Through the Quarterback's Eyes: Baker Mayfield
Breaking down Mayfield's 45-yard TD pass to Tez Johnson vs. the 49ers
The Buccaneers entered Week 6 without Mike Evans and Chris Godwin in the lineup. Midway through the game, they also lost Emeka Egbuka.
That was apparently alright, though. Because they had plenty of horses left in the wide-receiver stable. And they still had Baker Mayfield.
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:
“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.