Josh Allen Handled the Jaguars' Disguises

Josh Allen is known for his physical abilities, but against the Jaguars, it was his quick processing and ability to see the field that made all the difference. He made numerous big throws on plays where the defensive scheme won early in the play.

I’ll break down two of his most critical completions below.

This first one was a 2nd-and-10 in the 2nd quarter on the Bills’ first touchdown drive. The game within the game on this play between Allen and the Jaguars Defense was just tremendous to watch.

The Jaguars would start in a 2-safety-shell look, but the bottom line here is that they wanted Josh Allen to think they would be rotating to cover-3 at the snap.

First, watch Allen use a hard (silent) count to try and get the Jaguars to reveal their hand pre-snap. Notice safety Eric Murray and nickel corner Jarrian Jones kick out to their side:

At first glance, you’d think Allen caught them and forced them to tip their hand. But take another look. Their movement didn’t seem real. They moved well after Allen put his foot down when it was clear the ball wasn’t going to be snapped yet.

There was a lot of reverse psychology in this one, but it’s almost as if they were trying to get Allen’s attention and wanted him to say to himself, “Nice try guys. That was a really bad bluff. Now I know you’re not possibly staying to that side. You’re rotating in the other direction to single-high.”

And it appeared that is what Allen thought at first. Because he also saw the safety to the other side of the field (Antonio Johnson) start to creep down:

Everything to this point in the play made Allen think the Jaguars would be rotating to single high and likely cover-3 given that they are a predominant zone-coverage defense, and cover-3 is their most frequently used coverage:

So Allen set the protection to slide to the left side where any potential pressure was most likely to come from since the deep safety to that side would be dropping down:

The route combination to the right was a go-route by Keon Coleman and an out-route by Khalil Shakir from the slot:

If this truly was some form of cover-3, the out-route from the slot to the right wouldn’t be a bad option. After all, this was a 2nd-and-10. Nothing wrong with taking a 5 or 8-yard completion and getting into a manageable 3rd down.

Sure enough, at the snap, the Jaguars moved and safety Eric Murray would rotate to the middle of the field:

Allen appeared to have read it correctly. This was cover-3. The protection was set. He was nice and secure in the pocket. And now he could take the easy throw to Shakir in the right slot.

The only problem was, this wasn’t actually cover-3. Eric Murray would keep running past midfield. He would actually be the Tampa-2 safety to the other side of the field!

Nickel corner Jarrian Jones, who had started over Shakir in the slot, would actually drop deep to be the cover-2 safety to the other side:

Cornerback Montaric Brown would approach the line-of-scrimmage and sit in the flat, ready to pounce on a throw to the out-route:

This was why the Jaguars wanted Allen to think it was cover-3. They wanted him to think the flats were open. They were baiting Allen to throw it there so they could trap him and force a turnover. This was an excellent design.