2012 Houston Texans playbook: Play-action passing

CORPUS CHRISTI — The Texans fooled the Denver Broncos with a play-action fake for a huge touchdown on their fourth offensive play of the game. After Arian Foster picked up 11 yards on a stretch play on the previous play, the Texans went with the exact same formation (four wide, trips right) on this play with Andre Johnson lined up close on the left of the line. Having just seen this look on the previous play, Denver is fooled from the get-go.

Kevin Walter is going to run a corner route to his sideline, Owen Daniels is going to run a drag crossing route over the middle and Johnson is going to run a deep double move that ends with a post towards the seam. Garrett Graham is the only receiver without a route, as it is his responsibility to swing back across the line and take out any edge rushers.

I’ve marked off Denver’s entire line because they will all be sucked in by the play-action, as will their lone deep linebacker and their strong safety. That leaves just three defensive backs to cover Houston’s three receivers on this play. Their two corners are in man on Walter and Johnson while their deep safety is responsible for providing help in the middle of the field.

Again you can see how Denver’s entire line as well as their linebackers are biting on the play fake while their strong safety is creeping towards the backfield. Johnson is just about to establish inside position on his man, which is key as the play develops.

This is where Mike Adams, Denver’s deep safety on this play, makes a crucial mistake. Walter’s corner route has been covered well on the right side of the field, which Adams has already seen as he begins to swing his hips towards the middle of the field. Right here it looks as if Johnson is also running a corner route to the left sideline, and Adams assumes that Tracy Porter will be able to properly defend it (which he is in position to do). Thinking both outside receivers are locked down, Adams bites on Owen Daniels’ drag route, which has led him right into the middle of the field, because that’s where he thinks the ball is going.

But lo and behold, Johnson fakes the corner route and immediately cuts behind Adams once he breaks towards Daniels and heads for the right sideline. Because he got such great positioning on Porter off the blocks, he’s already got a three-yard lead on him as he sprints downfield, and he’s able to easily secure a 60-yard touchdown pass. This play was a picture-perfect example of how to execute play-action.

Throwing a bomb off of play-action worked so well the first time that Houston decided to do it again in the second quarter out of the exact same formation and abuse the exact same defensive backs as they did on the Johnson touchdown.

Here Houston goes with trips right again, though they are actually going to run their play-action fake towards Walter’s side. Johnson and Walter have switched places on this play, which I’m sure played a little trick on the defense’s minds. Schaub’s sell isn’t as hard on this play and Denver’s linebackers don’t bite at all on the fake, but that doesn’t matter because they are all going to drop back into hook zones and will be taken out of the play by Houston’s vertical routes.

Daniels and Johnson are both going to run curl patterns until about the 40-yard line, which is well beyond those linebackers’ zones, and Walter is going to run an identical route to Johnson’s from earlier, only instead of selling a corner route first, he’ll use a bit of a shove in order to gain an advantage on his post.

You can see how those linebackers are a good 8-10 yards out of the play. Virtually the only productive thing they’ll be able to do on this play is make an open-field tackle on the running back if Schaub dumps it off. Of course, he didn’t have to, because Mike Adams was once again drawn in by Daniels, this time on a curl route. Denver must have had SOMETHING in the scouting report about providing help on Daniels because I don’t understand why he would make this mistake twice. Once Adams took his step in on Daniels, Walter was free to break towards the opposite sideline just like Johnson did.

Circled in blue is Adams, who is nearly 10 yards away from Walter at this point. Walter has already gotten a few feet of separation on Porter and will be able to walk into a 52-yard touchdown catch. By the way, the ball Schaub threw on this one was beautiful, unlike his heave to Johnson, which he hung up a little too much.

Owen Daniels would get involved in the touchdown fest as well in the third quarter. Houston is going to use what is called a flood concept on this play. The goal is to flood zone coverage and, in this case, to get their linebackers to shift towards the sidelines just enough for a throwing window to open up for Daniels to come across the field on an in route. Graham is going to run an out to the left and Foster is going to swing into the flat on the left side.

Daniels is going to get an inside release on Von Miller on this play, and because Graham and Foster have pulled the two linebackers out of the middle of the field, Miller will have no inside support.

Just look at the space surrounding Daniels here. This was a great play design by the Texans and they called it at the perfect time to catch Denver in their base zone defense.

Matt Schaub nearly had a flawless day against the Broncos in Week 3, but he did make a bad decision on a late first-half drive that led to an interception. The focus on this play is on Kevin Walter, who is going to run a drag route towards the left sideline. It looks like Daniels is setting a bit of a pick here but it doesn’t really work because Denver is in zone coverage.

At this point in the play, Broncos linebacker Wesley Woodyard has to make a decision whether or not to stay in his zone, which is assigned to the middle of the field, or to chase Walter as he heads to the left flat. He chooses to follow Walter, which is going to open up the middle of the field for Johnson, who is about to come across on an in route. The problem is the pass rusher that is about to beat Derek Newton around the right edge, and Schaub is going to have to adjust his pocket.

As Schaub steps up into the pocket, his head turns immediately to Walter, who is clearly designated as the checkdown/safe option on this play since Foster stayed in to block. But as you can see on this image, Woodyard has excellent position to intercept this pass and there is no reason Schaub should have made this throw, especially with Johnson being wide open coming across the middle. Schaub is about to get hit by Denver’s left end here, but if he had taken just one more second to set his feet towards the middle, he may have been able to get off a pass to Johnson.

Instead, Schaub makes the throw to Walter and Woodyard bats it up to himself for an interception. Schaub sensed the pressure on this play but he made a bad read and forced his throw.

Houston’s defense got a little lax in the fourth quarter, which is what usually happens when a team establishes a big lead. Most of the time you can get away with this but not against Peyton Manning, who doesn’t need a rocket arm to pick apart a defense that is a step slow. The Texans are in cover two on this play with man coverage on the outside. Eric Decker is going to run a comeback route on the left side of the field while Demaryius Thomas and Brandon Stokley are both running go routes on the right.

Two mistakes by the Texans are going to lead to a touchdown for the Broncos on this play: 1) Brice McCain, whom I’ve praised before for being an excellent slot corner, is going to get beat off the ball. McCain shades Stokley left, which you can sort of see in the image, and he is clearly expecting Stokley to run a “safe” route like a drag or a stick. The last thing he is expecting Stokley to do is run a streak, so when Stokley gets a head of steam going at the snap, he gets a step or two on McCain. 2) Quinton Demps, who rotates in as Houston’s third safety, is going to overhelp on Thomas, allowing Stokley to blow by him as well. It is true that in a cover two, each deep safety is responsible for half of the field and not necessarily the middle, but on this play he should have seen that Thomas was being covered pretty well while Stokley was about to break open in the middle of the field.

Demps starts taking his steps towards Thomas’ streak right here, which will vacate the seam for Stokley.

Demps finally makes the correct read here, but by the time he turns his hips towards the middle, he’s out of position to make a play on the ball, allowing Stokley to get wide open for the touchdown.