The Saints picked up a hard-fought win against the 5-3 Browns on Sunday, and it was wide receiver Chris Olave who made all the difference, whether he got the ball or not.
The Saints trailed the Browns 13-9 with just 1:17 remaining and no timeouts. They had a 1st-and-10 on Cleveland’s 43-yard line.
They needed a touchdown.
New Orleans came out in a 2x2 formation with Chris Olave to the left:
According to Olave, the play design called for him to run a deep 20-yard out:
But this ultimately wasn’t the best coverage for that route. The Browns would be doubling Olave.
“He kind of [had] him in a trail technique.”
The “trail technique” meant Olave’s defender (cornerback Tyson Campbell) was deliberately playing underneath him since he knew he had help over the top from the safety cheating to his side:
So Olave adjusted his route. Instead of running the 20-yard out that was called and would have easily been taken away by his defender, he ran a corner route: