Anatomy of a Touchdown Week 7: Alex Smith Goes Deep,
Tyreek Hill Only Needs One Hand
It is said that there is no play in sports–any sports–that is as exciting as a deep pass for a touchdown. As fans of the Kansas City Chiefs, admittedly, we don’t get to feel that excitement very often. While quarterback Alex Smith is good at what he does, throwing the deep ball consistently and accurately has never been one of his strong suits. So it goes without saying–but dammit, I’m gonna say it anyway–that when the Chiefs’ signal caller does provide us with a Sports Center Top 10 highlight, I’m going to write about it.
On Sunday, with a touchdown lead over the New Orleans Saints, the Chiefs were driving again. Although it seemed like the average Chiefs drive, it was about to turn into anything but. With 7:11 on the clock, the Chiefs lined up on the Saints 38-yard line.
The rookie speedster Tyreek Hill lined up wide to Smith’s left. Conley lined up just inside of Hill and the Chiefs’ leading receiver, Jeremy Maclin completed the “trips left” formation in the slot. The Chiefs’ looking-for-love tight end Travis Kelce lined all by himself to the right.
It is important to add here that this was a “touchdown or bust” play from the beginning. In reviewing the All-22 film on this play, it looked like every receiver ran a “9” route or a “fly” route. In other words, there was no route to run, other than to haul ass to the end zone and attempt to beat their defender. However, in watching the tape, Conley does a bit of an “in” route at the 15-yard line. It was tough for me to determine if he did this because he saw that the ball was in the air and not to him, or if that was part of his assignment. Either way, it didn’t matter.
At this point in the play, there are two things to point out. First, when the Chiefs’ offensive line plays this well, they can do things like this. The Saints rushed five defenders on this play, and while they don’t have a very dominate defense or pass-rush presence, each Chiefs lineman was able to pick up their rusher and create a perfect pocket for Smith to pass from. That is extremely important on plays involving “go, fly or 9” routes, because they generally take a little bit of time to develop. From snap to pass, Smith held the ball for about three seconds.
The second thing to note here is that Smith is pretty much locked on to the left side of the play the entire time. In looking at the All-22, it appears Kelce actually was beating his man too, and could have been thrown the long ball just as easily. The Saints’ safety Jairus Byrd had already began cheating over to the left side, following Smith’s eyes. But Smith new where he wanted to go with the ball, likely before the snap even happened. It was a hookup those who attended Chiefs’ training camp this summer in St. Joseph, Missouri became familiar with. It was just a matter of time before we saw it in a game that counted.
This next point is perhaps my favorite. I’ll break it down in two photos. First, this is from the broadcast footage. It shows Smith winding up for his throw. It also further goes to demonstrate that perfect pocket I talked about earlier.
When talking about the legend of Alex Smith there are two myths that always seem to float to the top. They are not without merit, but they are not the sworn gospel of the football gods. The first, is that Smith can’t or won’t throw the deep ball. Some say he’s incapable because of a perceived lack of arm strength. Some think he won’t because he’s “scared” to throw an interception. That leads to the second myth, which is that Smith will never throw to a receiver who is covered by a defender, again, because of some “fear” he may throw a pick and turn the ball over. This play threw both of those myths into the blender a made a nice, blood-red Chiefs-flavored margarita.
The shot two above shows Smith releasing the ball when Hill is at the 30-yard line. Considering Hill caught the ball in the end zone, that gave him 30 yards to run before he caught up to the ball. This shot here shows how tightly Hill was covered while the ball was in the air. This completely goes against everything we thought we knew about Smith from the past.
But the pass was only half of the play.
Once Smith released the ball, Hill began tracking it instantly. As a side note, while this game was being played, I was driving from Las Vegas to Montana in the family minivan. Luckily, I have SiriusXM radio and was able to listen to The Voice of the Chiefs, Mitch Holthus along with Hall-of-Famer Len Dawson on the radio call. On this play, I nearly wrecked the van, but Mitch’s call was perfect. His description of Hill’s ability to track the ball was awesome.
“TOUCHDOWN KAN-SAS CITY Tyreek Hill was tracking that ball with his nose, his eyes and it’s a 38-yard touchdown pass!”
You can see in this shot, Hill doing exactly that. He knew the ball was coming to him as soon as the huddle broke. Saints’ rookie cornerback Ken Crawley was providing decent coverage against Hill, staying right in his hip pocket, but Hill was able to fight through the contact and coverage.
Finally, the best thing on this play…better than the route, better than the pocket, better than the throw, better than anything, was the fact that at the last minute, Hill cut inside of Crawley–who should have probably been called for pass interference–and managed to bring in the catch. With his left hand. He’s right handed. Odell Beckham Jr….eat your heart out.
It was an awesome play. It gave the Chiefs a two-score lead, which they needed going into the second half. It crushed the myth about Smith and his short-comings, and it proved that Tyreek Hill was worth the risk the Chiefs took on him in the draft.
Here is the play, on a loop, for your viewing pleasure.
