Playbook Hut

Top Plays from NFL Week 12

Three play designs, three touchdowns, and three passing concepts to learn from in Week 12 of the NFL season.

Playbook Hut

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Football Playbook Maker for Coaches

Nov 25 • 4 min read

1. Texan Spread Strike

Star quarterback, Deshaun Watson, found star wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins in the end zone on a fly route for a 30 yard touchdown in the Houston Texan's match up with the Indianapolis Colts in Week 12.

The Colts' defense played a Cover 3 defense which left Hopkins one-one-one with the cornerback responsible for covering the deep third zone along the left sideline. The left safety came down to play a shorter zone which left the right safety, who was responsible for the deep center zone way too far away to help cover Hopkins in the end zone.

As Watson recognized the coverage, he simply let the ball fly to his All-Star wideout and let Hopkins do the rest to secure the long fourth quarter touchdown for the Texans.

2. Brown PA Post Corners

With the 2019 addition of Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns roster, Browns fans were excited about watching many touchdown passes and catches between quarterback Baker Mayfield and Beckham. Up to this point, however, there had only been one touchdown pass in Week 2, followed by eight straight games without a touchdown.

Week 12 finally ended the Touchdown drought when Mayfield found Beckham in the end zone for a 35 yard touchdown pass for one of the most exciting plays on Sunday.

This play consisted of a play action fake to the running back while keeping the tight end in pass protection in order to provide the receivers with enough time to run their long routes deep downfield. Both outside receivers ran post corner routes and Odell ran a deep crossing route from the slot position.

With Odell Beckham Jr's speed, he pierced through the defensive secondary and Mayfield through a perfect pass to complete the duo's second touchdown connection of the season.

3. Falcon Whip & Streak

The Falcons implemented a fascinating route concept out of a Shotgun Trips Left formation on Sunday.

The outside receivers on both sides ran fade routes down the sideline. The fade routes are obviously standard routes, and although the ball was thrown to the outside left fade route for a back shoulder touchdown near the front pylon, the interesting aspect of the play was the route combination between the two inside players in the trips alignment.

The routes of the two slot receivers on the trips side folded in on each other in order to manipulate the defenders. The middle slot receiver ran a whip route that appeared to go inside before jetting out, and the innermost slot receiver ran a 10-yard In route with an outside stem. Due to the fact that the routes each swapped and the re-swapped with each other, it is an interested route concept that could easily through off defenders in either a zone and man-to-man defense.