NFL teams ran over 1,800 plays in Week 1. Unless you’re Sean McVay, you’ll probably forget 99% of them by the time Week 2 kicks off. And by October, that percentage will be even higher. But every Sunday gives us a handful of plays that will stick with us for the rest of the season.
Those kinds of moments inspired this new weekly feature, where I’ll take a deeper look at three plays that shaped the past week in NFL football. We’ll dive into the strategies, the matchups, and everything else that created Sunday’s most memorable moments – along with what those moments mean for the future.
This week, we’ll look at Josh Allen’s game-winner in Houston, Washington’s failed two-point conversion in Philadelphia, and the biggest play of the Bears’ 59-point outburst.
Josh Allen went down to Houston and exorcised some demons. The demons, in this case, were a Texans defense that has given him hell over the past two seasons, including last year’s two-interception, eight-sack stinker. Some of the lowest moments of Allen’s career have come in Houston, but Sunday’s win was one of the better games you’ll see out of the Bills star, and it was capped off by a 34-yard touchdown strike to Josh Palmer that put Buffalo ahead for good.
Here’s the all-22 angle.
As Allen said after the game, the play wasn’t designed to go to Palmer. He was running a “clear out” route to open space for Dalton Kincaid’s intermediate route.
“That is not where the ball is supposed to go,” Allen said. “We have never once repped the ball going there. I just felt that those safeties started cheating to D.J. [Moore] a little bit.”
The Texans played man coverage with just a single safety deep. With Moore isolated to the bottom of the screen, you can see that centerfield safety, Calen Bullock, hovers closer to Moore’s side. Based on the way Kamari Lassiter is cheating to the inside on Palmer, it appears he knows he won’t have safety help in the middle.
Credit to Allen for noticing the subtleties of Houston’s positioning. Most quarterbacks see that look and don’t even consider throwing to Palmer. Based on everything they’re taught, it’s an absurd decision. But Allen isn’t a by-the-book quarterback. He’s an artist who specializes in absurdism. He sees a safety who’s out of position and a cornerback who will have to quickly flip his hips to keep up with Palmer’s post route. Still, it requires a high level of trust in both Palmer and his own ability to make the throw. Allen makes it look routine.
The takeaway: That play didn’t just decide Sunday’s game; it also provided a promising sign for a passing game that could be bogged down by man coverage a season ago.
In 2025, Allen didn’t have receivers who could dictate coverage or deter defenses from playing aggressively in the secondary. Enter Moore. Allen’s shiny, new toy in the receiving corps caught five passes for 100 yards and a score in his debut. Moore gives Allen an answer for man coverage. And if teams want to throw extra safety attention at him, it just makes things easier for his teammates. Even on a play where Moore was helping out in protection, as he did on Palmer’s game-winner, the Texans felt the need to get eyes on him.
Houston hardly played any man coverage on Sunday after spamming it in last year’s matchup. If Moore’s presence can just influence how much man coverage the Bills see, he’ll be a valuable addition to the team—and maybe the one who finally gets Buffalo over the hump.
(As a Maryland grad, I’m compelled to point out that the last time the Bills traded for a former Terps receiver, Allen and the offense leveled up.)
The Eagles Stuff Washington On A Game-Tying Two-Point Conversion
Philadelphia’s 24-22 win was peak NFC East football. It may have lacked well-executed play for the most part, but it made up for it with a tense ending. After a sleepy performance, Washington’s offense rallied for a late touchdown and could have forced overtime with a two-point conversion. That put the Commanders’ first-year offensive coordinator, David Blough, in the spotlight. He made the bold decision to dial up a shovel pass to the backup tight end.
It went as well as you’d expect.
Blough and quarterback Jayden Daniels have caught some heat for the outcome of the play, but I’m going to defend both. Let’s start with Daniels, who could have thrown the ball to running back Rachaad White in the flat for what looked like a walk-in touchdown.
Sure, that may have been the best option based on how things eventually played out, but Daniels can’t pause the play or peer into the future. And based on the look the Eagles defense gave him – and the design of Washington’s play—he made the correct choice. Philly had three defenders against two Commanders blockers to the perimeter plus linebacker Jalyx Hunt ready to help out. Daniels has only a fraction of a second to make the decision.
Daniels saw a 4-on-3 in the Eagles’ favor and moved on before it became clear that White had an angle to the end zone. In the screenshot above, you can see that he’s already looking at Bates for the shovel.
And, really, the shovel should have worked. The Commanders have the right numbers and blockers to open up a clear path for Bates to waltz into the end zone.
Unfortunately for Washington and Blough, football is not played on a whiteboard with scribbled Xs and Os. Talent and execution matter, and on this play, Eagles defensive tackle Moro Ojomo out-talented and out-executed the Commanders offensive line. Ojomo saw the down blocks and the pulling guard and knew immediately that he’d need to cross the face of the center, Nick Allegretti, to make a play on the ball carrier.
Just reading that all out in a second or two is impressive on its own, but then Ojomo pulled off a sweet spin move that left Allegretti blocking air before he enveloped Bates well short of the end zone.
The takeaway: Washington’s failed two-point attempt came on a sound play design, with the quarterback making the right decision; the Commanders just didn’t have enough talent to execute. Based on Sunday’s game, this won’t be the last time that’s the case.
The offensive line might be worse than advertised without Laremy Tunsil at left tackle, and the wide receiver group didn’t make Daniels’ job easier. A change at play-caller isn’t going to make up for the talent deficiency. Without any clear avenues for improvement, it could be a long season for Daniels and this offense.
I could have picked any of the 10 explosive plays Chicago hit Carolina with on Sunday, but Monangai’s big run that stretched the Bears’ lead to double digits and put the Panthers away for good is a perfect encapsulation of what makes Ben Johnson’s run game so damn hard to defend.
Johnson had been setting up that run all afternoon. The Bears aligned in that same formation twice earlier in the game and had Luther Burden motion across the formation both times. Chicago ran “outside zone” to the weak side on both snaps.
On Monangai’s big run, the Bears come out in the same formation but snap the ball just as Burden starts his motion. And instead of running outside zone to the weak side, they run their “duo” play to the strong side. You can see the hesitation by the backside safety, who is expecting Burden to motion across the formation and for a run in the same direction. He takes one false step, but in a game of inches, that makes the difference between a 10-yard run and a 61-yard touchdown.
We also have to give credit to the Bears receivers, who put on a blocking clinic and bullied Carolina’s secondary all afternoon. Burden makes an impressive mid-play adjustment to block safety Tre’von Moehrig and create crease for Monangai, while Kalif Raymond clears out the second level with a pancake block on Chau Smith-Wade, who was not a stationary target.
Those blocks even offensive linemen would be proud to make. The Bears’ skill players made those plays all afternoon.
The takeaway: Johnson says Chicago’s goal is to break the scoring record, and I’m not doubting him after what I saw Sunday. The Bears have a dynamic talent at quarterback, a strong offensive line, cutting-edge play calling, and skill players who have fully bought in.
“No block, no rock” isn’t just a gimmick in Chicago. These receivers live it, and Johnson rewards them with play-making opportunities. Raymond graded out as the team’s best run blocker on Sunday, according to Pro Football Focus, so it’s no surprise that he also led the team in targets. The bigger names like Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, and Colston Loveland had quiet games in the box score but were still blocking their tails off in the second half. If they keep blocking like that, this won’t be the last 50-burger the Bears serve up this season.
Three And Out
1. I’m pretty sure Justin Jefferson went off script on his 39-yard touchdown catch.
Based on the other routes on the play, Minnesota looked as if it was running a “dagger” concept, with Jauan Jennings running a deep crosser to clear out the coverage and T.J. Hockenson sitting down underneath.
That’s a staple of Kevin O’Connell’s passing game. But the superstar receiver saw the penalty flag, realized the Vikings had a free play, and took off for the end zone. Credit to Carson Wentz for also noticing the flag and giving Jefferson a shot to make a play.
2. New Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is a star, and he won’t be in Baltimore for much longer if he keeps up the pace he set in Sunday’s win over the Colts.
I could highlight so many plays from that game, but wide receiver Zay Flowers’ long touchdown stood out.
Doyle had Flowers lined up in the backfield, which complicated Indy’s coverage assignments. All of the corners are playing outside, and you don’t want a linebacker on a receiver in space, so the Colts dropped a safety down to pick up Flowers, who was running an option route. Staying in front of Flowers is difficult enough. Doing so when he’s got a two-way go is even harder. And doing it from depth is downright impossible.
3. Honestly, I think Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer showed restraint when reviewing his defense’s performance after Sunday night’s loss to the Giants.
The young defense was botching even the most routine concepts. As Schottenheimer points out, the Cowboys didn’t “push three times to the f***ing flat route,” and two of them came on consecutive plays.
With the running back running out to the flat fast, the linebacker, Jashawn Barham, has to follow him out there. You can even see the safety pointing that out to him on the first play, only for it to happen again on the next one. That’s the type of thing you’d expect to see from a high school defense. The Cowboys have a lot to clean up.
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