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Bullock’s Film Room (paywall)
Against the [Bengals], Lane led the team with three catches for 42 yards and played a lot more snaps. Interestingly, the Commanders played him a lot more on the outside, perhaps as a challenge to see if he could step up there with Noah Brown still injured. So how did he get on? Let’s take a closer look.
While the Commanders run game dominated on the opening drive. Lane immediately caught the eye on the second drive.
On this play, Lane aligns outside to the right of the formation. Prior to the snap, it looks like the Bengals are going to play man coverage with a corner up in press against Lane, but just before the ball is snapped, the corner bails out and the defense rotates to a Cover-3 scheme. That changes how Lane needs to run his curl route. Instead of working to beat a jam at the line of scrimmage and then trying to get on top of the defender, he now has a defender bailing deep to stay on top of him. So at the snap, Lane widens his path to force the cornerback wider, creating more of a gap between the corner and the safety in the middle of the field. This not only creates space for Lane, but also for the tight end running up the seam.
Lane shows off his impressive speed, eating up the cushion between himself and the corner in no time at all. He almost manages to get into the corner’s blind spot by how quick he is and how well he angles his path. That forces the corner to keep bailing backwards to stay on top of the potential threat of a go route, which enables Lane to break off his route and create lots of separation. He creates a good five yards of separation as he comes out of his break, which means he can afford to wait for the slightly late throw to arrive without the threat of it being contested.
Later on, Lane had another strong curl route against a different type
of coverage.
NFL.com
Grade A
Josh Conerly Jr. – Oregon · OT
Washington Commanders 0-2
Conerly stated his case for the Commanders’ starting right tackle job against the Bengals on Monday night. He quickly walled off his man on Washington’s second play from scrimmage, leading the way for Chris Rodriguez Jr.’s 40-yard scamper. His movement was equally impressive on other runs, and he sustained his blocks longer than most first-year linemen typically do. Big Kris Jenkins tried to bull Conerly into the backfield on a pass play, but the rookie stuck his feet into the ground and bent his back to anchor. He gave up the inside lane on one pass-pro rep but later stopped similar advances. Conerly again looked like a veteran holding his...
