Through the Quarterback's Eyes: Aaron Rodgers

Breaking Down Rodgers' game-winning TD pass vs. the Patriots

I don’t want to oversell Aaron Rodgers’ game-winning touchdown pass against New England on Sunday. This wasn’t a play where he did something so amazingly complex and high-level that no other quarterback could possibly do.

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.

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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.