Inside the Mornhinweg Playbook: Geno Smith to Stephen Hill for a TD: Week 3

Sep 22, 2013; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets wide receiver

(84) celebrates after a touchdown against the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Sunday morning is here again, and it is time to go back “Inside the Mornhinweg Playbook”.

For the last couple of weeks, to help replace our void of live football, we have been looking back at the season, taking one play per week from the Mornhinweg bag of tricks to see why the play worked, and therefore, hope we see more of it in 2014.

For the second straight week, we are going to take a look at a pass play between Geno Smith and Stephen Hill. Last week, we looked at a play where they connected for 37 yards.

This week, we go back to the well with these two to look at a 51 yard connection that went for a touchdown.

As usual, let’s take a look at the formation first:

Geno Smith is in the gun, with two backs next to him to either side. As normal with a “West Coast” offensive play, there are many options sent out to run pass patterns, highlighted in black. Kellen Winslow runs a medium crossing pattern over the middle. The running back runs a short pass out into the flat. Both receivers to the outside run go routes down the field.

Stephen Hill is highlighted in the green because that is who Smith decides to go with. Let’s move the tape forward, and look at Geno’s decision.

The Bills rushed four and dropped seven, but the protection breaks down anyway. The lineman won his battle, circled in red, and is right in the face of Geno. Look at the circled receivers. Other than the running back in the flat, nobody is really “open”, but Geno doesn’t have time to get it to the guy in the flat. He knows he has one on one coverage on his tall receiver, Stephen Hill, to the near side. To his credit, Smith throws it up there to give his guy a chance to make a play………

Geno Smith lets it fly, with one on one coverage on Stephen Hill. He makes an instinctual decision to give his tall receiver a chance to make a play…

Stephen makes the catch in stride……

51 yards later, it’s touchdown New York Jets.

So this play was great for a couple of reasons. The first was the multiple pass options, typical for a West Coast offense. Secondly, however, and maybe even more importantly, was Geno’s decision. He has it in him to make the right call. He put the ball in the right place for his guy to make a play, and it paid off big time.