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NFL Week 15 best and worst coaching decisions: Bills' Joe Brady's great plan vs. Lions

17 December 2024Last Update :
NFL Week 15 best and worst coaching decisions: Bills' Joe Brady's great plan vs. Lions

Week 15 featured several quality matchups, with the most highly anticipated game being the Detroit Lions against the Buffalo Bills. The Bills mostly dominated the matchup thanks to a great game plan by offensive coordinator Joe Brady. Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen undressed the normally tricky Los Angeles Chargers defense, and DeMeco Ryans’ Houston Texans defense confused Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa into his worst game of the season.

Brady exploits Lions’ depleted D

Knowing the Lions would stick to playing man coverage, the Bills went after their depleted linebacker corps. The Lions came into the game with both their starting corners healthy but were down two of their top linebackers (Alex Anzalone and Malcolm Rodriguez), so the Bills targeted running backs and tight ends downfield early and often.

Backup running back Ty Johnson was the Bills’ top receiver; he had five catches on five targets for 114 yards. Buffalo’s running backs and tight ends combined for 18 targets for 14 catches and 251 yards. The Lions’ linebackers had trouble covering them on rhythm plays and had no shot when quarterback Josh Allen broke the pocket.

Allen looked like the league’s MVP on Sunday, but Brady made life easy on him with a brilliant game plan with play calls that were threaded off of each other.

First quarter, 13:52 remaining, second-and-5

On the Bills’ second play of the game, Allen motioned receiver Khalil Shakur behind him to fake a handoff. Johnson was offset to Allen’s left and ran a wheel route through the A-gap.

After the snap, Allen turned his back to the defense, making it harder to see where the ball was. Linebacker Kwon Alexander had Johnson in man coverage, but he was frozen by the play fake.

He was a tick late to get to Johnson, who got by him.

Alexander had decent coverage, but he was one-on-one and Allen delivered a perfect pass. Johnson had several plays designed for him, but even on plays that weren’t, he did a great job of finding space when Allen broke the pocket.

One of the Bills’ staple run concepts is tackle trap. Most teams prefer to pull their guards, but the Bills love to pull their athletic tackles. The Bills gashed the Lions defense on several variations of their tackle-trap play. Brady has been hesitant to use Allen on designed runs, but he unleashed him Sunday.

First quarter, 2:30 remaining, second-and-4

In this version of the play, Allen had the option to hand the ball to the running back on a sweep or keep it and follow his tackle on the trap play, depending on what the end (to the right of the image) did. The end played outside, so Allen kept the ball and scored.

Brady called the same play later, but the end played inside, so Allen handed off the ball for a touchdown.

The Bills also run this play but invert the quarterback and running back assignments. The running back could get the ball and follow the pulling tackle, and Allen would have the option to keep it and run outside.

In the fourth quarter, the Lions cut the lead to 10 points. Brady knew his offense couldn’t get too conservative and called a play-action concept off its tackle-trap play.

Fourth quarter, 7:53 remaining, second-and-7

The Bills had an extra lineman to the right with tight end Dawson Knox flanked outside him. The Bills faked a tackle trap to the left, with Knox running a corner route downfield.

After pulling the ball out of running back James Cook’s belly, Allen tucked the ball like he would run, while Knox carried out his fake block. Safety Brian Branch looked like he had conflicting responsibilities. He was the only defender left on the edge if Allen ran the ball, but he also had to cover Knox.

Branch came up to tackle Allen, leaving Knox wide open behind him. Allen lofted the ball over his head, and Knox made an impressive one-handed catch.

Fourth quarter, 7:06 remaining, first-and-10

On the next play, they ran the tackle-trap play, with Allen reading the backside defensive end.

The end went inside, so Allen kept the ball and ran outside. Because the Lions were in man coverage, Branch had to widen out with the bubble screen, leaving a huge lane in the alley for Allen to run through.

The Lions defense has been depleted because of injuries, but Brady leaned on its biggest weaknesses and the Bills moved the ball with ease on nearly every drive. They’ve scored over 40 points two weeks in a row and haven’t come close to turning over the ball.

Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn has to find a way to adjust. They can’t continue to line up in man without any disguising and expect to hold up against playoff offenses. They’ll likely have to do a lot of blitzing, but they have to be able to play some zone behind those blitzes.

Campbell’s late-game management

Speaking of Lions coaches, we love Campbell for his belief in his team and commitment to aggressiveness. I don’t have a problem with the fourth-down decisions, but attempting an onside kick with 12 minutes left, right after your team held the Bills to a field goal and scored a touchdown to cut the lead to 10, was reckless.

Campbell understandably didn’t trust his defense, but the onside kick is such a low-percentage play that you shouldn’t try one until you absolutely have to, especially since you can’t surprise onside kick anymore. Last season, just 5.2 percent of onside kicks were successful, and that’s with surprise onside kicks.

Campbell also made a critical clock-management error. The Lions tackled running back Ray Davis with 2:41 remaining. The Lions had all three timeouts but didn’t use one and let 39 seconds run off the clock. The clock ticked down to 2:03 after the Bills kicked a field goal. If the Bills kicked a returnable ball on the kickoff, the Lions might have lost the advantage of the two-minute warning. Completing the comeback would have been difficult, but Campbell’s mistakes cost them a better chance to do so.

Bucs solve Chargers’ defense

The Chargers had the seventh-best defensive third-down conversion rate (35 percent) in the league coming into Week 15. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter’s pressure packages were giving teams fits and confusing even some of the league’s most savvy quarterbacks. Coen’s unit looked well prepared for whatever Minter threw at it. The Buccaneers converted 9 of 15 (60 percent) of their third-down attempts, the highest rate the Chargers have given up all season.

Fourth quarter, 12:39 remaining, third-and-3

On third-and-3, Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield appeared to sniff out the blitz early and changed the play. Running back Rachaad White knew safety Derwin James Jr. would be blitzing from the edge and pointed at him. Mayfield moved receiver Mike Evans into the slot knowing he would have space to that side because of the blitz.

White picked up the blitz, giving Evans time to fake going outside before breaking inside. Safety Tony Jefferson initially had Evans in coverage.

When Evans went outside, cornerback Tarheeb Still had to switch on him, but because Still was lined up onside, Evans easily won inside and Mayfield hit him with a bullet.

Later in the drive, with the ball in the red zone, the Buccaneers lined up in a similar formation. The Chargers once again had a slot pressure called, but the Buccaneers had the perfect play called.

Fourth quarter, 8:11 remaining, first-and-10  

James again blitzed from the edge.

This time, White faked like he was going to block him before leaking out for a screen.

The offensive line did a good job of oozing out to its blocks downfield, and White wasn’t touched until he got near the goal line.

Scoring 40 points on the road against a good defense is no easy feat. Coen has been as impressive as any offensive coordinator this season.

Texans confuse Tagovailoa

The Texans have had trouble covering crossing routes all season. Going against a Dolphins offense that feasts on crossing routes, this weakness looked like it could be a problem. Ryans and his defensive staff masked this weakness with an excellent game plan, confusing Tagovailoa and making him appear unsure of what he was looking at throughout the game.

Playing Cover 2 is the most effective way to counter the Dolphins’ passing game, but you can’t telegraph what you’re going to do or Tagovailoa will know exactly which windows to attack and destroy you with anticipation passes. The Texans did a good job mixing Cover 2 and man coverage and disguising their coverages.

Second quarter, 13:29 remaining, third-and-7

On third-and-7, the Texans showed Cover 1 (man-to-man with one deep safety and a robber underneath). Initially, corner Kamari Lassiter lined up over receiver Tyreek Hill outside and both safeties lined up in the middle of the field.

When Hill motioned inside, Lassiter followed him inside like he would in man coverage. If it were zone, usually, Lassiter would stay outside and the nickel would bump over to Hill.

After the snap, both safeties bailed toward the numbers and the defense dropped into a Cover 2 zone. Lassiter stayed inside and played the “hook” zone inside. This is a unique disguise; you hardly ever see an outside corner playing this type of zone.

Tagovailoa thought the Texans were in man and wanted to hit receiver Jaylen Waddle on a corner route. He waited for Waddle but couldn’t hit him with a corner playing underneath him and a safety over the top of him. Tagovailoa held on to the ball too long, and the Dolphins got called for a holding penalty.

Tagovailoa had one of his worst games of the season and held on to the ball for his second-longest average time to throw of the season (2.72). The Texans sacked Tagovailoa seven times and picked him off three times. The loss will likely knock the Dolphins out of playoff contention. Though the Texans offense has struggled with consistency, their defense continues to come up big.

(Top photo of Joe Brady: Bryan Bennett / Getty Images)

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