5 creative plays from Kingsbury in win over Buccaneers

Breaking down 5 creative play designs by Kliff Kingsbury from the Commanders playoff win over the Bucs

Something that has consistently stood out when studying the Washington Commanders offense this season has been the creativity by offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and his offensive staff. Throughout the season, regardless of the result, the Commanders have had a number of creative designs in each game. That continued in their playoff victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night and in fact, some of those creative calls came in key situations to help the Commanders win the game. So I thought as a fun way to round off this week, I could break down five of my favorite creative play designs by Kingsbury and his staff from the win over the Bucs.

20 Pony Swing Screen

This one isn’t the most creative design of the game and it’s something we’ve seen a few times from the Commanders this season, but it was used to set up another more creative play later on, which I’ll get to shortly. But it’s worth highlighting because it’s still a very well designed play. To start with, the Commanders are in a unique personnel group. They have two running backs, three receivers and zero tight ends on the field. That is known as 20 personnel for two running backs and no tight ends. It also has a “Pony” tag, which is a common term to specify that both running backs on the field are traditional running backs and neither is a typical fullback type.

With Austin Ekeler and Jeremy McNichols in the backfield alongside Jayden Daniels, the Commanders can go in a lot of different directions. They can run the ball, using one of Ekeler or McNichols as a fullback, they can use read-option to include quarterback Jayden Daniels in the run game or they could even use a triple option with all three being legitimate threats to get the ball. But instead, what they do here is motion Ekeler from the backfield out to the flat just before the snap. While Ekeler is in motion, Daniels snaps the ball. Left guard Nick Allegretti pulls to the right side, faking a counter run scheme with McNichols following him. Meanwhile, the rest of the offensive line all slide left and look to get out in front of a swing screen to Ekeler in the flat.

You might say the Commanders get a bit lucky here because the slot corner over Olamide Zaccheaus blitzes, taking himself out of the play, but given how Zaccheaus transitions to blocking the linebacker inside who is significantly bigger than him, I think it’s fair to think Zaccheaus would have been able to handle the slighter cornerback. On top of that, the Commanders likely called this knowing a slot blitz was coming. That blitz does help though because it gives the Commanders an extra blocker out in front of the screen.

Typically, Zaccheaus would have to block the slot and then they’d be relying on left tackle Brandon Coleman to reach and cut off the linebacker, which is never easy for an offensive lineman to do in space, regardless of how athletic they are. But with the slot blitzing, Zaccheaus can work to the linebacker with a good angle. Coleman has a bit of extra time to make up ground but when he gets there, Zaccheaus is doing such a good job on the linebacker that Coleman can just continue to work down the field to find another block. All this sets up a lane nicely for Ekeler to work into, picking up an easy first down before even being contacted.

It was a nicely designed and particularly well timed call, but what made it even better was that Kingsbury was able to build another play off of it later in the game.

20 Pony Swing Screen/QB Draw RPO

I said the previous play built into another play later in the game. This is that play. You can see the same 20 Pony personnel here, with two running backs, no tight ends and three wide receivers. It’s almost the exact same look that we saw previously, but Kingsbury changes it slightly. Instead of having both backs either side of Daniels, Kingsbury moves to the pistol, with Austin Ekeler lining up to the left of Daniels as a “fullback” while Jeremy McNichols lines up directly behind Daniels as the running back. It’s not a huge change and from an offensive perspective, it really makes zero difference, but it’s just enough to give the defense something extra to think about. It’s similar enough to remind the defense of the previous play, while being different enough to prevent them from thinking a change up is coming.

The previous play was just a swing screen with a fake run. There was no run option built in. You can tell that by the way the offensive line played it. Left tackle Brandon Coleman, center Tyler Biadasz and right guard Sam Cosmi all work out to the left on a screen pass, none of them try to block a run play inside just in case the ball is handed off. But this time, the play called is a true run-pass option (RPO). McNichols is the one that motions out to the flat this time as the swing screen option, but you can see as Daniels secures the snap, he looks directly at the back side linebacker to read his intentions. If the linebacker works inside to the run option, Daniels has a good look outside to throw the swing screen. Here though, the linebacker clearly is alert to the threat of the swing screen that they had seen earlier, so he’s sinking back into coverage. What helps that is the fact that Austin Ekeler immediately works up to the line of scrimmage like he’s releasing to run a route, rather than delaying and faking a hand off from Daniels.

With the linebacker sinking backwards into coverage, the Commanders are presented with a better look to run the ball into. However, the issue now is that one running back is in the flat on the swing screen, while the other has already taken off towards the line of scrimmage. This is where having a mobile quarterback like Jayden Daniels comes into the equation. With McNichols in the flat and Ekeler seemingly running a route, the defense all sinks back assuming it’s a pass. But Daniels can then become the running back with Ekeler turning into a fullback as the lead blocker for him on a quarterback draw. Daniels follows Ekeler’s path and picks up a nice seven yards before getting down to protect himself.

It’s a well designed RPO in its own right, but the fact that Kingsbury set it up with the swing screen from a very similar look earlier in the game, and had both plays hit for positive gains makes them both very good designs that play off each other perfectly.

Counter/Drift RPO