How Trevor Lawrence exploited a Colts flaw he spotted in Week 1

Trevor Lawrence’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Christian Kirk came after the quarterback spotted something on tape from their Week 1 win.

In the fourth quarter of a Week 1 game against the Indianapolis Colts, the Jacksonville Jaguars picked up a first down when Trevor Lawrence threw a quick pass to tight end Evan Engram near the sideline that turned into a 9-yard gain.

It was a solid play for the Jaguars offense, but it exposed a hole in the Colts defense that could’ve been exploited for a lot more. Five weeks later, Lawrence took advantage of it on a 29-yard touchdown pass to Christian Kirk.

The Colts defense relies mostly on a Cover 3 scheme under defensive coordinator and former Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley. Essentially, it usually asks two safeties to each cover a third of the deep secondary and a cornerback to drop back and handle the final third. Linebackers and other cornerbacks then take anything underneath.

It looks a little something like this:

On the Week 1 pass to Engram, Lawrence noticed that Colts cornerback Darrell Baker Jr. — who was supposed to be responsible for a deep third — was awfully quick to ditch his job and help make the tackle.

Here’s the play in full:

Kirk was left with a ton of space in front of him after Baker came down, but the ball was already on its way to Engram. So what if, given the same opportunity, Lawrence hit the Colts with a pump fake? Would Baker crash down again, leaving Kirk running free?

Yep, he sure would.

“I thought I had a little tell on just if I can set outside, get this corner to tie down,” Lawrence said. “He’s really the three deep, the deep third player. If he ties down, there’s really no one left for Christian. That’s what we talked about this week.

“That was something that I felt really confident that we would get. I showed him all the clips. It honestly happened exactly how we thought it would, it doesn’t always work that way when you think something is going to work. It was cool that it happened that way today.”

According to Kirk, it was an idea that came straight from the 24-year-old quarterback himself.

“I’ll give Trevor his flowers on this one. I know he is proud of it too,” Kirk said in the locker room after the game. “He brought me into the room and was like, ‘When we call this be ready, I’m going to pump the—we call it a hang route—and then I am going to be able to find a window.’

“We got the exact same look, he pumped the hang route and was able to and put it on me right in the area of the defense, in the void, and take advantage of that opportunity. He did a great job being able to see that, identifying it and telling the coaches that that is what he wanted to do and putting it in the end zone.”

Six games into the 2023 season, Lawrence now has seven touchdown passes with three interceptions.

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