Tag: jameson williams touchdown

Breaking down the Jameson Williams touchdown against the Bears

Lions film room: Breaking down the Jameson Williams touchdown against the Bears with Russell Brown

Weeks ago, my patience with Jameson Williams was starting to run thin. But we all gave him the benefit of the doubt that he had some hurdles to get going here in Detroit. Much of that was due to him recovering from a torn ACL during much of his rookie season. As he’s worked his way onto the field in his second season for Detroit, much of that is due to his ability to do the little things.

The little things are the big things.

Go to the 75-yard touchdown run from David Montgomery against the Chargers and one of the key blocks on the run is happening downfield from Jameson Williams. It’s gained respect from the fans but most importantly from the teammates and coaches of Williams. This will lead to more opportunities and more touches. That’s exactly what happened against the Chicago Bears for Jameson Williams.

Against the Bears, Williams recorded two receptions for 44 yards and a touchdown. One of the biggest catches of his career was a touchdown that brought the Lions down from a 12-point deficit to five points with just under three minutes left in the game. Let’s jump into the film room to break down this touchdown reception from Jameson Williams against the Bears!

There’s no doubt that the Jameson Williams touchdown was one of the best plays for the Lions offense against the Bears. Looking at the play above, the Lions come out with their 11 personnel (one running back and one tight end. Bunched together to the right of the formation is Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams.

As both receivers push vertically during this 1st and 10 play, they both end up running routes that break towards the sideline. For Jameson Williams, he runs what he called a “pylon route” and underneath him is St. Brown on a corner route. In the playbook, this would be identified as a hi-lo concept.

When re-watching the touchdown, Jameson Williams had this to say: “I had a pylon route, I seen the safety before the play, we running it off of him, he was inside of me, I knew I’d get 12-15 yards, if he’s not able to run with me to the back pylon, then we got him.”

For Jared Goff, he’s reading the cornerback (Bears CB 33 Jaylon Johnson). If the corner continues to get depth and follows the route from Williams, then Goff will throw the ball to St. Brown. If the corner sits on the lower route from St. Brown, then Goff will throw the ball to Williams. On this play, that’s exactly what happens.

When watching the play, you can see the speed and burst from Williams during this route. The safety is trailing him and is nowhere near fast enough to close the space between himself and Williams. This was a well-designed play by offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and it was executed even better from the Lions offense.

This is a positive sign for Jameson Williams and the Lions’ offense as they continue to need playmakers each and every single week. It’s starting to feel like more of these opportunities will present themselves for the former first-round pick of the 2022 NFL Draft in the second half of the season. Let’s hope Williams can build off this against the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving Day.

[lawrence-related id=98351]

Detroit Lions Film Review: Jared Goff passing touchdowns against the Buccaneers

A Lions film review of Jared Goff passing touchdowns against the Buccaneers from Russell Brown of Lions Wire

On Sunday afternoon, the Detroit Lions went on the road and won another game in convincing fashion. Much of the credit goes to the defense having another stellar performance and holding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to only 254 total yards. Meanwhile, the Bucs were only able to go 2-for-12 on 3rd down conversions.

That said, we’ll focus on the defense later this week with a film breakdown on linebacker Alex Anzalone. For now, I want to focus on quarterback Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions offense. It’s been no secret that the Lions offense has been one of the best in the NFL. Much of that credit goes to their quarterback, who is playing with more confidence than he ever has in his career.

From his ability to identify defenders before the snap to his ability to consistently read the defense post-snap. Right now, Goff is 5th in the NFL in passing yards with 1,618 passing yards. In addition to that, his 73.3 QBR is 4th-best in the NFL.

[lawrence-related id=97522]

Against the Bucs, Goff finished 30-for-44 with 353 yards passing and two touchdowns. Adding to that, the Lions went 9-for-16 on 3rd down during Sunday’s game.  Through six games, Goff has the Lions offense clicking at an extremely high level and most importantly, he’s got them to their best start since 2015 with a 5-1 record. Let’s jump into the tape to review the two touchdown passes made by Jared Goff!

The first play I want to showcase is the touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown. On the play above, the Lions come out in 11 personnel (one tight end and one running back) with 2×2 set. To the left of the formation (bottom of the screen), you’ll see St. Brown (WR 14) aligned in the slot.

Once the ball is snapped, you’ll see St. Brown work vertically up the field. In the process, he reads the defenders and runs a choice route. This type of route is when the receiver reads the defender and has the option to either break in or out on the route. For this route, St. Brown throttles down and turns inside before taking the ball across the middle of the field.

As he takes the ball across the field, he gets a key block from running back Craig Reynolds. The devastating block from Reynolds allows St. Brown to turn up-field and into the end zone for the touchdown. This play is credit to the entire Lions offense.

The offensive line gives Goff enough time to stay protected, Goff makes the correct read, St. Brown displays great run after-the-catch ability and Reynolds makes the biggest block of his life. This type of touchdown sets the tone but it also defines this Lions team. Everyone doing their job and outworking the opposition.

Lastly, the second touchdown was just as impressive for this Lions offense. Looking at the play above, the Lions come out in 11 personnel (one tight end and one running back) with a trips bunch formation to the right of the offense. The three receivers to the trips side are Jameson Williams (WR 9), Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR 14) and Josh Reynolds (WR 8).

After the ball is snapped, Josh Reynolds (WR 8) runs an out route, Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR 14) runs a corner route and running what appears to just be a fly route is Jameson Williams (WR 9). On this 45-yard throw, Jared Goff gets it far enough to the end zone for Williams to make a play on the ball.

While it appears like Williams misjudges where to turn his head to make the catch, he readjusts and shows terrific concentration to haul this pass in for a touchdown. This leads to Goff’s second touchdown pass of the game and Williams first touchdown reception on the season. This touchdown capped off a 9 play, 73 yard drive that took 4:25 off the clock and it put the Lions up 17-6 with 3:19 left to play in the 3rd quarter.

Overall, the Lions couldn’t get the ground game going with only 40 yards rushing. But keep in mind, the Lions were down to Craig Reynolds and Devin Ozigbo as their running backs, and the Buccaneers have a top-10 run defense. That said, Jared Goff operated efficiently by completing 68% of his passes and of his 30 completions, he targeted 10 different players. No doubt there’s credit due to the Lions offense from the skilled-position players to the offensive line, but it’s all being led by one of the most underrated players in the NFL.

The Vikings forgot to cover Jameson Williams. Here’s why that was a bad idea.

The Minnesota Vikings chose not to cover Detroit Lions rookie receiver Jameson Williams. The result? Williams’ first NFL catch and touchdown

The Detroit Lions had to wait until Week 13 to get first-round receiver Jameson Williams on the field, as Williams was recovering from the torn ACL he suffered in the 2021 College Football Championship against Georgia. Williams had just eight snaps and no catches last Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 40-14 win, but everybody in the organization had to be excited about what Williams could do with a bit more experienced.

After all, Williams’ college tape from Alabama showed a guy with the kind of skill set you see from a Tyreek Hill, which is to say, it’s a skill set you don’t see very often. That’s why the Lions were quite happy to take him with the 12th overall pick in the 2022 draft, knowing that his rookie season was going to be mostly a waste year.

Well, with 10:27 left in the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings, Jared Goff found Williams for his first career catch. And thanks to Minnesota’s alleged pass defense, Williams had a lot more open space than he needed to turn that first career catch into a 41-yard touchdown.

The dots show that the Vikings were playing a Cover-0 pre-snap look, with cornerback Patrick Peterson (No. 7) and safety Cameron Bynum (No. 24) dropping into coverage post-snap. Cornerback Cameron Dantzler (No. 3) drifted off to the numbers, and away from Williams… and we’re not quite sure what the plan was there. In any event, both Peterson and Bynum sat underneath, leaving Williams wiiiiiiiide open over the middle.

“I mean, shoot — he hadn’t put on pads and gone through even pregame warm ups, and so a lot of that was just getting your bearings and now that you got that under your belt, we can progress forward from there,” Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said of Williams this week. “So… it’s a good starting point for him. I don’t even think he was very pleased with his play, but that’s good. That’s a starting point and just like every player, we’re looking to get a little bit better each week.”

With help from the Vikings, Williams took one giant step forward for his offense.