No matter how great your quarterback may be — and I think we can all agree that Tom Brady is on a very short list as regards the all-timers — if your defense has his concepts read, and your defense is waiting with bated breath for an opportunity, bad things can happen for that quarterback.
This was the case when Tom Brady, in his first game as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer, threw a pick-six to Janoris Jenkins.
Last December, the Giants released Jenkins despite the fact that he was the only cornerback on the team who could cover anybody at a credible level. Why? His social media flareup with a fan didn’t help, and his public frustration with how he was being utilized on the field by defensive coordinator James Bettcher most likely sealed his fate.
Perhaps Jenkins was barking too loudly for the Giants’ taste, but when on the field, Jenkins had an obvious point — he should have been traveling to cover his opponents’ best receivers, because again, he was the only person at his position who could do so. The Saints picked him up and rode Jenkins into the playoffs, and then rewarded him with a two-year, $16.75 million contract extension in March. A pretty good deal for one of the league’s best zone cornerbacks in 2019 — that’s where Jenkins gave up just 15 receptions on 39 targets for 226 yards, no touchdowns, five interceptions (tied with Tre’Davious White for the NFL lead in zone picks), and a Positive Play Rate of 33.3% — the second-best rate in the league behind Green Bay’s Jaire Alexander.
Jenkins took that momentum into the Saints’ Week 1 win over the Buccaneers, when he took a pick-six of Brady back 36 yards for a third-quarter touchdown. Brady threw two picks in the 34-23 loss, and the one to Jenkins was not only an in-game repudiation of Brady’s GOAT status; it was also an indication that the Saints were sitting on one of head coach and offensive play-designer Bruce Arians’ staple concepts — the speed out.
Last season, per Sports Info Solutions, only Jared Goff of the Rams threw more out routes than did Jameis Winston with 0-5-step drops, and when throwing those speed outs, Winston completed 59 of 92 attempts for 600 yards, 489 air yards, no touchdowns, and four interceptions. Meanwhile, Brady was up in Foxboro, completing 49 of 70 speed outs for 430 yards, 327 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, and one interception. And as Jenkins said after the game, the Saints were waiting for the call that didn’t come until there was 13:13 left in the third quarter.
“Well, we knew they hadn’t run it all game,” Jenkins recalled. “And as we were watching film earlier during the week, we noticed that they like to run it. And me and Latt [cornerback Marshon Lattimore] were on the sideline talking to each other, telling each other what was going to come out in the second half. And in the second half of the first drive, that’s what they did, ran double out.
“That was a Tampa play. Something Tampa ran a lot last year, speed outs. We just knew that they were going [to] add [that] in the second half. And that’s what they did coming out on the first drive. And I just read it and broke on it.”
There are variants of plays like this in which Arians will use stacks, trips, and bunches to take one receiver inside the formation, leaving another receiver open for the speed out. “Bunch Right 62 Split-Em Sink” is an example Arians had with the Cardinals as their head coach from 2013 through 2017. There isn’t motion to trips here as there was motion to stack on the Brady play, but the idea is pretty much the same — to split the secondary and give the quarterback one-on-one matchups. Here, the “Y” receiver at the top of trips takes the sink route inside or the outlet option, leaving the “Z” receiver ostensibly open for the quick out.
Problem was, Jenkins and Lattimore saw this stack variation, and read it all the way.
“Anticipation, communication, knowing what came early in the game, and what is coming late in the game,” Jenkins concluded. “You got to know that when playing defensive back. And me and Latt [Lattimore], we’re very experienced. We talked about it and communicated it on the sideline. And it came.”
Arians said after the game that this play was a screen pass with an outlet called, and while the coach blamed Brady’s first pick on receiver Mike Evans, he had the pick-six on Brady all the way.
“It speaks for itself,” Arians said, via the Tampa Bay Times. “If you’re throwing an out-route, you don’t throw it low and inside. And that hadn’t been the case up until that one. He was a little late on it and probably [a] better decision to go somewhere else with the ball.”
To be fair, Arians may still be traumatized by all of Winston’s speed outs from last season that ended in disaster. And though Brett Favre (of all people) expressed concern about this public criticism Arians had for his quarterback, one suspects that it’ll roll off Brady’s back.
“Tom and I are fine so I do not really care what other people think,” Arians said Wednesday, via CBS Boston. “We left the stadium fine and we showed up fine so there ain’t nothing to talk about.”
Then, in true Belichickian fashion, Arians said, “We’re on to Carolina.”
Technically, the Panthers are heading to Tampa for their Week 2 matchup. And while Panthers head coach Matt Rhule may be able to pick some things up from that Bucs-Saints tape, he’s not going to poke the bear. At all.
Matt Rhule: “I have the utmost, utmost, UTMOST respect for Tom Brady. To me, you find out what a QB is when things go wrong. Some things went bad in the game, and to me, Tom Brady brought the team back, got them within 10 points, still had a chance to win. I think he’s…ICONIC"
— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) September 16, 2020
We’ll see how it plays out on Sunday.