Greatest play in texans history. DW4 had a similar play vs Philly last year but the play vs Buffalo was insane.
https://www.theringer.com/2020/1/7/21054541/deshaun-watson-houston-texans-iconic-playoff-moment The Incredible Deshaun Watson and an All-Time Moment in Texans History part 1 of 2
Great read. Love Watson to death. But that first touchdown, of 20 yards running, that was a designed run play, not a scramble. I know this because I had been screaming for one all game watching Allen do it to us. So I was excited when it happened and ended up working.
Yep. That was the big wrinkle they added at halftime - getting Watson involved in the run game - and it had a seismic impact on the rest of the game.
I'm not sure I'd call that a wrinkle. His first rush attempt came with 1:33 left in the third quarter.
It was good - 20 yards. That was a designed run. He rushed two more times for 5 yards each at the beginning and end of the 4th according to the play by play. Those were both RPOs. There might have been more RPOs where he threw the ball but I'm not going to go through all the plays and check. I not complaining about the plays, I just think there should be more of them! Plus more creativity in general.
All plays that work out are not automatically "good plays"... likewise all plays that don't workout are not necessarily "bad plays". A lot relies on execution within the play... a lot also relies on whether or not the opposing defense can avoid making mistakes.
Agreed, but its dumb not to use a QBs talent to your advantage. Russell Wilson had several big scrambles in Seattle's game and Chris Collinsworth pointed out how much pressure it puts on the defense. The middle linebacker started to focus on Wilson instead of dropping into coverage and he throws it over him to a tight end for a big play. Run Watson a few times early and it will open up other plays later, but O'Brien runs vanilla stuff early and often. O'Brien thinks his sneaky second down play action pass is going to work because he ran on first down.
For all his faults, BoB has been a great in-game adjuster. Not sure what he's doing with the whole week of prep time before the game though.
I'm not saying I want to go back to constant play action roll outs of the Schaub era, and admittedly you have to have a running game going a bit before that can be super successful... But I still don't understand why the don't do at least some of that, some RB screens, etc. Somewhat forgotten in Watson's miracle play is that just a few plays earlier they converted a 3rd and 18 by hitting Duke Johnson out of the backfield (and I know that the Bills were playing too soft of a zone, but still, that's what Duke is good at). Heck, they even went from a point a few years ago where they were just doing too many wide receiver screens to today where you hardly see it anymore. More screens, more RPO, more play-action, more TE action, and better mixing of all that up with what they already do well anyway, especially with Fuller back. There you go... I'm the new Texans OC!!