Colts' Michael Pittman Jr is Pace-Setter for Surprising Offense: Film
The Indianapolis Colts improved to 7-5 on the season with a hard fought 31-28 win over the Tennessee Titans on the road this past weekend. One of the team's key contributors in the win was star wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr.
Pittman Jr. continued his fantastic pace for the season on Sunday, hauling in 11 receptions for 105 yards and the game-winning touchdown in overtime. While most of his work came in the short passing game, it is hard to watch this past game and not come away impressed with what the team's star receiver is doing on the field.
The unique aspect of Pittman Jr.'s game is that he's not being used like a traditional number one receiver. He's being asked to do most of his damage in the short passing game and that is limiting his overall potential to create explosive plays for the team.
His limitations are not due to his own shortcomings though, rather they are a result of what the Colts' offense needs him to be. See, the Colts are working with a quick passing backup quarterback at the moment, so it is vital for this offense to remain operational and efficient in the passing game despite the physical limitations they have at the position. This is what makes Pittman Jr. so vital to the equation.
He is not just the safety blanket for the Colts' passing game, he is the pace-setter. He is the passing game efficiency. He is the Colts' ability to move the ball down the field and he is how the team maintains a high success rate through the air. He may be limited on paper by his role, but his role is what has kept the Colts among the best in the league in scoring offense despite using a backup quarterback.
Today, I dive into Pittman Jr.'s role in this offense by taking a look at this past game against the Titans.
Zone-Beaters
The Titans are a well-coached defensive unit that likes to play a lot of zone coverage behind their strong run defense. The Colts knew that running the ball was going to be a bit of a struggle in this game, so they attempted to supplement the run game with the quick passing game in a lot of instances.
One way that a passing offense can stress a zone defense is by incorporating triangle reads. Triangle reads are half-field, three man routes that attack zones at three different levels of play. These concepts spread a zone out and isolate space for a quarterback to attack.
The most common triangle read that the Colts ran on Sunday was called a snag concept. Snag is similar to a smash call where the inside pass catcher in a 2x2 set is running a corner route. The outside receiver to that side is running a sit down route to the inside and the running back is the checkdown in the flat (creating the triangle read).
The Titans were drifting back on a majority of these calls on Sunday, leaving Pittman Jr. wide open on the sit down route. His ability to find that soft spot in the zone and his ability to hang on in traffic (over the middle of the field) led to productive gains on each of these three plays.
The Colts also ran a similar variation to snag in this game with high-low calls out of the same look. The Colts would line up in that same 2x2 set and have the tight end to the inside run a deep dig route rather than a corner route (to stress the middle of the field rather than the outside corner).
These play calls produced the same result as the snag calls, with Pittman Jr. hauling in multiple catches on these plays for productive offensive gains.
Blitz Outlet
The Titans brought a handful of blitzes against Gardner Minshew and the veteran quarterback (almost) always knew which receiver to go to in the face of pressure.
The two main instances of Pittman Jr. succeeding on Titans' blitz calls both came on crucial downs. Pittman Jr. was able to create instant separation off of the line and make himself available to his fading quarterback in the backfield.
The first play came on a fire zone blitz by the Titans. They simulated interior before dropping out to bring pressure off the edge. The end result appears to be some off-coverage quarters look by the Titans with the bailing defenders mugging the middle of the field.
Pittman Jr. recognizes the blitz vs. off-man coverage and quickly makes himself available for Minshew on the quick slant. Minshew is able to find his star player for the easy completion.
The Titans again bring pressure on this next play, but Pittman Jr. is able to make them pay on another slant route. The Titans opt to run press man coverage on the star receiver this time, but he is able to quickly win at the line of scrimmage to get the positive gain.
Pittman Jr. breaks down the Titans' cornerback at the line, wins inside positioning, and then turns up field for the first down on a crucial catch in the second quarter of the game.
Isolating the Best Player
The Colts' passing offense runs through Pittman Jr. He is the money maker on every down for this team, whether that is staying ahead of the sticks on first down, converting a crucial third down, or converting on the game-winning redzone score.
Pittman Jr. is the engine that keeps this offense running and the team isn't afraid to isolate him in certain situations to create productive gains. The fun part of the offense is that they do this in so many different ways.
This next clip is a quick speed out by Pittman Jr. against the out-leveraged linebacker on the interior. Minshew notices that the defense is playing back off the star receiver, so he takes advantage of the leverage advantage and hits Pittman Jr. for a productive gain.
The Colts take advantage of an aggressive Titans' defense in this second clip. The Titans are lined up in man across the board here, with Pittman Jr isolated with a wide split to the backside of the formation against an off-man cornerback.
With no safety help over the top, Pittman Jr. knows he has to threaten vertical here in order to open up the deep hook route on the outside. He gets his man to open his hips at the apex of the route, creating space for the deep completion on the hook on the backside.
The Colts faced another third and long in the second half of this game, so they decided to draw up an isolation route for their premier player. Pittman Jr. is aligned on the backside of the 3x1 bunched look facing what appears to be press coverage on that side.
The Colts designed this play to give Pittman Jr. a chance to beat his man and simply run away from him on the drag across the field. The play-side bunch look is operating as a clear out to give Pittman Jr. all the space he needs to catch this ball and turn up field.
He cleanly beats his man from the snap and gets up field for the massive first down conversion.
With the game on the line in overtime, the Colts drew up a beautiful RPO play to Pittman Jr. to send Tennessee fans home crying. The call was made to give Pittman Jr. a slight leverage advantage on the fake pick play, but the rest was up to the star player getting to his spot and hauling in the pass.
He is able to work his way into great position, and the rest is history on this game-winning play.
The Bottom Line
Michael Pittman Jr. is the safety blanket in the Colts' offense, but he is also so much more for this passing game. Without his impact and role on the team, the Colts simply wouldn't be able to move the ball at an efficient pace whatsoever. He is the pace-setter and the entire efficiency of the Colts' offense.
With Pittman Jr., Head Coach Shane Steichen has a player that can win at the line of scrimmage, can do the dirty work over the middle of the field, and can do damage after the catch when given some space to operate.
The end result of those skills is a player that is thriving as the pace-setter of the offense. Pittman Jr. is on pace for 123 receptions for roughly 1,259 yards with just five games remaining this year. Pittman Jr. may not be used as a traditional number one receiver in this Colts' offense, but he is (without a doubt) the most important piece of the Colts' operation in 2023.
Need your fill on daily Colts' content? Head over to the Locked On Colts' YouTube channel where Jake Arthur and I hit on all the major topics surrounding this team. Hit that subscribe button while you are there!
Follow Horseshoe Huddle on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to Horseshoe Huddle on YouTube for daily Colts live-stream podcasts!
