BY NOW YOU’VE probably seen the statistic that, through week four, the Houston Texans’ star running back Arian Foster and wide receiver Andre Johnson have combined for one touchdown while JJ Watt, a defensive end, has two.
While Watt’s first touchdown came when he lined up at tight end against the Oakland Raiders in week two, his second – a pick six against the Buffalo Bills – was far more orthodox though no less impressive.
For those who didn’t see the play, here’s how it looked on TV:
As we’ll see below, while it looks like a terrible mistake from the Bills’ EJ Manuel, the score owes as much to Watt’s freakish athletic ability – no to mention the Texans’ defensive scheme – as it does to the young quarterback’s error.
Pre-snap read – Offence
The Bills are in the Posse/11 personnel grouping which you should remember from week two and the San Diego Chargers. If not, it’s three wide receivers (blue, red and orange), a tight end (purple) and a running back (green).
They line up in a doubles gun formation which simply means there are two receivers one side of the offensive line, two on the other and the quarterback is in the shotgun position.
The key part of this offence though is that the Bills are trying to create a spot route for Mike Williams (orange) to take advantage of.
They hope to do that by using the tight end (purple) to take away the safety and running back (green) to take away the other defensive back which will allow Williams drop into the spot with little coverage.
Pre-snap read – Defence
The defensive scheme the Texans are running on this play is known as Nickel Fire Zone which needs to be broken down into two basic parts.
A Nickel defence is one that contains a fifth defensive back instead of the usual four (black) with the extra back (yellow in this case) known as the nickelback.
The Fire Zone element – also known as base zone blitz - allows the defence to blitz (or attempt to sack) the quarterback with five players (red) while still having the protection of three deep defenders in zone coverage (green) and three to protect against short throws or runs (blue).
At the snap
This play goes very badly, very quickly with Watt intercepting within a second.
This is because the defensive scheme has allowed the Texans to perfectly play the spot route the Bills have tried to create with their pre-snap formation and personnel grouping.
Outside linebacker Brooks Reed (58) has lined up as if he’s going to blitz but he has, in fact, dropped back on Williams (19) to take away with spot.
What happens next?
Having seen his spot route taken away and noticed the blitz coming, Manuel quickly gets ready to dump the ball off to his hot route. The hot route – basically a get out of jail, quick and easy pass for a quarterback being blitzed – is supposed to be running back Fred Jackson (22) on this play.
However, Manuel has failed to spot that Watt (99) has quickly established that he will never get to the quarterback and changed from his original direction on the blitz (red arrow) and instead moved (yellow arrow) to attack the throwing lane in order to deflect the pass or make an interception.
Watt then compliments his brilliant mind with freakish athletic ability to pull the ball down from mid air and scamper towards the endzone.
Realising Watt has made the interception but that the almost 21 stone (290 lbs/132 kg) defensive end may not out-run the Bills’ offence – who must now turn into defenders – the nickelback Kareem Jackson (25) helps his team-mate by putting in a crucial block on a despairing Manuel who is attempting to tackle Watt.
Notes
When Romeo Crennel took over as the Texans’ defensive co-ordinator earlier this year, there was genuine concern over how Watt would fit his system, particularly with Crennel’s fondness for nickel and dime schemes.
However, as this play shows, when you’re the undisputed best defensive player in the league, you can adapt and take advantage of any scheme.
