FILM ROOM: Tyler's Play of the Week - NFL Week 2, 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.

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 2 of the 2024 NFL season.

James Cook, 17-yard Touchdown Reception - Bills @ Dolphins

As you may have predicted from watching that beautiful chaos unfold, this week’s Play of the Week is more the result of play design than sheer execution like last week’s choice. Buffalo offensive coordinator Joe Brady cooked up something spicy here, if you’ll pardon the pun. Let’s break it down and examine the play more closely.

Identifying the Defensive Coverage

Before this play begins, there’s a baked-in Man or Zone check from the offense, using a pre-snap shift. This shift takes the form of flipping the position of the running back from Josh Allen’s left to his right. When James Cook moves across the centre line, running a Fake Orbit route, the linebacker who is responsible for him in man coverage makes himself known.

This is key.

By confirming that the defense is playing man coverage (which is very common against condensed bunch formations – and also very common on 4th and short – but it’s still nice to know for sure), the offense knows that their play call is going to work, on paper.

Brady’s play design on this particular play is all specifically focused on putting the linebacker responsible for Cook in a position where he simply cannot complete his assignment.

Let’s break down exactly how this play put David Long Jr through the snap from hell.

The X's & O's

As I previously mentioned, the pre-play formation shift has keyed us on a man defense look. This is accurate, but there is still an element of disguise here. While it’s been made clear that David Long Jr (the middle linebacker nearest the screen) is covering James Cook, the rest of the assignments are not obvious. The only other player who seems to have made their position pretty clear is #20, Jordyn Brooks (the defender on the LOS nearest the screen) – that man is planning on rushing.

Based solely on the alignment of the players on the screen, you would think this is a Cover 1, with a five man rush, however, as you can see, in addition to Jordyn Brooks having outside contain to the running back side, there is also a cornerback blitz coming off the Trips side. Nickel Cornerback Kader Kohou is going to ignore the three receivers in front of him and come off the edge as quickly as he can, while second year free safety Jevon Holland is going to play man coverage on the point man in the bunch.

This Cover 0 call is aggressive, but this makes sense on 4th and 3.

So, what play design was able to nullify this six-man pressure and send James Cook into the end zone?

Yes, that play looked incredibly chaotic / confusing on the broadcast camera – that’s because it is very chaotic and it’s designed to be confusing. The offense already knows that it’s man coverage, so their goal is just to ensure that there’s as much traffic (thus the play name) as possible in the path of David Long Jr.

Curtis Samuel is a fantastic initial decoy with his jet loop motion that puts him behind Josh Allen at the point of the snap. The veteran receiver has been deployed as a gadget guy for years and so seeing him in motion will undoubtedly put defenders on their toes. Then, while his defender is running around to try and follow his wacky motion, the other two receivers in the trips are getting ready to set a double pick over the middle.

In running their Mesh pattern (two drag routes run opposite each other to create a man-beating rub over the middle of the field, Mack Hollins and Khalil Shakir come and essentially set a double-screen. Most NBA teams would be jealous of this type of action. And, as you might guess, James Cook turns into prime Steph Curry while this is happening.

Cook’s Slide route leaks out underneath the pick, releasing him to the sideline on the other side of four bodies that his defender has to navigate to come and tackle him. Hollins, Shakir and two of his own teammates are between him and the sideline pursuit angle he’d need to stop this touchdown.

Beautiful play design and an easy score.

Except it wasn’t that easy.

Execution

Yes, this play call was perfectly timed, on 4th and 3, where a man blitz is a very likely defensive call, and yes Cook was wide open. That doesn’t mean it was easy, though. First things first, it required an excellent (albeit slightly under-acted) double pick play from Hollins and Shakir. But, it also called for a very calm and collected throw under pressure from Josh Allen.

With a nickel blitz unaccounted for by the offensive line, Allen had to throw the ball quickly to avoid the sack, but with enough touch on it that his halfback would be able to easily catch the ball in stride and head north down the sideline.

I will give some credit to Mack Hollins who clearly pointed out the corner blitz prior to the snap, which is incredibly helpful, but it still wasn’t an easy completion.

You can see from this replay angle that not only did the Bills QB get the ball out of his hands fast, but with a very composed throw that required minimal effort from his target to secure and run after the catch.

After losing both of their two biggest targets at wide receiver in the form of Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis, Buffalo have to be a bit more creative now on key downs, like this 4th and 3. This play design was exceptional and highlighted not only this creativity but also the situational-football awareness of this coaching staff. Going for it on 4th down when you’re in field goal range in a 0-0 game isn’t something you do without a plan.

It turns out that the Bills and Joe Brady had a pretty good plan. A plan worthy of my Play of the Week crown.

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.