Colts' Alec Pierce Makes Game-Changing Catch vs. Raiders
The Indianapolis Colts bested the Las Vegas Raiders 23-20 in a must-win game this past Sunday. That win moved the Colts to 9-7 on the season and the team is in firm control of their playoff destiny heading into Week 18.
The Colts, led by their highly efficient offense, had many standout plays in this latest victory. The biggest game-changer, however, happened in the second quarter on a Gardner Minshew deep shot to Alec Pierce to extend the lead to 11 points just before the halftime break.
It has been a relatively quiet season for Pierce, as the sophomore pass catcher has struggled to get on the same page with Minshew all year long. That trend changed on Sunday however, as these two were able to take advantage of an excellent play-call by head coach Shane Steichen.
Today, I dive into this game-changing play and break down exactly why Pierce was able to find himself so wide open down the field.
Extensive Film Work
Coming into this match-up with the Raiders, Steichen knew that he would have a chance to dial up some shot plays in short-yardage situations. The Raiders like to sell out to stop the run in these situations, so Steichen understood that he had a chance to create a chunk gain with a max protect shot call.
Joel Erickson of the IndyStar got Steichen to open up about this topic post-game, as the coach went into some detail on how this play came to fruition:
They were in a zero look, no deep safeties and something we saw on tape. If it was zero like that, we got a chance to throw one over the top, we got to max it up and got the look. Shoot, Gardner (Minshew II) made a heck of a play stepping into that throw leading Alec (Pierce) across the field. No one was over there and catching it in stride to go score was huge.
The Colts were facing a 3rd and one in the second quarter of this game when Steichen saw his chance to dial up the big play. The Raiders loaded up the box with nine defenders to counter the Colts' 13 personnel look.
That was step one to this equation in calling the deep shot. The next step was figuring out if the Raiders were going to be in zone coverage or man coverage. If the Raiders were just going to bail out into zone, then the designed shot play would have a smaller chance of success.
In order to diagnose the coverage pre-snap, Minshew motioned Kylen Granson across the formation. Once the deep safety came down into the box to cover Granson across the line, the Colts' knew that they had the look they wanted for the shot play. That pre-snap information of man coverage is what made this play call possible.
From there, the result of the play came down to execution from both Pierce and Minshew. Minshew had to buy enough time under pressure to find his downfield receiver while Pierce needed to uncover down the field to create space for his quarterback.
Luckily, Pierce had plenty of room to work with on the play with the Raiders being in zero coverage. He had the bulk of the field on his side, so Pierce essentially ran a "run away from him" route into the open field.
The end result, as we all saw on Sunday, was a massive score for the Colts' offense. Pierce did his job as a deep threat receiver to separate on the post route and Minshew bought just enough time in the pocket to find his wide-open target.
This game-changing play was a combination of film work, pre-snap information gathering, and a QB/WR simply making a play. The little things like this are why the Colts find themselves in a win-and-in situation in Week 18 of the 2023 season this Sunday.
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