

“…A field goal wins it. We were already getting close to that. That was something that they had shown and that a lot of teams will do…”

In response, McVay called a play-action boot to the left with Demarcus Robinson running a corner route as part of a 3-level-stretch concept:

The key here was getting Matthew Stafford enough time and space to make a throw. That’s where wide receiver Cooper Kupp came into play:

“Cooper Kupp deserves a ton of credit. He secures Dodson coming off of that edge right there. It allows Matthew to be able to escape.”

This was such a critical element to the play because Stafford wasn’t planning on throwing the deep ball to Robinson initially, as he admitted after the game:

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