The Dallas Cowboys gave the defending Super Bowl Champions everything they had on Thursday night, pushing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the brink in a hard-fought affair.
Thankfully for the Buccaneers, a living legend still patrols their sideline.
For the 49th time, Tom Brady led a game-winning drive, putting the Buccaneers in field goal position as the clock wound down to all zeros. The critical throw from Brady on the drive, a missile of a back-shoulder throw to Chris Godwin, is just one more moment from a legendary career that continues to amaze.
But it was not the first time Brady used that design on the night.
On an evening filled with some vintage Brady moments — some of which I highlighted in this video breakdown on Twitter — two of his best throws came on a “post/wheel” combination that puts a coverage defender in a near-impossible position, and gives Brady two ways of completing the throw.
The first came midway through the third quarter, with the Buccaneers facing a 1st-and-10 on the Cowboys’ 35-yard line. Brady aligns under center and the Buccaneers use 12 offensive personnel, putting both their tight ends to the right side. Cameron Brate runs a post route from the outside, while Rob Gronkowski runs the wheel route from his inside alignment:
The defender that gets put in a difficult position here is safety Keanu Neal, who is covering Gronkowski. Back when Brady was with the New England Patriots, this route combination was called “Peel,” short for post/wheel. With the proximity of the post route to the wheel route, a rub is created. How the coverage defender handles the rub determines the kind of throw the quarterback makes:
As you can see from the notations, the defender — in this case Neal — has two ways of playing this. He can come under the rub that gets created by the route combination, or he can work over the top. But regardless of what path he chooses, there is a way to complete the throw. Should Neal come under, you lead the wheel route receiver downfield. Should Neal play this over the top of the rub, then you turn this into a back-shoulder throw.
However, we know that rules are made to be broken, and that ultimately it is up to the QB to read the situation and attack the leverage as appropriate. On this play, Neal comes under the rub. While you might expect Brady to then throw this downfield, the QB sees that Gronkowski is not going to get separation over the top, and with Neal using inside leverage he does the next best thing
He puts it on the back shoulder.
Neal is in perfect position, and he still gives up a completion. His post-play frustration should be shared by all. Because he matches Gronkowski step-for-step, but the decision by Brady to turn this into a back-shoulder throw, and then the precise placement of the pass, negates the perfect coverage from Neal.
Fast-forward to the game’s final drive.
Something tells me the majority of fans watching that game knew how it was going to end. From Brady’s death stare on the sideline seeing Dallas take the lead, to the history of what #12 has done in such moments, was all the evidence fans needed to believe that Tampa Bay was going to win that game. But Brady and the Buccaneers still needed to get it done, and for the final critical completion, Tampa Bay went back to this design:
This time, however, Tampa Bay pairs the combination with a duo of wide receivers. Scotty Miller runs the post route from the outside while Godwin runs the wheel element. This time, it is cornerback Jourdan Lewis who gets put in the bind. Yet as we saw on the previous example, the coverage is good, and Brady breaks the rules with another incredibly-placed throw:
Father Time slinks back to his corner, defeated once again by the ageless Brady.
Eventually Father Time will have his day. But right now, with everything we have seen from Brady during just over a year in Tampa Bay, it is hard to believe that day is coming soon. On a night filled with some vintage plays from Brady, two of his best came on this design, when the Cowboys defenders played it perfectly — and yes there are valid questions about a potential offensive pass interference call on Godwin — the veteran QB still had not just the answer, but the means of carrying out the answer.