Anatomy of a Touchdown Week Four: Derrick Johnson to the House
This week I decided to do something a little different. While the pass from Alex Smith to Travis Kelce to the house was nice and I still don’t think Spencer Ware’s fumble was actually a fumble, I decided to break down the defensive touchdown the Chiefs scored on Sunday.
Late in the fourth quarter, already leading the New York (football) Jets by a score of 17-3–and Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick had already been picked off four times–the team from the Big Apple was trying to get something going. On a second-down-and-two to go, the Jets tried a pick play that didn’t end up going their way. In fact, it went 55-yards the other way. To the house.
Let’s take a look.
As the Jets set up the play, it was in a five wide receiver set. The primary side of the play was to the right, as the Jets’ top weapon, receiver Brandon Marshall lined up wide to the right–all by himself–and the other receivers rounded out the formation to the left. Rejuvenated running back Matt Forte hung in the backfield with Fitzpatrick.
The Chiefs, on the other hand, came out in a dime defense, playing a Cover-2. The had two linemen up front with two pass rushers and Derrick Johnson as a roaming middle backer.
When the ball was snapped, the two receivers on the left ran fly routes. The slot receiver ran a drag across the middle of the field. What’s interesting–and this is where the play was made–Marshall’s sole responsibility on the play was to “rub” or “pick” Johnson who was covering Forte in the backfield. Forte ran a sideline route.
As Marshall came off the line, D.J. had the play completely sniffed out. As Marshall was supposed to make contact with Johnson–or at least get in his way to impede his ability to cover Forte–because D.J. knew exactly what was going to happen, he sidestepped the wide receiver. The problem was, Fitzpatrick was already in his throwing motion, as you can see from the screen grab, because these types of plays are timing plays.
By the time Fitzpatrick realized Johnson was where he wasn’t supposed to be, it was too late. There was absolutely no way that the pass was going to be completed. The very best-case scenario for this play is that Johnson wouldn’t get his body turned around in time and would knock the pass down.
We all know that’s not what happened at all. Johnson was able to get his body turned around and grab the ball out of the air. Then, he was able to get his feet down–in bounds–and turn back up field and race the 55-yards to pay dirt. He had a little help as his fellow defenders set up some good blocks, but if you watch the replay of the touchdown below, you can see that the Jets offense was extremely lazy in their attempts to bring D.J. down.
The morale of the story here, is never underestimate the old, wily veteran. Derrick Johnson knew where this play was going before Fitzpatrick and the rest of the Jets did. He knew it was going to be a touchdown. He just knew it was going to be a touchdown the other direction.
I really hope to see much more of this during the season. This defense has the talent and skill to end all this “Denver has the best defense in the league” nonsense. I believe the Broncos don’t even have the best defense in the AFC West. That honor belongs to the Kansas City Chiefs.
See ya next week.