1 week Ago
Joe Flacco caught the snap thinking the Indianapolis Colts had a play dialed up to deceive the Buffalo Bills. Defensive coordinator Bobby Babich was thinking just the opposite. As cornerback Taron Johnson backpedaled, he realized he had already seen the movie unfolding before his eyes.
Johnson said he had seen the play from another team previously, so when Colts receiver Josh Downs ran toward him, Johnson stopped and passed him off to cornerback Christian Benford. Or so Flacco thought. When Flacco released the ball, Johnson didn’t bite on the receiver crossing over the middle, nor the one in the flats.
He backtracked and leaped in front of the pass, taking it 23 yards for a touchdown on Indianapolis’ first offensive play, setting up a 30-20 Bills win. “He might have just been playing his technique a little bit better,” Babich said. “.
.. He did his job at a high level.
” A quarterback like Flacco, a former Super Bowl MVP and a 17-year veteran, is difficult to fool. And the best chance to beat him is by tricking him just enough post-snap and providing pressure with the pass rush. TARON JOHNSON TO THE HOUSE FOR THE PICK-6! 📺: on CBS/Paramount+ 📱: On the Johnson interception, the Bills showed two-high safeties (Cover 2) and then brought safety Damar Hamlin on a delayed blitz while shifting to a Cover 3 (three defensive backs high) zone.
Flacco was so sure of his decision that he released the ball quickly, but almost immediately after it left his hand, he knew it was a mistake. “We were game-planning something,” Flacco said. “We were trying to get it and just made a bad decision.
” On Johnson’s sack early in the third quarter, the Bills showed a single-high safety pre-snap, but safety Taylor Rapp quickly dropped out of the box and Hamlin from being the high man to playing a zone underneath. It made Flacco pause just enough for Johnson to get home on a blitz. On a fourth and 2 in the third quarter, the Bills offered another Cover 2 look pre-snap.
But Hamlin rotated into a single-high look, with Rapp dropping down as the Bills played man-to-man and Flacco had nowhere to throw, allowing defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson to record a sack. “There definitely was a chess match piece to it, but we knew how we wanted to present things to them,” Babich said. “We had to find the right spots to present those things.
We still had to take care of (Jonathan Taylor) in the run game. so there was a lot. .
.. It was a task, and the guys did a great job executing.
” When the Bills couldn’t fool Flacco, they were able to get pressure, particularly when the Colts were behind the chains. Three of Buffalo’s four sacks and all three interceptions came with 10 yards or more to gain for a first down. The Bills were especially good on first down when the Colts crossed midfield, where they scored three sacks and two interceptions.
Indianapolis averaged 7.3 yards on 13 first down plays in its own territory, but just 3.2 on the same number of plays in Buffalo territory.
In the first quarter, the Colts called a screen pass, a play designed to slow down the pass rush by allowing the defensive line to move up field, only to toss a pass to a running back with blockers in front. But Von Miller blew up the screen by running right around right tackle Braden Smith, hitting Flacco’s arm as he released the ball and it floated right to defensive tackle Austin Johnson. 🚨 BIG MAN INT!! 🚨 📺: It was Johnson’s second interception in three games and both came on screen passes.
Defensive end Casey Toohill tipped a Geno Smith screen pass against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 8 and Johnson was able to haul it in. “Defense is reactionary, so you got to have a sense of what they want to do, and then you got to be able to combat that,” Babich said. “You have to in the event nothing's 100% this league.
So you got to be sound both versus the run and versus the pass, what type of pass, what type of run.”.
