Sam Howell shines as Commanders fall to Eagles

Breaking down how Sam Howell performed in the Commanders loss to the Eagles.

The Commanders once again came up short against the Eagles, falling 38-31 in a loss that sees the team drop to 3-5 and become potential sellers ahead of the trade deadline on Tuesday. However, one very bright spot to come from this game was the performance of young quarterback Sam Howell. Howell completed 39 of 52 passes for 396 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. 

One of the points Eric Bieniemy has made consistently about Howell is that each time Howell does something, it’s probably the first time he’s doing it. It’s a point that emphasizes his inexperience and how each play that he runs is likely to be the first time he runs it in a certain situation or against a certain coverage. That naturally leads to a lot of ups and downs, as we’ve seen from Howell this season. This game, however, was the first time Howell was facing the same team for a second time, having already had a strong outing against the Eagles earlier this season. 

So with Howell having already seen a lot of what the Eagles do defensively and how their personnel likes to play certain situations, this game was an interesting case study into how Howell responds to his second time around with more experience under his belt. It’s safe to say, the results were promising. Let’s take a closer look at his performance.

Signs of Growth

The most encouraging aspect of this performance was that Howell showed consistent signs of growth. He made a number of plays where he corrected mistakes from earlier in the season.

This clip shows the Commanders running the exact same concept, once against the Giants last week and once against the Eagles this week. The play combines a stick concept to the right of the formation with a double slant to the left. The back also is sent in motion and swings out to the flat underneath the slants to the left. On both of these plays, the opposing defense plays man coverage, so at the snap Howell immediately works to the double slants to his left. 

On the first play of the clip, you can see the Giants linebacker rushing out to the flat to try and match the running back, giving an obvious man coverage tell to Howell. He then looks to tight end Cole Turner in the slot, who wins his route and should really get the ball. For whatever reason, Howell opts against taking that quick slant to Turner and instead decides to scramble. The scramble wasn’t bad in terms of the result, but it was entirely unnecessary because the throw was available and you never want your quarterback passing up on an open receiver to then scramble. 

However, Howell clearly corrected this mistake. The second play of this clip was actually the Commanders first play of the game against the Eagles. It’s the exact same concept, just run with different personnel. This time, Howell spots the linebacker sprinting out to the flat to match the running back, understands its man coverage, and quickly gets the ball out to the slant route for a nice solid gain. 

This coaching staff has routinely praised Howell’s ability to self correct and not make the same mistake twice. Those two plays in back to back weeks show an example of exactly that process from Howell, understanding his mistake from the previous week and correcting it immediately the next week.

That wasn’t the only play that reappeared from earlier in the season and showed signs of growth from Howell. 

On this clip, we see the same concept run twice again, first against the Broncos back in Week 2 and secondly against the Eagles this week. To the right of the formation, the Commanders have their Tampa Bay concept designed to beat zone while to their left they have a choice route with a deeper corner route designed to occupy coverage and vacate space for the choice route underneath. Here’s how the concept looks when drawn up in a playbook. 

That graphic comes courtesy of my friend on Twitter, @TheHonestNFL. If you aren’t already following them, I HIGHLY suggest you go over and do so as they produce a ton of great informative content. It’s genuinely one of my favorite accounts to follow.

Now going back to the clip, you’ll notice on the first play of the clip when the Commanders ran this against the Broncos, the Broncos drop into zone coverage. The choice route is typically the read for man coverage, but not exclusively so. Howell looks to his left to try and work the choice route but finds it hard to anticipate which way his receiver is going to break due to the coverage. The receiver does actually end up breaking open as he breaks outside towards the sideline, but by that point Howell had hesitated and decided against it, scrambling to his right before eventually being sacked. 

Against the Eagles, however, you’ll see a much more decisive and anticipatory Howell. The Eagles also drop into a zone coverage, but a different type of zone coverage from the one the Broncos used. As Howell looks out to his left at the choice route, he can see the outside corner squatting outside, reading to cut off any out-breaking route. Meanwhile, the linebacker inside slides across to cut off any in-breaking route. With that information, Howell knows the receiver will have to sit the route down as long as he reads that coverage correctly. He trusts Jahan Dotson to read it the same way he did and delivers the throw before Dotson makes his break. That enables him to hit Dotson before the coverage can arrive and complete the short pass. 

Process Speeding Up

Something that stood out to me in this game was Howell’s mental process speeding up. I’ve talked about Howell’s mental process all season just being a tad slow at times, which has led to a lot of the sacks he’s taken. This game was the first time Howell was seeing the same players and coverages that he saw earlier in the season and you could see that just having that experience to fall back on was helping him speed up his mental process. He was working much quicker through his reads and still able to get the ball out on time before pressure could arrive. 

On the first play of this clip, we see the Commanders disguise one of their core quick game concepts. To the right of the formation, they run their double stick concept and to the right they have a slant-flat combination known as dragon. At the snap, Howell initially works to his stick route, but spots the linebacker quickly attaching to it with the threat of being able to undercut it. This might have caused Howell to hesitate earlier this season and get him out of sync with the rest of the play, but here he decisively moves off that read and works back across to his left, where he immediately finds Terry McLaurin on the slant. 

The second play of the clip is a different concept but quite similar in style. Again Howell looks to his right and wants to hit his tight end on a stick route, but the linebacker attaches to it again and Howell again moves on quickly. He instantly resets his feet back inside and finds a route over the middle in the space vacated by the linebacker attaching to the stick route. 

It’s all well and good calling a bunch of quick game concepts to try and help Howell get the ball out quickly, but if Howell isn’t able to process things and progress from his first read to his second if the first read is covered, then it won’t matter what is called. Howell showed in this game though that he was able to progress quickly and decisively off his first read and find a secondary option but within the correct timing of the play and protection called. That’s an encouraging sign that his mental process is speeding up with experience. 

Another positive sign was how quickly Howell was able to check off shots down the field and progress to his checkdowns underneath. Now obviously, you don’t want your quarterback to rush to check the ball down underneath and miss things down the field, but if there isn’t anything further down the field, the quicker you can get the ball to a checkdown, the more likely they are to have space to work with and pick up yards after the catch. 

Here we see two examples of plays that were designed to be shots down the field, but the Eagles ended up matching those shots well and taking them away. On the first play of the clip, the Commanders show a run-heavy look out of the I formation with Howell under center and a fullback and running back directly behind him. This is to try and help sell the play-action fake in order to open up space for the shot down the field. 

However, as Howell hits the top of his drop, you can see that the Eagles have each of the three deep routes covered pretty well, along with a hole player in the middle of the field and a deep safety over the top of everything. The Eagles also have two rushers coming off the edge with some speed. Howell does a great job of identifying that nobody is available down the field while also feeling the pressure coming off the edge and responds by stepping up in the pocket to avoid the rush before then finding his running back in the flat as the checkdown option. 

On the second play of the clip, we again see an attempted shot down the field. The Commanders run a sail concept but add in an additional vertical route by the tight end to further try and stress the defense. Like with the previous play, Howell gets to the top of his drop and correctly identifies that the Eagles have matched up pretty well to the shots down the field. The tight end seam route has a safety sinking back to match it while Dyami Brown’s post route has a corner and a deep safety over the top of it. He ideally would like to hit John Bates on his sail route, but he spots defenders in the area ready to attach to it and also recognizes that the linebacker responsible for the running back in the flat is caught in traffic.

Instead of holding onto the ball and waiting at the top of his drop for something to potentially open up down the field, Howell correctly decides to get the ball out on time to his checkdown in the flat, which allows the running back the chance to secure the catch and get up the field after the catch and pick up a first down. 

Handling Pressure

Obviously at this point, the biggest question about Howell’s ability to become a long term franchise quarterback in this league is the number of sacks he takes. Sacks aren’t always down to the quarterback but they’re typically more reflective of the quarterback than anything else. As I’ve written about plenty this season, a large chunk of the sacks Howell has taken this season have been his fault for one reason or another. 

In this game, however, Howell only took one sack, which didn’t come until late in the fourth quarter. That sack wasn’t his fault either as right tackle Andrew Wylie got beat by an excellent rush from Hassan Reddick. We’ve already seen him processing things quicker to get the ball out on time, which is a big step in the right direction when it comes to cutting down on sacks, but another key aspect is how he handles pressure when it arrives. I actually thought Howell found nearly the perfect balance in managing the pocket to deliver throws and using his mobility to help avoid sacks.

We’ve seen glimpses of plays like this from Howell throughout the season, but it’s a great example of how pressure can be managed from within the pocket. The Eagles send a blitz here, rushing two linebackers off the left side of the offensive line while the edge rusher on the right side of the line drops off into coverage to compensate for them. This style of rush has caught Howell and the Commanders out quite a few times this season, including last week against the Giants. But here, the Commanders pick it up correctly, with running back Brian Robinson stepping up to block one the linebacker from the second level. 

Knowing you have the blitz accounted for is a big help to the quarterback. Last week against the Giants, the Commanders consistently failed to have blitzers accounted for, despite having enough numbers in the protection scheme to account for everyone. But here, they pick the blitz up which gives Howell the confidence that he can step up in the pocket to avoid the pressure off the edge and allow left tackle Charles Leno to run that edge rusher by him. Howell also makes a subtle move sliding to his left as he climbs the pocket in order to allow Robinson to pick up his block. With that movement in the pocket made, Howell buys himself time to deliver a throw down the field where he finds John Bates on a sail route for a nice gain. 

Sometimes though, movement within the pocket isn’t enough. With a quarterback as mobile as Howell, being able to roll out of the pocket to extend plays is a valuable weapon when used correctly. Howell hasn’t always used it to his advantage, but he picked the right moments to do so against the Eagles. 

On this third and seven play, the Commanders run a mesh concept underneath with some deeper in-breaking routes behind it. As Howell hits the top of his drop, he feels the pressure coming off the edge from his blind side. Edge rusher Josh Sweat gets a fantastic jump off the snap and beats left tackle Charles Leno for speed around the edge as a result. Howell senses that pressure as he hits the final step of his drop and he immediately begins rolling out to his right. 

Now, Howell could maybe have looked to step up in the pocket to try and allow Leno a chance to recover the block and run it by him, but the pressure was so immediate it was unlikely that Howell would have been able to avoid the sack doing that. Instead, he made the correct decision to roll out to his right to try and extend the play. As he does that, receiver Jahan Dotson breaks open across the middle and looks back for the ball. He spots Howell in trouble so continues running his route across the field to give Howell a target. Howell spots him and delivers a nice throw on the run to find Dotson not only for a first down, but a strong gain after the catch too. 

Now you have to be careful when rolling out of the pocket and scrambling to extend plays because you don’t want the offense to become overly reliant on it. If it’s not necessary, then it can lead to missed opportunities. But when used correctly, as it was here, it can lead to some very big plays as we saw on this occasion. 

Touchdowns

I’d be remiss to write about Howell’s performance without looking at his four touchdown passes from this game. Each was uniquely positive, so let’s quickly break them down. 

Here is Howell’s first touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin. The Commanders have two vertical routes to the left of the formation. In the slot, Jahan Dotson runs his route directly at the safety to his side of the field. This route is designed purely to grab that safety and take him inside, freeing up space outside for McLaurin to work into. Now typically you’ll see this type of route from Dotson paired with an in-breaking route from the outside receiver, but instead, McLaurin takes his route outside and vertical on a very subtle double move. 

On his fifth step, McLaurin takes a slight jab step inside to sell a break inside before then bursting back outside and up the field. That step was all that was needed for the corner to bite and McLaurin flew by him. Howell spots McLaurin running by the corner and immediately takes the shot, delivering a nice pass with good velocity and height on it to allow McLaurin to not have to wait for the ball and be able to go up and make a grab over the top of the corner should the corner recover. The corner does his best to get back and prevent the touchdown, but the height of the pass allows McLaurin to make a play on the ball away from the hands of the defender and complete the catch for a touchdown. 

Howell’s second touchdown was another nice throw down the field. 

On this play, the Commanders run a variation of four verticals. They align three receivers to the left and have Jahan Dotson stack behind tight end Logan Thomas in the slot. This allows Dotson and Thomas to switch their releases and try to confuse the coverage rules at the snap. The Eagles show two deep safeties before the snap, but at the snap they rotate one down while the other rotates back into the deep middle of the field. With a single-high safety coverage, Howell knows he wants to work the seams, either to Thomas on the deep over route or to Dotson. 

As the play progresses, Howell spots the deep safety working towards Thomas, which tells him to throw to Dotson instead. He shows great anticipation, beginning his throwing motion before Dotson clears the underneath coverage, but is still able to deliver an accurate ball up the seam for Dotson to catch in stride for a touchdown. 

The third touchdown pass was completed to Logan Thomas.

This time, the Commanders find themselves down in the red zone, close to the goal line. This can be a tough spot to throw from because the field is so condensed and there’s not much room to work with. However, instead of playing zone coverage and muddying the reads for Howell, the Eagles opt to play man coverage. The Commanders were clearly expecting that given the route combination they had called. 

The keys here are the two receivers inside to the left. Jahan Dotson runs a now slant, meaning he breaks inside immediately rather than trying to set anything up. This is purely to grab any coverage in the middle of the field and drag it across the field with him, vacating space for Logan Thomas. Thomas also runs an in-breaking route, but further down the field. This allows Dotson time to grab the coverage inside and clear space for him. 

Thomas is then essentially one-on-one with space to work inside. The defender in coverage attempts to play with inside leverage and funnel Thomas outside, but Thomas runs a nice route that opens up the defender and allows Thomas to break sharply across his face. Thomas gets inside and Howell immediately pulls the trigger. He delivers a great pass that is just out of the reach of the defender, but still in reach of Thomas to complete the touchdown. 

The fourth and final touchdown came in garbage time with the Eagles well ahead and hardly any time left in the game, but the throw itself was far from garbage. 

Here, the Commanders are just outside of the red zone, but looking to score as quickly as possible to try and keep the game alive. They run a nice route combination with a lot of answers for Howell against various coverages, but the key route here is Jamison Crowder’s deep over route. The Eagles again attempt to disguise their coverage with two deep safeties at the snap but rotating to a single high coverage after the snap. Howell recognizes that rotation and keys the safety rotating down from deep. He knows that if that safety doesn’t pick up Crowder’s deep over route, there will be plenty of space to throw it. 

As it turns out, the safety fails to attach to Crowder’s route and with Logan Thomas spotting up underneath to occupy the outside corner, there’s a ton of space in the corner of the end zone for Crowder to run into. Despite the space, this is by no means an easy throw for Howell. To start, he’s sliding to his left to avoid pressure, and working left is always tough for right handed quarterbacks to be able to reset their feet and create enough velocity on the throw. Beyond that, Howell has to place the throw in such a spot that leads Crowder away from the coverage, but not too flat that the safety is able to run back under it. He also has to keep it from sailing out towards the sideline and being uncatchable. 

Despite those obstacles, Howell delivers a perfect throw that takes Crowder away from the trailing defender and layers over the top of the safety underneath him. Crowder plays his part by making a fantastic diving effort to reach the pass and complete the touchdown. 

It might have been in a losing effort, but it was a very promising overall performance from Howell with far more positives than negatives to take away from it. I called his first game against the Eagles a “proof of concept” performance, one that proved he is capable and the system can work when executed efficiently. This was a step beyond that as Howell showed plenty of signs of progress. That doesn’t mean he is definitely the franchise quarterback for the next 10 years, but it means the potential for him to be that guy is indeed there.