Where did all the scoring go?
After a record-breaking opening week for offenses, defenses hit back in Week 2. The league scoring average dropped by about eight points per game, and only three games on Sunday saw both teams score at least 20.
Despite the lack of scoring, Week 2 still delivered plenty of drama and memorable plays, including the Eagles’ last-second touchdown to beat the Titans, the return of the Chiefs’ downfield passing game, and Ja’Marr Chase’s jaw-dropping catch in Houston.
As always, we’ll dive into the strategies, the matchups, and everything else that created Sunday’s most memorable moments – along with what those moments mean for the future.
The Eagles are masters of drama. A week after the defense prevented overtime with a two-point stand, Hurts stepped into the hero role with a game-winning touchdown pass in the final seconds.
That was a bit of redemption for Hurts, who played well despite throwing two costly interceptions that kept the Titans in the game. But the first pick – which cost the Eagles at least three points and set up Tennessee’s first touchdown – may have provided Hurts with the intel he needed for the game-winning play.
Philadelphia lined up in the same formation on both plays: a bunch set to the right with Hurts lined up in the gun. On both plays, the Titans put seven defenders on the line of scrimmage in an all-out blitz look.
Here’s the pre-snap look on the first-quarter interception:
And here’s the pre-snap picture before Hurts’s game-winning throw:
Tennessee played the same coverage on both plays. The secondary is technically in man-to-man coverage across the board but can switch assignments if needed. The corners also have inside help from two defenders dropping off the line of scrimmage to pick up quick in-breaking routes. On the interception, Titans safety Amani Hooker sees the help is taking care of his man, so he falls off his original man to undercut Hurts’s throw.
Hurts and first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion banked that information for later in the game. Fast-forward to the end of the fourth, and the Eagles bust out that same formation, only this time, wide receiver DeVonta Smith motions into the bunch. The aim was to cross Tennessee’s wires by forcing some last-second communication on who’s covering who. And that’s exactly what happened with two defenders picking up Smith’s quick out-breaker.
Smith slips, but it doesn’t matter with Darius Cooper running wide open in the back of the end zone. Hurts quickly adjusted and found the open man. Ball game.
The takeaway: It’s still early, and the Eagles offense has been overly reliant on explosive plays and late-down magic, but I like what I’m seeing from this Hurts-Mannion partnership through two games. Hurts is making throws we haven’t really seen from him before, and Mannion has shown a knack for calling the right play at the right time.
The game-winner against the Titans shows the young play-caller isn’t just going through the motions. He’s reacting to what he sees from the defense and coming up with counters on the fly.
If Mannion can just get the run game going – which looks like a big ‘if’ after two bad weeks for the ground game – this offense will take off.
The deep ball is back in Kansas City! At least it was for one night.
If you squinted, you might have thought you were watching a game from the early days of the Mahomes era, back when the Chiefs quarterback used to chuck the ball downfield with regularity. These days, it’s rare for Mahomes to hit one deep pass in a game, but in Sunday night’s overtime win over the Colts, he hit two. Wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, who was doing his best impression of Tyreek Hill against Indy, caught both.
Thornton’s second big catch may have saved the day for Kansas City. With the Chiefs facing third-and-12 on their first overtime possession, they dialed up the most famous play call in franchise history to move the chains: Wasp.
Any Chiefs fan will instantly recognize that design from the biggest play of Mahomes’s first Super Bowl win over the 49ers back in 2020.
Kansas City runs it out of a trips formation, with the middle receiver running the “Wasp” route. That receiver starts as if he’s running a deep over route across the field, then breaks back toward the sideline. It’s really designed as a counter against defenses sitting on those deep crossers the Chiefs were known for when Hill was on the team.
Obviously, Hill is no longer around, but the play was just as effective with Thornton burning the Colts secondary on a deep crosser earlier in the game.
On the Wasp play in overtime, the Chiefs line up in the same formation. At first, it looks like they’re running the same play, with three in-breaking routes working across the field, right before Thornton breaks off the route, leaving Colts safety Kapena Gushiken a few steps behind.
The takeaway: We’ll have to see the Chiefs do it again before we can say the deep passing game is officially back, but Kenneth Walker III’s presence has changed the math for opponents, who can no longer sit back in deep zone coverages against this offense.
Mahomes hitting one deep ball would have been a good sign on its own. That he also hit the counter play for another big gain is the most significant sign of life this deep passing game has produced in years. Whether Thornton can sustain the downfield attack on his own is a fair question, but it’s nice to know Mahomes can still hit those big plays when given the opportunity.
Typically, I focus on plays in high-leverage situations, but I’m making an exception for this Chase touchdown reception that opened the scoring in Cincinnati’s impressive win in Houston.
First off, holy crap. I shouldn’t be surprised by anything Chase does on a football field anymore, but that play left my jaw on the floor. He’s mid-stumble with the ball in the air, regains his balance, and somehow contorts his body to find the ball while keeping two feet in bounds – all in one seamless motion.
It’s an inexplicably athletic play. Even Chase couldn’t describe what he had just pulled off. “I literally don’t even know what I did,” Chase said after the game.
Chase’s effort defies description, but even the decision to throw that ball is difficult to explain. Here’s a still of the moment when Joe Burrow decides to throw it up to his star receiver. You’ll see Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. in perfect position to defend the go-ball.
He has about four yards of cushion over the top of Chase, and he’s forcing the Bengals receiver toward the sideline, reducing the window for the throw.
Most quarterbacks would see an All-Pro corner playing over the top of their guy and move on to the next read. Burrow just sees that No. 1 on the back of the jersey and says, Screw it, Ja’Marr’s got me. More often than not, that strategy works out.
While the play didn’t come in a high-leverage spot, it did end up being the game-winning play for the Bengals, with the Texans managing just six points.
The takeaway: If it wasn’t clear before the season, it is now: Chase is the best receiver in the sport.
Some worthy competitors for his throne remain. Justin Jefferson is still amazing despite an untenable quarterback situation. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is one of the smoothest route runners in league history and just dropped three touchdowns on the Cardinals.
But Chase breaks the rules of football. It doesn’t matter if the defense throws an extra body at him or if a star cornerback has leverage on him. Chase makes his quarterback right even when he’s kind of wrong.
Three And Out
1. Sometimes you just have to call it as you see it, and Tom Brady was right: this was an “absolute piss missile” from Dak Prescott to CeeDee Lamb.
No defensive call is perfect, but the Commanders aren’t far off here. The Cowboys are running one of their staple pass concepts. Some call it “Middle Read,” others call it “989,” but it’s the same design either way. The two outside receivers run go routes, and the slot receiver reads the safety shell and either splits the safeties against two-deep coverage or runs a crossing route against single-high.
Washington is playing with two deep safeties, with a linebacker running with that middle route, so the only way for Prescott to beat the coverage is to hit a hole shot along the sideline. And you’re not hitting a hole shot against Cover 2 without throwing an …
Prescott’s touchdown that made him the all-time leader in franchise history also came on the same “Middle Read” concept. Washington’s coverage made things a bit easier the second time around, and no piss missiles were necessary.
2. Bears-Vikings turned out to be a soggy dud, but let’s give Brian Flores his, um, flores for the work he did against Ben Johnson’s offense. The Vikings defensive coordinator won the first-down battle, which had a domino effect on Chicago’s passing game. The Bears found themselves in several unfavorable situations, which allowed Flores to load the line of scrimmage with potential blitzers and dare Caleb Williams to figure out who was coming and who was dropping into coverage.
The second-quarter interception came in one of those situations. With the Bears facing third-and-12, Flores sent a six-man pressure with five Vikings defenders dropping into coverage. That’s all they needed to glove up Chicago’s play call.
It’s as if Flores was in the huddle when Williams called the play. Linebacker Blake Cashman drops right into the throwing window to Kalif Raymond. He passes Raymond’s route off to another linebacker who had just passed his initial man off to the deep safety. Meanwhile, the rush flushes Williams out of the pocket but doesn’t let him turn the corner to scramble and forces the risky throw. It’s a perfect snapshot of team defense.
3. Before Jets head coach Aaron Glenn’s woeful clock management cost his team the game in overtime, offensive coordinator Frank Reich made a tactical blunder that got the Packers back in it.
New York faced a fourth-and-1 with 1:20 left. Glenn made the right call to go for it, but Reich left many Jets fans miffed – a feeling they’re undoubtedly familiar with – by lining up Geno Smith in the shotgun and calling a run straight up the gut.
Fans wanted to see the Jets go under center and pound the rock. And the numbers back up that strategy in fourth-and-short situations. Over the last five years, lining up under center on fourth-and-1 has produced a 70% success rate for offenses, while shotgun formations have a success rate of just 59%, per Next Gen Stats. That’s a healthy gap.
And while we’re on the subject, lining up a tight end off the ball and asking him to cut off an edge rusher, as the Jets did with Jeremy Ruckert, is bad process and deserved punishment. Lukas Van Ness, who was unblockable all day, easily beat Ruckert inside to make the fourth-down stop and give the Packers life.
The Jets defense held the Packers and forced overtime, but that failed fourth-down conversion cost New York a chance to win it in regulation and gave Glenn a chance to blow the game with a few odd decisions.
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