Explosive plays have been hard to come by for the Falcons four games into the Arthur Smith era. In fact, Atlanta’s ranked 25th in the NFL in explosive passing plays with a rate of just seven percent.
The biggest play of the year came when Matt Ryan and Cordarrelle Patterson connected for a wide open 42-yard touchdown pass against Washington in Week 4.
Powered by NFL’s Next Gen Stats, we can get a bird’s eye view of the play and determine how Patterson was so wide open. Lined up in the slot on the right side, we see Patterson outrun cornerback William Jackson on a skinny post route and take advantage of safety Bobby McCain biting on the Kyle Pitts curl route underneath.
When watching the film, you can see Jackson keep his eyes on Pitts and back pedal until Pitts gets to his break. Only then does McCain break forward to try and disrupt a potential inside breaking route. That’s when McCain notices Patterson breaking free on the back side on a deep skinny route.
It’s likely that McCain tried to make a play on Kyle Pitts because he assumed that Patterson was going to stay vertical and remain in Jackson’s third of the field. This is also where Jackson likely assumes that McCain will pick up Patterson, so instead of following the Falcons receiver across field, he tapers off his coverage and pulls back into his third, thus leaving Patterson unguarded.
Additionally, if the secondary is running a cover-three set, then the left side cornerback, Kendall Fuller, didn’t fulfill his third of the field as he stayed with Pitts, despite being already guarded by linebacker Jamin Davis. By the time Patterson caught the pass from Ryan, he already had seven yards of separation between him and Fuller — the closest defender to him.
Ryan, does play a factor in getting Patterson open. After his drop back, Ryan gives a very slight, but effective, throwing motion as if he’s passing to Pitts, thus drawing the defenders in. However, Ryan quickly switches to Patterson and bombs it deep downfield. Ryan started his throwing motion as Patterson was at the 26-yard line. The Falcons playmaker caught the ball at the four yard-line and walked into the end zone.
While these are rather simple route combinations, the inclusion of Pitts into the Falcons’ offense shows the threat he poses to opposing defenses. Even though two players likely blew their assignments on defense, they did so by placing too much emphasis on Pitts.
Had the defense followed their assignments, Pitts may have adjusted his route to sit in the hole between linebackers Jamin Davis and Cole Holcomb, which was eight yards of separation between the two at the top of Pitts’ route. The other outcome is Ryan dumps it off the Ridley, who is running a swing to the right side five yards behind the line of scrimmage, and is tasked with making one guy miss and getting up the field.
