Eye Manipulation with Bo Nix
The beauty of moving safeties and throwing into tight windows for touchdowns.
Hitting the post route against a MOFC defensive structure with a post safety is an art. It requires a rocket throw and honestly, for the free safety to not do his job very well.
Another key aspect that is under the control of the QB is the use of the eyes. The one play we’ll look at today goes is a post from the number two receiver that gets zipped in there above a linebacker for a touchdown. To understand the play, we’ll focus on Nix’s understanding of space and leverage through the use of eye manipulation.
Moving the Free Safety to Hit the Post
Motioning from 3x1 bunch to 2x2, the offense gets the defense into a MOFC structure. To make matters even tighter, the post is being run from the new number two receiver. Let’s begin by trying to figure out the read.
Nix looks right to a fake WR screen that doesn’t look terrible given the pattern distribution from the defense plays out like man. Further, the cornerback’s hips are square to the line of scrimmage against the WR faking the block and running the fade. So it’s not a bad look but Nix passes up on it. These types of plays are “shot” plays you’d think the QB would try to make work. Nix had other plans.
Nix Nix decided to take a three step drop which is a solid choice for the post. If he’d been serious about the fake WR screen he might’ve taken the same drop, but I would’ve anticipated a quick two step with a slight pump before resetting to the fade. That’s the first clue that leads me to believe Nix knew he wanted the post route before the snap.
The more obvious indicator is the fact that Nix moved his eyes to the post during his drop. So that look to the right was more likely to be a look-off to make sure the free safety stayed more right than left to open the slight window for the post. Nix decided to look all the way to the right as opposed to just holding the safety in the middle, and that was necessary and smart given the post was run from the number two receiver. This look-off is evidence of Nix’s ability to create and manipulate space in his favor.
The other beautiful piece of QB play evident in this play is Nix’s instinctive understanding of leverage. Because Nix was looking off the safety he didn’t have a lot of time to analyze the post route’s viability. The first reason is because it’s a tight window as we’ve been discussing. Secondly, by the time he gets to the back of his drop he has pressure from his right. All he has is time for a slight reset and then he rips the pass.
This is shot at the moment Nix taps the ball and gets into his throw:
The linebacker is opening his hips to the sideline, but the key information that Nix has is that the post is breaking inside. The linebacker is also looking at Nix not the WR. So Nix has the benefit of knowing the linebacker can’t turn easily to make a play on that post. However, all of this is happening in a split second.
The expectation isn’t that Nix is processing all this information in the way I have laid it out here. Rather, my analysis is an observation of what’s happening. An attempt to describe the reality of the situation. Nix is showing instinct.
Seeing open is about knowing the pictures that look open. This is an open picture. One that Nix has surely seen many times otherwise he is getting “lucky” here. But I’ll assume he knows the picture he wants and has the intuition to see the open post in this split second under pressure. Remarkable QB play combined with the intentional look-off to create the space.
Until tomorrow,
Emory Wilhite
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