Some cool plays in Week 6, 2024
or, let's go for a walk
Time is short (and so am I), so let’s skip any kind of long intro and just get to it.
Every week, there are cool things that happen on a football field. Wonderous displays of athletic talent and also some truly inspired and beautiful play designs. Here are some that I saw in Week 6 of the 2024 season.
Mesh Rail
We saw a couple instances of Mesh Rail going for big gains this week. It’s a pretty simple concept, but can be devastating if you catch the defense out of position.
It starts with the Mesh. Both instances occur out of a 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR), YY Wing (both TEs in-line on the same side of the formation) look. That’s a run-heavy look, so you can catch the defense in base personnel. That makes them a little slower (subbing out a defensive back for a linebacker), but a more stout front against the run.
Mesh is built around the dueling drag routes that cross in the middle of the field. If you’ve got that, you’ve got a variation of Mesh. On both of these plays, they bring one of the tight ends on the drag and the other tight end running a sit route over the mesh point.
They align the running back to the 2 TE side, then release him on a Rail route (a rounded, vertical route from the backfield).
If you catch the linebacker flat-footed or caught up in traffic, that Rail route can be open for a big gain.
Here’s the Chargers:
And the Commanders:
Beautiful design.
Kliff Kingsbury’s Diabolical WR Screens
Kingsbury has always been a guy who can draw up some really cool things. The knock on him in the past is that sometimes he leans too much into one-off plays and not enough into building a comprehensive offense. There’s still a lot of season left, but the Commanders offense is looking good so far this season (2nd in offensive DVOA after week 6).
This week, he showed off some truly inspired variations to the WR screen game. The typical WR screen is something you’ve likely seen a thousand times: get two receivers on the line to block for the flat/bubble/swing behind it.
This past Sunday, the Commanders showed a couple really great variations to this.
In the first clip, they look set up to run the WR screen, with the two receivers on the right initially releasing to block the defenders, with a RB releasing underneath.
After initially releasing on an escort block, the boundary receiver quickly cuts back underneath and it becomes a tunnel screen for him, with the offensive linemen releasing to lead the parade.
They also throw some eye candy at the linebackers, with the right tackle and right guard pulling to the left, triggering the linebackers on a power run away from the tunnel screen.
As if that weren’t enough, he threw in a variation to the Screen-and-Go. The Screen-and-Go itself is a cool way to attack a defense that is keying on the WR Screen: set up the blocking like we saw in the original diagram, pump to the flat then throw over the top as the blockers release on vertical routes. Get the defense crashing the screen, then throw over their heads.
That looks like what the Commanders are doing here, but with a twist: they show the vertical route early, so the safety stays in place to cap it. However, in addition to that first vertical route, they also a second receiver on a follow-vertical, after initially showing a block.
Beautiful stuff, man. Disgusting, beautiful stuff.
I’m hoping to do more of these throughout the season as I see these things, but who knows?!