Anatomy of a Play: Deshaun Watson beats Detroit’s bad defense with the flea-flicker

Through the first 11 weeks of the 2020 NFL season, the Detroit Lions played man coverage on 160 of their pass defense snaps, the second-highest in the league behind the Cardinals, per Sports Info Solutions. And on those 160 pass defense snaps, they allowed 91 completions in 117 attempts for a league-high 1,286 yards, 11 touchdowns, and four interceptions.

Through the first 11 weeks of the 2020 NFL season, Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson faced man coverage on 148 of his dropbacks. On those 148 dropbacks, Watson had completed 68 of 125 passes for 956 yards, 631 air yards, 11 touchdowns, and one interception.

So, when the Lions and Texans faced off on Thanksgiving Day, guess which coverages the Lions played most of the time? Yup. We have written on several occasions about Detroit head coach Matt Patricia and his misbegotten reliance on man coverage despite the fact that he absolutely, positively does NOT have the personnel to do that well (here and here), and this most certainly continued on Turkey Day, because Watson ripped that defense to shreds in a 45-21 beatdown. Watson, who’s been playing as well as any quarterback in the league over the last month, completed 17 of 25 passes for 318 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and if he hadn’t missed a few deep balls early in the game, it could have been even worse for the Lions.

Unquestionably the most embarrassing episode in this particular Patricia-designed debacle was Watson’s 34-yard touchdown pass to Will Fuller with 10:04 left in the game. On this play, Watson first handed the ball to Duke Johnson, who ran right, flipped the ball back to Watson, and Fuller had a cow pasture around him downfield for the easiest touchdown he’ll ever see in his life.

If you think the overhead view looks bad for this kind of “man coverage,” take a look at the dots. I have no clue what half the defenders are trying to accomplish on this play — especially cornerback Justin Coleman [No. 27], who follows Fuller halfway across the formation in motion, then turns back to cover receiver Keke Coutee, and then runs back to try and catch up to Fuller like his butt’s on fire. .

Here’s the worst part of a really bad scene — this whole thing was busted off of the blitz pressure of safety Jayron Kearse [No. 42], who got in the backfield quickly and then kinda stood around. It had been agreed on Houston’s side that if there was pressure, Johnson would keep the ball, but Watson obviously saw just how broken the defense was right off the bat.

“That’s something we wanted an exact look, and really, when I called the play, Duke looked at me and was like, ‘Hey, if we’ve got pressure, I’m going to keep it, and I’m not going to pitch it back.'” Watson said after the game. “So, that’s why he carried the ball a little longer than he was supposed to. And when he kept it, I called him: ‘Hey, Duke! Duke!’ I was yelling his name, and he turned around and threw it back to me. And I grabbed it and saw Will, so I got it to Will, and that’s how it really happened. So, he was really keeping it because that was the plan in pressure, you know, keep it. But I called his name and he trusted me and pitched it back, and I just grabbed it and launched it.”

When you’re playing a defense that doesn’t work to its personnel, and has guys throwing themselves all over the place doing God knows what, it is indeed as easy as that.