Playing quarterback is hard starring Joe Burrow

If there is a foundational principle to the work that I do, it is this:

Playing quarterback is hard.

As someone who admittedly was the worst college quarterback in all of football from 1996-1999 — did you know that statistics such as Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt could be negative — I have a first-hand basis for that statement. But you really do not need a chucklehead like me to support such a conclusion. Just turn on any NFL or college game and see what quarterbacks have to do, and you’ll share that belief soon enough.

A tremendous example comes to us from the Cincinnati Bengals’ huge Week 17 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bengals found themselves trailing in this game at halftime, but used a strong second half to secure the win and the AFC North title in the process.

One of the critical plays early in the third quarter was this touchdown pass from Joe Burrow to rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase:

Cincinnati calls a go/flat combination to the left side, and Chase runs the go route. Burrow hits him in stride and the receiver outraces the defense for the touchdown.

In many ways, this play was born out of an incompletion before halftime.

With the Bengals trying to drive for points before the break, Burrow looks for tight end C.J. Uzomah running the out route from the slot, on the same passing concept. But watch what happens here:

The Chiefs baited the quarterback into this throw, and Burrow took the cheese.

How? By calling a concept called, in Bill Belichick parlance, 5 trap:

(Again, weekly suggestion that you make sure to follow @CoachVass on Twitter and subscribe to his podcasts).

Now put yourself in Burrow’s shoes for a second. You are reading this concept, looking from the vertical route on the outside to the out-breaking route from the inside receiver, in this case Uzomah. You look at the cornerback on the outside and see the back of his numbers. The logical conclusion? He is running with that route in man coverage. Your eyes come to the inside receiver as a result, expecting the sideline to be open.

But that cornerback’s eyes? They’re on the inside receiver, and if he breaks off to the flat, then cornerback is going to vacate the vertical route and trap the out route.

This technique, termed “pinwheel,” is a brutal technique for quarterbacks to try and diagnose on the fly:

Because from the QB’s standpoint, everything is telling you that the corner is running with the vertical route in man coverage. But the CB tries to force an outside release to help sell this, and gets his eyes back towards the slot receiver. If he breaks to the flat, the CB peels off and breaks on that route. Which is exactly what happens on this incompletion.

Yet, it might have set the stage for the touchdown we began this piece with. As noted in Albert Breer’s MMQB from earlier today, this design was part of Cincinnati’s halftime directives:

The touchdown to Chase comes on the same route combination — a vertical route from the boundary receiver (Chase) and an out-breaking route from Tyler Boyd — but against a different coverage. On this play, the Chiefs are in more of a traditional Cover 2 look, with cornerback Rashad Fenton executing a zone drop rather than the pinwheel turn we saw on the play from the first half. The safety to that side, Daniel Sorenson, is caught between trying to read the release of Boyd and getting over the top of Chase’s vertical route should Fenton peel off and trap the out route.

Boyd sells his route well, breaking to the outside at the last second, which forces both Fenton and Sorenson to react on the fly. When they do, Chase has gotten behind Fenton and worked himself free along the sideline. Sorenson scrambles towards Chase, but it is too late. 69 yards later, the Bengals have cut the Kansas City lead to four, and the tide had turned.

Playing quarterback is hard, but sometimes if you learn the right lessons, you can make big plays later on in the game.