FILM ROOM: Tyler's Play of the Week - NFL Week 4, 2024

By Tyler Arthur

Welcome to the latest instalment of my Play of the Week series. I am going to deep dive one snap from every week of the NFL season, to try and bring you an inside look at what happened on my favourite play of that weekend’s games.

There is no set formula for what would make a play the best; it could be fascinating from an X’s and O’s perspective, it could be an exceptional piece of play design or just amazing execution from an individual player.

The one thing that every play will have in common, however – it will be awesome.

Let’s take a look at my Play of the Week for Week 4 of the 2024 NFL season.

Jameson Williams 70-yard TD Reception - Detroit Lions vs Seattle Seahawks

Not a bad first play to start a drive…

The Lions have a punch-you-in-the-mouth run game, and no head coach in the league appreciates a nice hard-nosed offense more than Dan Campbell, but the Lions just happen to be one of those teams who can be explosive in all phases of the game. They dialled up this beautiful play during what was one of the most exciting third quarters I’ve seen all season – with five complete drives all resulting in touchdowns – hitting back immediately after the Seahawks methodically made their way down the field, striking in just one play to erase all that hard work.

Jameson Williams is an extremely talented wide receiver who didn’t make the impact he was expecting to in his rookie campaign due to the combination of a suspension and then a lack of snaps once he was available. However, now that he’s fully involved in the offense, he has looked dangerous. This play demonstrated his absolute lightning speed and also highlighted how combining that big play potential with the sheer number of talented players on this offense, you can give Williams some fantastic opportunities.

So, let’s break down how the Lions schemed up this opportunity to have Williams screaming over the middle, leaving him high stepping (or dancing, I don’t know what that was) down the sideline – and earning himself an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the process.

The X's & O's

Detroit lined up in a condensed TE Bunch set, with all four receiving threats lined up in narrow splits, including the bunch, which featured a triple threat of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta and their big-bodied backup TE Brock Wright.

On the other side of the formation, five yards outside the left tackle is Jameson Williams.

The play design from the Lions here takes advantage of two things very effectively:

Jameson Williams’ incredible athleticism
The threat of two other elite receiving threats on the other side of the field running a double-in-breaking concept together.

That ‘Mills’ concept (an outside post route over the top of a dig route) is dangerous enough on its own, attacking both deep and intermediate depths across the middle of the field. This concept is incredibly effective against a Cover 2 as well as Cover 3 looks.

Then, in addition to this combination coming in from the field side, Williams has a deep crossing route from the slot on the boundary side. The timing on this play is beautiful. Due to the two different depths of the Mills routes and the use of short motion to widen ARSB, Williams actually crosses both LaPorta and St. Brown’s stems just as they’re breaking.

As LaPorta cuts on his dig route, Williams screams over the top of him, and then St. Brown breaks on his post over the top of that. This combination is an absolute nightmare for a defense to keep everyone covered.

Plus, even if somehow they covered all the deep threats, Wright is available to leak out after his chip block as a safety valve.

As I said earlier, a Mills concept is really effective against zone coverages because it attacks both the deep and intermediate areas of the field. And they end up facing a perfect defensive play call to do just that.

The Seahawks try to be aggressive on the first play of the drive here with a disguised six-man rush underneath a coverage called Cover 2 “Invert”. A standard Cover 2 puts the two safeties over the top in deep halves while the cornerbacks are responsible for the underneath area of the field. In Cover 2 Invert, the two cornerbacks drop deep and are responsible for those deep halves instead.

Realistically, your hope with this play call is to get pressure quickly enough that the secondary doesn’t have to hold up for more than a couple of seconds. The cornerbacks bail and take away anything deep and the three linebackers who are underneath simply have to try and get in Jared Goff’s eyeline for long enough that he doesn’t find his hot read while the six-man pressure gets home.

Execution

Except, that pressure never got home.

The play action doesn’t have much of an impact on this play as the defense was already planning to be so aggressive, but the joint effort from running back Jahmyr Gibbs and tight end Brock Wright, the pass protection held up against the six rushers for Goff to get the ball out to Williams.

Wright’s chip block was devastating and Gibbs comfortably picked up the disguised pressure from the safety, Rayshawn Jenkins.

With a couple of seconds clean in the pocket for his quarterback, there’s more than enough time for Jameson Williams to run his crossing route right across the middle of the field.

As I explained earlier, the timing on the three routes in that area of the field is beautiful. As the speedy crosser breaks open into space, the superstar receiver goes deep over the middle and the star tight end cuts underneath. The Seahawks simply could not defend all three at once. Devon Witherspoon is a very talented defensive back, but he simply could not make a play. Biting on the post route from St. Brown for just two steps was all it took, resulting in a huge 70-yard touchdown for the Lions and perhaps more importantly, my Play of the Week for Week 4.

Tyler discovered American Football when he went to university and became obsessed with it. Since then he has played, watched and written about it, while on a mission to attain as much knowledge (and win as many fantasy football championships) as possible.

He currently plays Wide Receiver for the Northants Knights.

Tyler loves nothing more than watching the All-22 to break down the film and teach people about the sport he loves.