How C.J. Stroud and Bobby Slowik Picked Apart the Buccaneers
C.J. Stroud continues to light up NFL defenses. In Week 9 against the Buccaneers, he threw for a rookie-record 470 yards and 5 touchdowns.
I’ll dive into Stroud’s performance below, but first it makes sense to call out offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik for a great gameplan that put Stroud and the Texans offense in position to succeed. Not to mention, Slowik “drew up” the game-winning touchdown on the sideline, which I’ll show at the bottom of this breakdown.
Winning on 1st Down
First down was when Houston had the most success through the air, and that hadn’t really been their MO through the first 8 weeks of the season. In fact, Houston ranked in the bottom-10 in the NFL with a 40% passing frequency on first down.
Against Tampa, that changed.
Slowik called passes on more than 60% of Houston’s first-down plays. The results were staggering. Stroud completed 16 of 19 passes for 298 yards and 4 touchdowns on 1st down. As Ed said a few weeks ago when talking about the Ravens’ playcalling vs. Detroit, “That’s how you help your quarterback, offensive coordinators.”
But it wasn’t just THAT Slowik called passes on first down. It was the types of passes, play-designs, personnel groupings, and formations he utilized that helped lead to success.
On some plays, the Texans used play-action to help solidify the protection and give Stroud time to attack downfield.
That’s what happened on Houston’s second touchdown of the game. They came out in “21” personnel, which got the Buccaneers to match up in base personnel as well. In general, base personnel for a defense on early downs mean slower players on the field, more predictable coverages, fewer exotic pressures, etc.
On this play, the Texans would motion fullback Andrew Beck across the formation and pull tight end Eric Saubert in the direction of the Buccaneers’ best pass rusher, Shaquil Barrett:
Along with the play-fake, this initially looked like a run to Barrett. Not only did he end up with two blockers accounting for him, the run action made him hesitate and move inward at first, ready to take on blockers. That delayed his pass rush and gave Stroud time to get the ball downfield: