Evaluating Sam Howell’s performance against the Falcons
Breaking down how well Sam Howell played against the Falcons
The Washington Commanders finally broke their three-game losing streak with a 24-16 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Quarterback Sam Howell and the offense had their typical up and down performance with lots of positives but also plenty to improve upon. Howell completed 14 of 23 passes for 151 yards and three touchdowns. It wasn’t necessarily an explosive performance, but it was an efficient one. Let’s take a closer look at how Howell played.
As we’ve seen since the Eagles game, Eric Bieniemy helped get Howell into a rhythm early in the game via the quick game. Howell excels with quick game passing concepts so Bieniemy called a number of them on the opening drive to get Howell going. This clip shows three examples of different quick game concepts. On the first play we see Howell get the ball out immediately to Logan Thomas for a short gain.
On the second play, the Commanders run stick spacing, with a stick concept to the left and a spacing concept to the right. Howell works his progression in the correct order and gets the ball out to McLaurin on the stick route instantly, allowing him to turn up the field for a first down. Then on the third play, we see a concept we’ve seen a lot of so far this season. To the left of the formation, the Commanders run their dragon concept, which is a simple slant-flat, while they have a double stick concept to the right. Howell has to decide if he’s getting man or zone pre-snap and then work to the correct concept. He correctly identifies man to the dragon side and hits McLaurin on the slant for a nice gain.
Those quick hitters led to Howell and the offense getting into rhythm early on and that resulted in a nearly 60-yard drive down the field that ended in a field goal. Scoring early on hasn’t necessarily been something the Commanders have been great at doing, so getting points on the opening drive, especially on the road, is a good start.
The Commanders offense then took advantage of some very favorable situations in the second quarter. It started with Jamison Crowder returning a punt 61 yards and giving the Commanders the ball on the Falcons 11 yard line. It took Washington just three plays to punch it in for a touchdown with Howell faking a handoff to the fullback before rolling out and finding Antonio Gibson wide open in the flat for a touchdown. The defense then got a turnover on downs, stopping the Falcons on fourth and three at midfield, giving the offense great field position again. Once again, Howell and the Commanders offense took advantage.
After working from midfield to the Falcons 25, the Commanders call a shot off play-action. This is a favorite call of the Shanahan coaching tree known as leak. They fake a handoff to the left and the quarterback begins to roll out to the right like it’s a bootleg. However, this is all a set up to get the defense overcommitting to the bootleg while a receiver leaks out on the opposite side. On this occasion, that receiver is Terry McLaurin. Howell does an excellent job executing the fake and then driving the throw to McLaurin just before he takes a big hit from a defensive lineman. McLaurin also takes a big hit but manages to secure the catch for a big gain, putting the Commanders in the red zone.
On the very next play, the Commanders scored another touchdown.
This play was a favorite of Jay and Jon Gruden, especially against Tampa-2 coverage. The offense aligns with three receivers to the right. Both the slot and outside receivers run under routes, known as pirate routes in the Reid coaching tree, which simply asks them to get to about five yards and break flat inside. The tight end inside runs a vertical route. In the Gruden system, this can be a read for the tight end where they can either break outside towards the corner or inside towards the post depending on the coverage and leverage of the defenders. Here, tight end Logan Thomas works inside towards the post.
The Falcons run Tampa-2, which the Commanders would have almost certainly known was a tendency for them in the red zone. They look to exploit that coverage with this concept. Thomas’ route is there purely to force the Mike linebacker to sink back and cover him, vacating space underneath him in the middle of the field. The quarterback then has his two under routes breaking inside into that vacated space. Here, Howell correctly identifies the coverage and the weakness to this concept and knows exactly where to go with the ball. You can see how he hits the top of his drop and instantly pulls the trigger without even taking a hitch step. This enables him to find receiver Curtis Samuel on the first under route and let him work into the end zone for the touchdown.
In the third quarter, Howell and the Commanders offense again took full advantage of an opportunity given to them by the defense.
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