Some high-highs, some low-lows and some maddening inconsistency: the Anthony Richardson experience was on full display once again this week in the Indianapolis Colts victory over the Bears.
We got a beautiful deep-ball to Alec Pierce, but we also got a head-scratching interception in the end zone and a third down throw to the flat that went five feet over the head of the receiver. Let’s look at the passing chart:
On the day, Richardson completed 50% of his passes for 167 yards, 0 TDs and 2 INTs. He posted an ADOT (Average Depth of Target) of 10.4 (per RBSDM), so he’s still pushing the ball down field, but that number is slowly coming back to normal (he posted an ADOT of 16.4 in Week 1 and 11.6 in Week 2).
On his two interceptions, the first seemed to be a case of just not seeing the defender and the second seemed to be a case of an inaccurate pass. We’re not breaking those down today, because I like this space to be a fun and happy one in terms of the film portion, but maybe we’ll take a look later this week.
It’s a left-leaning chart, with only five throws to the right side of the field and a pretty big void in the middle of the field.
The Colts went play action in the passing game on 30.4% of their snaps (per NFL Pro), which is right in-line with their season average of 31%.
Overall, this passing game just isn’t operating very well right now (a bit of an understatement, to be sure). They are capable of hitting a big play at any time…
You want to talk easy gas? pic.twitter.com/UUXHiIcwik
— Dusty (@DustyEvely) September 24, 2024
…but they’re also capable of air-mailing a receiver on 3rd down, killing a drive.
For now, let’s get to a fun play. It’s an incomplete pass but I like the design, so we’re calling it fun.
As with a lot of people like me, Mesh is one of my favorite passing concepts. It’s fairly simple at its core – two shallow crossing routes that intersect in the middle of the field is what lies at the heart of it – but there are countless variations, each of them useful and beautiful. This one here is called Mesh Rail, and it’s one of my favorites.
The Colts are in 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR), with a YY Wing look on the right with both of their tight ends on the line. Jonathan Taylor [28] is initially set to Anthony Richardson’s [5] left, but motions behind Richardson before the snap and out to the right.
The Colts send Alec Pierce [14] vertical on the left side, then run Mesh Sit in the middle, with Mo Alie-Cox [81] and Michael Pittman [11] as the meshers and Andrew Ogletree [85] following Alie-Cox and working a sit route over the Mesh point.
And then Taylor runs a Rail route out of the backfield.
The two tight ends releasing inside out of that heavy look causes confusion with the Bears in coverage, springing Taylor wide open on the Rail. That’s Richardson’s first read, so he throws it immediately.
Richardson puts this sucker on a line and just barely overshoots Taylor. You can make an argument that Taylor should have caught this – it did glance off his fingertips, after all – but the Bears defenders had recovered by this point and TJ Edwards [53] is waiting to dislodge this ball the moment Taylor hauls it in.
If this ball has a bit more air under it and leads Taylor up the sideline, we may be talking about a different outcome. As it stands, this goes down as an incomplete pass on 3rd down. A real shame, because this is a beauty.
Album listened to: Richard Edwards – Sings the Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s Songbook