Geno Smith’s 13 Passing Touchdowns in 2014

Geno Smith flashes some impressive touchdowns but between designed plays and some off-putting decision making, there’s still a lot of room for improvement- even when he gets the Touchdown he’s looking for.

Season Stats

Receiver Breakdown

Geno Smith threw touchdowns to players all over the depth chart, including two that weren’t on the week 1 roster, showing a surprising favor for Jeff Cumberland over any non-Eric Decker player. Cumberland’s speed and size has made him a favorite of Geno’s since his rookie year.

Down Breakdown

Talk about showing up when the team needs it. Geno Smith had over 60% of his touchdowns come on third and fourth down, making the play under the pressure of losing possession.

Distance and Location

Route Breakdown

3rd and 4 at OAK 5 (:31) G.Smith pass short middle to C.Johnson for 5 yards, TOUCHDOWN. N.Folk extra point is GOOD, Center-T.Purdum, Holder-R.Quigley.

Jets are in a 1×2 pro set with two RBs in the backfield. The Raiders’ show a cover-0 look on the pre-snap, with the corners showing off-man.

One of Marty Morwhinweg’s few trick plays that come from his own playbook is the inside shovel pass to the RB. Left guard Brian Winters (who would lose his job later in the season) comes across the line like on a power run with Chris Johnson following behind him. Right guard Willie Colon allows the man lined over him to pass by him while he goes to help Center Nick Mangold, and then heads to the second level. Geno’s three step drop-back fools the entire defense into seeing a passing play where there is none, as this is essentially a handoff. The ball comes through right as the DE bears down on Geno, and Johnson finds his way into the endzone easily.

3rd and 3 at GB 29 (8:29) (Shotgun) G.Smith pass deep left to E.Decker for 29 yards, TOUCHDOWN [C.Matthews].N.Folk extra point is GOOD, Center-T.Purdum, Holder-R.Quigley.

Jets are in a 1×2 Shotgun set with one RB in the backfield. The Packers’ are showing a cover-2 shell with man coverage but are going to change into a Cover-1, with the safety on the right side taking the slot receiver, while blitzing all of the linebackers.

The blitz alerts Geno Smith that he’s going to have a chance to take a deep shot against the one on one coverage he’ll have on the outside. Geno stares down Decker as he drops back, a huge error that he’s lucky doesn’t alert the safety in the middle of the field. He immediately lets go of this ball, stepping into a hit from Clay Matthews, and places it perfectly in stride for Eric Decker. Decker’s able to get so open by putting a quick double move on the CB faking an inside break, stepping into the inside and even turning his head and body to try to really sell it. Some nifty moves to make the CB hesitate and create separation.

3rd and 5 at CHI 19 (3:50) (Shotgun) G.Smith pass deep middle to J.Kerley for 19 yards, TOUCHDOWN. PENALTY on CHI-D.McCray, Unnecessary Roughness, 15 yards, enforced between downs. N.Folk extra point is GOOD, Center-T.Purdum, Holder-R.Quigley.

Jets are in a 2×3 Empty Shotgun set. The Bears’ show a cover-2 shell and are in zone coverage, although the CBs don’t exactly give that away before the snap since they’re shuffling around.

Geno Smith takes the snap and drops back while looking down the middle of the field. Just as he hits his backstep, he moves onto his next read. Jeremy Kerley runs right past his man, finding a the common wide opening in the Cover-2 between the safeties and above the linebackers. Geno’s able to hit him on time but this is a throw that I’m very critical of. For one, Geno in a stance that’s way too wide when throwing this ball- which might be the reason why this ball ends up going down as a line drive instead of floating towards the back of the endzone where it would have been an easy uncontested catch. Due to the placement of the ball and the trajectory, Geno gives the DB a chance to knock this ball down and also gives the safety a chance to knock the ball out of Kerley’s hands. All of that just isn’t good. It’s the wanted result but the entire process is unnecessarily dangerous.

3rd and 7 at DET 11 (7:32) (Shotgun) G.Smith pass short left to E.Decker for 11 yards, TOUCHDOWN. N.Folk extra point is GOOD, Center-T.Purdum, Holder-R.Quigley.

Jets are in a 2×1 shotgun set with the RB in the backfield. The Lions show a cover-2′ shell with one outside corner showing zone and the other showing man. It’s going to be man coverage with one of the corners passing Decker off when he reduces his split to the linebackers.

Geno Smith drops back reading the right side of the field where the strong side linebacker runs right past Decker, who’s running a snag from a nasty split. This forces the middle linebacker to cover two routes: Decker’s snag and Jeff Cumberland’s dig, which leads to him hesitating between them. Geno sees the open space to Deckers right side and the lack of bodies around him and takes the easy yardage, which Decker manages to turn into a touchdown by winning the leverage battle with the cornerback who tries to tackle him after the catch. This play has everything right by Geno: placement, timing, pre-snap reads, it’s all on point.

2nd and 2 at DEN 2 (4:21) (Shotgun) G.Smith pass short left to J.Amaro for 2 yards, TOUCHDOWN. N.Folk extra point is GOOD, Center-T.Purdum, Holder-R.Quigley.

Jets are in a 2×2 Shotgun set with a RB in the backfield. The Broncos’ are showing cover-1 man at the snap with five players on the LOS, all rushing Geno Smith.

All routes on this play are goal fade fades with exception to the slot receiver at the bottom. Geno sees during his pre-snap reads the mismatch he has as the 5’10 TJ Ward is manned up against 6’6 Jace Amaro. Geno could have realistically thrown this anywhere in the vicinity of Amaro, and more than likely have it caught just because of that massive size gap. Still, he takes one hop and places it towards the back shoulder of Amaro, away from Ward and in a spot that’s easy for Amaro to box Ward out of. The throw could have been further towards the outside to really make sure that Ward had no chance, but it might have been a conscious decision to keep it closer to Amaro’s body since his hands are not entirely trustworthy.

3rd and 2 at DEN 2 (7:59) (Shotgun) G.Smith pass short right to E.Decker for 2 yards, TOUCHDOWN. N.Folk extra point is GOOD, Center-T.Purdum, Holder-R.Quigley.

Jets are in a 1×3 shotgun set with a RB in the backfield. The Broncos’ are showing a strange cover-1 with the safety way off to the left side and man coverage on the pre-snap.

Another designed touchdown, Jeff Cumberland is tasked with clearing the man in front of him by running a fade to the back of the endzone. Jeremy Kerley immediately attacks his man vertically and then just runs into him to keep him from breaking onto Eric Decker’s slant that’s coming behind him. Decker’s man gets caught in the traffic and there’s nothing Denver can do.

3rd and 6 at NE 10 Jeff Cumberland 10 Yd pass from Geno Smith (Two-Point Pass Conversion Failed)

Jets are in a 1×2 shotgun set with a RB in the backfield. The Patriots’ are showing cover-1 with man coverage at the snap, and have 7 potential blitzers but only 6 come.

The blitzing of both inside linebackers alerts Geno Smith that he should have an open passing lane for Jeff Cumberland’s crossing route. Geno stares this route down, which Devin McCourty notices but doesn’t take advantage of. In fact, Devin McCourty hesitates to follow the route despite seeing Geno entering his throwing motion likely the intent of the defensive scheme, since ideally once the route passes McCourty, the Linebackers angle on Cumberland should dissuade Geno from throwing there and if he were to follow, he opens up that space for the post route behind him. Geno notices that the linebacker’s head isn’t turned and puts this ball into Cumberland, able to get it just past him. That’s a trait he’s shown in bursts in 2014, getting the ball past sleeping man-coverage. However, Geno probably should have floated this ball further into the endzone in order to get the ball just above the linebacker and given him absolutely no chance to make this play. Under duress from the six man blitz though, Geno doesn’t show this kind of quick, advanced decision making.

On the next page, we’ll look at the touchdowns Geno threw after returning from his benching.