Sam Howell takes big step forward against Eagles
Breaking down the performance of QB Sam Howell
Despite the Washington Commanders ultimately losing in overtime to the Eagles, the performance of quarterback Sam Howell will be a big positive to take away from the game. After the worst start of his career against the Bills last week, this week was a big test to see not only how Howell would bounce back, but how he would respond against a second quality opponent in back to back weeks. Howell stepped up tremendously, completing 29 of 41 passes for 291 yards and a touchdown, leading his team on a last minute touchdown drive to tie the game and take last year’s Super Bowl runners up to overtime.
The loss was tough to take after that, but ultimately the long term view here is the most important aspect. Howell proved he could compete against one of the best defenses in the league and be very efficient in Eric Bieniemy’s system. There will undoubtedly still be bumps in the road for Howell’s development and he may never fully pan out, but this game was a proof of concept that the pairing of Howell and Bieniemy can work.
Bieniemy for his part did a nice job getting Howell into a rhythm. Last week I wrote about how Bieniemy could look to help Howell a little more, citing more quick hitters, some quarterback movement and a few other things. Bieniemy made those adjustments early in the game to get Howell into a good rhythm and tempo early on.
Here we see a few examples of Howell getting the ball out fast on some quick game concepts called by Bieniemy. The first play of the clip was Howell’s first pass attempt yesterday. It’s known as “Double Stick Dragon”. To the left of the formation, Howell has a double stick concept designed to beat zone coverage while to the right, he has a dragon concept which is just a slant-flat, designed more to beat man coverage. The Eagles attempt to disguise their coverage with both safeties deep at the snap but they rotate just before the snap and Howell recognizes it’s man coverage. That leads him to work to the dragon concept where he is able to quickly find McLaurin on a slant and let him pick up some additional yards after the catch.
The second play of the clip is another quick hitter. Again the Eagles attempt to disguise their coverage with two safeties deep at the snap, but once Howell snaps the ball, he notices the safety to his right rotating deep and the safety to his left stepping up to match tight end Logan Thomas. Howell takes advantage of that safety on Thomas knowing there’s a big cushion between them and he instantly gets the ball out to Thomas for a quick completion. On the third play of the clip you can see how comfortable Howell is because of how well the game was called. He is in a rhythm and gets the ball out as soon as he hits the top of his drop, finding Samuel on a stick route.
Those quick hitters are essential for Howell and this offense. Howell has a quick release and Washington has the receivers that can separate quickly and then make plays after the catch. As long as Howell is going to the right place with the ball, these quick hitters can be a foundational piece of the offense.
Another thing I mentioned in my post last week that Bieniemy could do to help Howell was make use of his mobility. Bieniemy called for some quarterback movement schemes early in the game, again to give Howell some simple reads, let him make use of his mobility and get the ball out quickly again.
These two plays are perfect examples of how to use Howell’s mobility in the passing game. The first play is a play-action bootleg but from the shotgun. Instead of faking a hand-off from under center and bootlegging out to his right, Howell fakes the hand off from the gun and rolls out to his right. Otherwise the concept is the same with a receiver running deep, a crosser from the back side as an intermediate option and then a primary option in the flat. Bieniemy adds a nice twist by having McLaurin sift back across the formation as the flat option and Howell quickly finds him for a nice quick completion.
On the second play, we see an example of the sprint series. I highlighted the sprint series in my post last week as something the Chiefs do a lot with Patrick Mahomes and could do more with Howell. Here we can see why. Howell sprints out to his left off the snap and has two receivers running routes to varying depths. Howell takes Dotson as an easy completion in the flat and the Commanders pick up another small chunk of easy yards.
These aren’t huge plays but they’re all part of a plan to help Howell and the offensive line. It moves the pocket or at least the target for the defense, making things easier for the offensive line as the defense suddenly has to change where to aim its rush. That in turn can then slow them down on normal drop back plays as they read to see where the quarterback is going.
The benefit of getting Howell into a rhythm early and getting him used to getting the ball out quickly was that we saw Howell become a lot more decisive in getting to his checkdowns. Because he was in a rhythm of getting the ball out early, his internal clock was well tuned and even on passing plays where he had more time, he was still being very efficient in taking his checkdowns instead of holding onto the ball too long, as we’d seen him do earlier this season.
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