Evaluating how Carson Wentz performed against the Titans
Breaking down how well QB Carson Wentz played against the Titans and the style of offense the Commanders used
We saw the entire gamut of Carson Wentz against the Titans on Sunday. There were some great throws down the field on his way to 359 yards passing from 25 completions with two touchdowns at an average of 9.4 yards per attempt. On the face of it, those are fantastic numbers and you would naturally assume he played really well. But he also mixed in plays where he sailed throws over the head of receivers, passed up open receivers for more difficult options and of course, threw the interception that ended the game.
Let’s start with the positives and look at Wentz’s ability to drive the ball down the field. The Commanders abandoned their recent strategy of trying to establish the run in favor of airing it out and trying to use Wentz’s arm to generate explosive plays. That was the formula that worked against the Jaguars and in the second half against the Lions, which is when we’ve seen the best of this offense so far this season.
The most explosive play of the game was the 75-yard touchdown to Dyami Brown. The Commanders work out of an 11 personnel set with one back, one right end and three receivers. Terry McLaurin and Curtis Samuel stack to the left of the formation while Brown is isolated to the right. McLaurin and Samuel run a variation of the dagger concept, with McLaurin running a deep over and Samuel running the dig route behind it. On the other side, Brown works vertically. The hope here is that the defense focuses so much on the dagger concept that Brown is left one-on-one and can run beyond the deepest safety. The Titans should be able to negate that hope by using a two-deep safety look.
Off the snap, the safety to Brown’s side opens his hips to the sideline and looks prepared to match him. However, the safety then peels off the route and works back underneath and inside, attaching to McLaurin’s deep over route. That ends up leaving Brown one-on-one against a corner with outside leverage. Brown shows off his deep speed and runs by the coverage and Wentz spots the safety pulling off so he pulls the trigger. There’s a slight disconnect between the pair with Brown working more towards the middle to run away from the leverage of the defender chasing him while Wentz threw the ball more out in front, trusting Brown to run by the coverage anyway. But Brown does a nice job tracking the ball and adjusting his path to make the catch and walk into the end zone for the touchdown.
That play clearly earned Brown a lot of trust from Wentz, who went back to him later in the game for another explosive play.
This time, the Commanders align in a three by one set with all three receivers to the left and the tight end isolated to the right. The Titans show man coverage pre-snap, with a single deep safety in the middle of the field, the other safety on the isolated tight end and the three corners all up on the line against the three receivers. Wentz notices this look and calls an audible, giving his receivers a signal. He audibles to a slot fade for Brown, which is a very hard route to cover for this type of defense. Brown has tons of room outside to work with, which allows Wentz plenty of margin for error but also the opportunity to take the deep safety out of the equation, meaning Brown is left one-on-one again.
As the ball is snapped, Wentz takes a quick look at Brown and despite the corner still being on top initially, Wentz pulls the trigger. He knows a good throw can lead Brown away from the coverage and he delivers on that with a perfect throw, dropped over Brown’s outside shoulder. Brown repays that trust with an outstanding catch, holding off the defender with his inside hand and reaching out with his outside arm to make an incredible one-handed grab for the touchdown.
Those two touchdowns weren’t the only explosive plays Wentz and the Commanders generated either.
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