Film Room: What Are the Colts' Go-To Deep Shots in the Passing Game?
The Indianapolis Colts have consistently had a strong passing attack under Frank Reich, even with Reich having to work with four (now five) different quarterbacks in four seasons. While Reich's offense is a bit west coast at its core, he has been known to open up the playbook to mix in some deep shots.
Over the past two seasons, quarterbacks in this offense have attempted 116 passes of over 20 yards down the field (according to Pro Football Focus). While all of those throws aren't necessarily designed deep shots, that still comes out to around three of these passes a game.
So, while they aren't a constant emphasis in this scheme, the shot plays are there in this offense. It just ultimately comes down to the quarterback and skill position players to make it work. Today, I dive into a few of these successful deep shots to discuss what Reich likes to draw up down the field and how he uses variations on these routes to find success.
Yankee Concept
Let's start with one of the more popular route combinations out there. Yankee has taken the league by storm over the past decade, as just about every team has adopted this route as a way to isolate their fastest receiver against an overmatched cornerback.
At its simplest form, Yankee is a route combination that features a deep post/crosser on one side of the formation with the receiver on the other side running a dig or a shorter crossing route. The main idea behind this play is for the underneath receiver (running the dig or crosser) to draw up the single high safety to create a deep window for the quarterback to hit the post over the top.
Here is an example from the Colts back in 2018. T.Y Hilton runs a post on the bottom of the screen while Dontrelle Inman runs a dig at the top. The safety bites on play-action, leaving Hilton alone to beat his man on the outside. While Yankee wasn't used as much in 2020 or 2021, Andrew Luck certainly loved this route call.
With Yankee being used around the league, defenses started to adjust to this call by having the safety switch in coverage to that deep post while the outside corner comes down to cover the dig or crossing route underneath.
In fact, Reich actually anticipated the Houston Texans to do exactly that this past season. So, he added a little variation. The play starts out like a typical Yankee call, but Parris Campbell whips back to the outside as soon as the outside corner passes him off to the deep safety. This leaves the field behind the outside corner wide open for Campbell to exploit.
As a result, he comes away with an easy score on the play.
Sail Concept
Another commonly used deep passing play is a Sail concept. Sail is a route combination that features the outside receiver running a clear out vertical route and the inside receiver/tight end running a corner route underneath that. This is an excellent cover three-beater as it puts the outside corner in a bind between two players to his side.
This clip below is a perfect example of the concept in action. Zach Pascal clears out down the field and draws the coverage from both the free safety and the cornerback. This allows for Mo Alie-Cox to slip out, undetected, to the sideline for the long completion.
Reich loves to run his Sails concepts to the weakside of the field, and he loves using his tight end as the primary target. It is well-designed play, as the tight end being in-line is an easy way to hide the player that you want to sneak out on the corner route.
Rookie Jelani Woods should be able to feast on these pass concepts in 2022.
Smash Concept
Up next is one of my favorite passing concepts from back when I played Madden. Smash is a simple high-low route combination that works best against zone coverage (primarily cover-two or cover-four).
The basis of the play is that the outside receiver is going to run a shorter route, like a quick out or a hitch. That route is designed to draw up the cornerback on the outside. On the inside, the slot receiver or tight end runs a deep corner route behind where the corner is supposed to be. If the corner is caught looking at the underneath route, it should mean the deeper shot is open.
The Colts were able to run Smash to perfection on the game-winning drive against the Arizona Cardinals this past season.
One of the more impressive variations that Reich added to this play came against the New York Jets earlier this past season. The play sets up like a typical Smash route, as Pascal even sells that he is going to work back to the outside from his inside positioning.
Instead, Pascal stair-steps to the outside and breaks back in for the throwback post route. This works to perfection, as the deep safety is caught way out of position and Pascal is able to haul the pass in for a huge gain. This is a play design that was certainly drawn up to counter what Reich saw on film from the Jets prior to the game.
Flood Concept
The last main concept we are going to talk about in detail is Flood. Flood is exactly how it sounds-- it features the offense flooding one side of the field as much as possible. It is an out-breaking concept that utilizes different levels of the defense to catch zone defenders peaking.
Reich drew up a beauty of a Flood concept back against the Cincinnati Bengals in 2020. The play operates similarly to smash, as the Colts are trying to catch the outside corner in cover-four with his eyes in the backfield. Trey Burton runs a deep out, which causes the corner to hesitate just enough for Philip Rivers to launch a beautiful deep corner to Marcus Johnson.
A little variation that Reich worked in last season was to have the backside slot receiver run the vertical part of the Flood concept. That way, it would be much harder for the outside corner to be aware of a route coming from the other side of the field. This was also effective because Carson Wentz had a cannon arm that could launch it over the top with ease.
This is the perfect example of this variation, as Wentz drops it in the bucket for Hilton on the deep shot.
Some Additional Deep Shot Plays
Dagger
Another great route concept to talk about is Dagger. Dagger is a two player route combination that involves the outside receiver on a side running a deep dig or in route. The inside slot receiver on the same side will run a vertical route over the top.
This design is effective at getting speedy slot receivers one on one match-ups with safeties down the field. The play above actually could qualify as dagger, as Reich likes to mix his dagger and flood concepts together a little bit.
Four Verts
While it is a bit of rarity in the Colts' offense, Reich has whipped out the classic four verts call from time to time (primarily against spot drop cover-two defenses). This is the simplest play to talk about, as it is just four vertical routes attacking the defense deep.
The Colts dialed up a beautiful slot shot to Hilton back in 2020 on a four verts call.
Mills Concept
The final one that we are going to look at is a Mills call. Mills serves the same premise as many of the others calls above, as the slot/tight end runs a deep in route with the outside receiver running a post over the top. The key is to draw that centerfield safety up to leave room over the top for the post.
This play against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020 is the perfect example. The middle of the field safety gets caught with his eyes on the deep in, which gives Pascal all the room he needs over the top with his post route.
The Bottom Line
While the Colts are certainly not a vertical passing offense, Frank Reich does have a variety of deep shots that he likes to mix into his scheme. The common theme on all of these route combinations is stressing the defense. The key on deep shots is to pull defenders out of their zones to create a window down the field.
Carson Wentz and Philip Rivers were able to take advantage on a lot of their deep opportunities, but the production should only increase with Matt Ryan. Ryan brings the timing and the arm talent to hit these open shot plays with ease.
For everyone that thinks that the Colts have a dink and dunk offense under Frank Reich, you are partially correct. This offense lives off of the short and intermediate game, but every now and then, Reich will dial up a beautiful shot play down the field.
Follow Zach on Twitter @ZachHicks2.
