Baiting the Quarterback
The cat-and-mouse game between the quarterback and the defense is one of the best things about football.
It sometimes involves play designs that take advantage of defensive tendencies, with the quarterback pumping or eyeing a receiver to try and manipulate a defender before pulling the rug out from underneath him.
On defense, it often involves inviting the quarterback to throw into windows that appear to be open, only to have defenders lurking nearby like sharks in the water, ready to attack at the right moment.
Below are two great examples of the defense getting interceptions by baiting the quarterback into making the wrong throw.
Of course, we have to start with a play from Bill Belichick’s defense. No one in NFL history was better at winning this cat-and-mouse game than him.
This was from Week 7 of his final season in New England in a game where the Patriots would stun the Bills with a 29-25 last-minute victory.
Their defense made the first big play of the game when safety Jabrill Peppers picked off Josh Allen on Buffalo’s first snap. While watching live, this seemed like it was just a poor read and decision by Allen:
But based on post-game comments from Bill Belichick and Jabrill Peppers, that wasn’t exactly the case.
Peppers:
“That was a play I recognized on tape. Just had to play the proper technique and catch the ball.”
Belichick:
“We got hit on that play against them last year and worked on it in practice and he played it well.”
Translation: We baited him into making that throw.
The play Belichick and Peppers were referring to was a “sail” 3-level stretch concept. During their first matchup of the 2022 season in Foxborough, the Bills utilized it off of play-action on their second offensive snap of the game, picking up 19 yards in the process:
They hit this play a few more times during their two games in 2022 out of different formations and personnel groupings.
The Patriots were ready for the Bills to attack with it again in their first matchup of 2023.
This time, Buffalo would run it on first down out of a different look. Here, it was a 3x1 formation with 2 in-line tight ends to the strong side and the #3 receiver running the sail instead of the #2:
The Bills would again run the concept off of play-action. The Patriots played 3-deep, with Peppers as the flat-defender to the strong side:
The #1 receiver knocked the top off the coverage, taking the cornerback with him downfield. That left Peppers as the conflicted defender tasked with covering both the sail route and the flat:
Notice how Peppers kept his hips turned towards the sidelines as if he was ready to play Kincaid in the flat. Allen saw that and made up his mind to throw to Knox behind him:
Peppers had his eyes on Allen the whole time, though. He waited until the last second and then flipped his hips right as Allen started his throwing motion (and after his decision to throw had been made):
When you consider his post-game comments (“That was a play I recognized on tape. Just had to play the proper technique and catch the ball”), it’s clear that the result of this play wasn’t a coincidence. Peppers wasn’t just in the right place at the right time. He had baited Allen into making the read he wanted and then pounced for the interception:
Sometimes coverage disguise isn’t about showing one coverage and then playing another. Sometimes it’s about a subtle technique that makes a quarterback think he has an open receiver when he really doesn’t.
This is the type of stuff Belichick has tormented quarterbacks with for 4 decades. Here, it led to a big play in an eventual last-second win.
I’m not intending to pick on 2024 MVP Josh Allen in this breakdown, because he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the game. But this next example of baiting the quarterback also comes at his expense.
This was from Buffalo’s Week 12 loss against the Eagles during the 2023 season. The Bills started this snap in a 3x1 formation with wide receiver Stefon Diggs in the backfield. Then they motioned him to the single-receiver side: