101 Yards for a Pick-Six!

The Houston Texans beat the Washington Redskins, today 23-21.  They don't get that win without a brilliant play near the end of the second quarter.  The Redskins had 3rd & goal at the Texans 9-yard line.  Down three at the time, the Redskins were either going to take the lead with a touchdown or tie the game with a short field goal.  Washington quarterback Alex Smith (#11) was in the shotgun.  The screen capture I got shows the formation (click on image for a larger view).

Smith's target on the play was tight end Jordan Reed (#86), who can barely seen lined up on the left side of the formation.  Texans rookie free safety Justin Reid (#20) is circled in the above image.  I've also pointed out Redskins tackle Ty Nsekhe (#79) and Texans defensive end Christian Covington (#95) for what comes later.

Now look at Smith's throw (click on image for a larger view).

Smith threw from the Texans 17-yard line, just outside the left hash.  You can see Reed on the far right of the image breaking his route to his left.  Reid is behind Reed, about to come up on Reed's right.  Confused by Reed and Reid?  So was Smith!  A closer look shows Reed breaking his route to his left, which is where Smith was throwing (click on image for a larger view).

Reid has his eyes on the throw the entire time.  Now watch as Reed stops suddenly to break off to his right (click on image for a larger view).

That didn't stop Reid, who was watching the pass, and knew he had a shot at a pick.  Check out what happened when Reed turned back (click on image for a larger view).

Reid had the interception while all Reed could do was look to his right.  Smith and Reed were clearly not on the same page on this play.  Justin Reid was now looking at daylight in front of him.  As he got going, Jordan Reed appeared to complain to his quarterback about the throw (click on image for a larger view).

In the above screen capture, Justin Reid had just taken his second of 48 steps that would lead him to the end zone.  Along the way, he got a great block from Christian Covington (click on image for a larger view).

Covington is blocking Ty Nsekhe.  Let's hear it for the 300-lb defensive end who stayed with the play and was able to make a crucial block more than 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage.  Great effort!

After crossing midfield, Reid hit a top speed of nearly 22 mph.  I made a plot of his speed versus time for the nearly 11.7 seconds it took him to score after making the interception (click on image for a larger view).

You can see in the above plot that his speed dropped as he neared the end zone.  Nobody could catch him!  Look at Reid turning around to see who's chasing him (click on image for a larger view).

Washington quarterback Alex Smith was the only one would had a shot at Reid, but Smith couldn't match Reid's speed.  Check out Reid loping into the end zone (click on image for a larger view).

It was great pick-six that was absolutely needed in a two-point win.  I hope Alex Smith is okay, because about half a quarter after the pick-six I described, he suffered a brutal leg injury and had to be carted off the field.

Gary O'Reilly of Playing with Science joined me on TuneIn's 1st & Goal to analyze Reid's pick-six for their Check Down segment.  Click here for the audio link.