Tom Savage vs Indianapolis
Tom Savage was drafted by the Texans as a “project QB” for Bill O’Brien to work with and potentially mold into a starting QB. In his pre-draft scouting report Savage was noted as having a strong arm with a very good deep ball, the knowledge of how to run a pro-style offense, and the willingness to stay in the pocket and deliver a throw. His big flaws were his pocket awareness, advancing through his progressions, and his somewhat inconsistent accuracy in the short and mid range game. We were able to get an unexpected glimpse into Savage’s development when he was suddenly thrust into the starting role in the second quarter against Indianapolis in Week 15. Let’s see what skills, if any, Savage has improved in his time with the Texans.
Stats
10/19, 127 yards, 6.68 YPA, 0 TDs, 1 INT, 2 fumbles, 1 Sack for 5 yards, 1 rush for -5 yards
Tom Savage enters the game for the injured Ryan Fitzpatrick with 13:20 left in the 2nd Quarter and the score tied at 7.
Play 1
Situation: 3rd and 4 at HST 42
Description: Q2 - (13:06) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass short left for D.Hopkins to IND 49 for 9 yards (J.Freeman; D.Toler)
Hopkins is running a 10 yard in route on this play. Shaun Phillips (highlighted on the line) times the snap to near perfection and just beats Derek Newton around the edge. Savage feels the pressure coming from his right, moves to his left, makes a nice move to avoid the arm tackle, and then fires the pass to where only Hopkins can make the catch.
The inside linebacker breaks out of his zone to go after Savage leaving a wide open space in the middle of the field. Savage easily finds Hopkins and hits his mark for the completion.
Play 2
Situation: 2nd and 15 at HST 46
Description: Q2 - (11:45) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete short left D.Hopkins.
Savage sends Hopkins in motion for the screen, but his throw is too far off the mark and Hopkins isn’t able to bring it in.
Play 3
Situation: 2nd and 9 at HST 24
Description: Q2 - (5:29) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete short left to D.Hopkins.
Savage makes a good drop back and throw on this play. He aims for the sideline to keep the ball away from the corner so that Hopkins can make the catch, but he just misses his target and it sails wide.
Play 4
Situation: 3rd and 9 at HST 24
Description: Q2 - (5:27) (Shotgun) T.Savage sacked at HST 19 for -5 yards (R.Jean-Francois)
No one picks up the blitzing linebacker on this play (though Brandon Brooks attempted to) and Savage is hit before any of his receivers can get open.
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Play 5
Situation: 3rd and 6 at HST 16
Description: Q2 - (1:54) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass deep right to D.Hopkins ran ob at IND 49 for 35 yards.
The Colts line up on this play with a single high safety and man coverage across the board. Hopkins is getting one-on-one coverage against Greg Toler and Savage identifies this immediately.
When Savage drops back he knows exactly where he’s going with this ball. He makes a very mature play here by taking the snap and freezing the safety on this play.
Savage quickly looks towards Hopkins, sees him get around Toler, and throws up a ball for him to go grab. The safety can’t cover enough ground to disrupt the pass and Toler is outright beaten by Hopkins on this play.
Play 6
Situation: 3rd and 1 at IND 40
Description: Q2 - (1:06) (Run formation) T.Savage pass incomplete short right to A.Foster (J.Newsome).
Savage didn’t call the right protection on this play. Jonathan Newsom comes in unblocked and easily disrupts the pass.
Play 7
Situation: 3rd and 9 at HST 21
Description: Q3 - (13:33) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass short middle to A.Foster to HST 29 for 8 yards (D.Jackson).
Quick set and fire from Savage. He makes the correct throw getting the ball to Foster on the quick slant and hits him in the chest on the throw. This was a conservative play call that almost netted the first down thanks to the quick release by Savage.
Play 8
Situation: 3rd and 4 at HST 13
Description: Q3 - (9:18) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass short left to R.Griffin pushed ob at HST 16 for 2 yards (J.Freeman). Penalty on IND-E.Walden, Defensive Offside, 5 yards, Enforced at HST 14 - No Play.
Savage steps into the open space and fires it quickly to the tight end running the flat. Even though there was a penalty on the play Savage showed good awareness here by stepping into space and throwing on the mark to Griffin. What he failed to do was recognize that the defender had jumped offside and attempt a bigger play. He needs to get better at recognizing situations like that so that he can use his great deep ball more often.
Play 9
Situation: 2nd and 6 at HST 46
Description: Q3 - (7:38) (No Huddle, Shotgun) T.Savage pass short right to R.Griffin, pushed ob at HST 49 for 3 yards (B.Werner).
Savage’s first read on this play is Hopkins on the spot route. Savage sees that Hopkins is covered and moves to his next progression and completes the pass to Griffin. However, Savage set his feet far too early on this play. He set like he was going to throw to Hopkins, but then changed his mind and went to Griffin and had a bit of an off balance throw. I’d like to see him keep his feet active in that situation so that he can turn and fire a better pass, even though this one was perfectly placed for Griffin to make the catch.
Savage also missed a chance hit another deep ball. DeVier Posey at the bottom of the screen is in one-on-one coverage with absolutely no safety help. He beat his man off the line, but Savage was so fixated on the right side of the field that he never even saw the route.
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Play 10
Situation: 3rd and 3 at HST 49
Description: Q3 - (7:10) (Shotgun) T.Savage FUMBLES (Aborted) at HST 44 and recovers at HST 43. T.Savage to HST 43 for no gain (B.Werner).
Savage mishandles the snap, but quickly recovers it. Not that it would have mattered much as the outside linebacker came in completely unblocked and would have had an easy sack.
Play 11
Situation: 2nd and 9 at HST 23
Description: Q3 - (1:48) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass deep left to D.Posey pushed ob at IND 47 for 30 yards (V.Davis).
DeVier Posey beats his man (Vernon Davis) with a quick chop step and cut out and up. Notice how the safeties are lined up on this play. They have one deep on Hopkin’s side of the field to prevent his deep threat ability, while allowing Vontae Davis to cover the 3rd string outside receiver Posey one-on-one with no over the top help.
The shallow safety picks up Damaris Johnson who’s running the out route. Savage recognizes this and sees Posey has a one-on-one and an opening on the sideline. The deep safety has no way of getting in to break up the pass so it’s all on Davis who loses a step to Posey and is unable to get to the ball in time. This is great recognition by Savage and an absolutely perfect throw. He did just about everything right on this play.
My one complaint, is the throwing motion that Savage uses on this play. He throws off his back foot with a bit of an open stance to where he’s aiming. It’s almost like he squared up with where he wanted to place the ball. His follow thru also looked very odd like he didn’t mean to throw it the way he did. Unlike most of his other throws, this was a complete arm throw by Savage. He’s also falling away from his throw instead of stepping into it. I’m not sure what happened on this play because he never does this throwing motion again for the rest of the game, and only makes a couple more arm throws in the entire game. Regardless, the throw was still perfectly placed which just makes this play even more unusual.
Play 12
Situation: 1st and 10 at IND 34
Description: Q3 - (:10) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass short middle to A.Foster to IND 31 for 3 yards (J.Freeman).
Technically this is a pass, but this play is really just a handoff to Foster.
Play 13
Situation: 1st and 10 at HST 14
Description: Q4 - (12:22) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete short right to A.Foster. PENALTY on IND-G.Toler, Defensive Holding, 5 yards, enforced at HST 14 - No Play.
Savage pumps once and throws for Foster on the sideline. Lots of good things from Savage on this play. He’s light on his feet and almost dancing in the pocket. Savage alternates his feet which allows him to quickly set and throw. Savage also stands in the pocket with a rusher coming straight for him and delivers a throw right to Foster that is only dropped because of the hit.
Play 14
Situation: 2nd and 13 at HST 16
Description: Q4 - (11:20) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete to D.Hopkins. PENALTY on IND-A.Studebaker, Defensive Offside, 5 yards, enforced at HST 16 - No Play.
Savage does a nice pump fake and quickly progresses to his second read and throws up a ball for Hopkins, but the throw sails on him (which doesn’t happen very often) and winds up out of bounds. Also notable on this play is how Savage once again stands in the pocket composed and in control even though three of his linemen are being pushed into him. I have a feeling Savage also saw the offside and decided to take a shot because Johnson hadn’t even gone into his break yet when Savage moved on from him.
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Play 15
Situation: 2nd and 8 at HST 21
Description: Q4 - (11:14) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass short right to D.Johnson pushed ob at HST 36 for 15 yards (G.Toler).
Savage sets his feet a little too early on this play. Unlike many of these plays where Savage just stares down his first read, he normally does not set his feet before he’s ready to throw. On this play it’s clear he’s going to Damaris Johnson because as he drops back he looks right at him, turns in his direction, and then sets his feet and waits for Johnson to get open. This is something he needs to avoid doing in the future because it will not work against NFL defenses.
Play 16
Situation: 3rd and 3 at HST 43
Description: Q4 - (9:21) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass short right to D.Hopkins to IND 48 for 9 yards (G.Toler).
The poise by Savage on this play is pretty remarkable. He has a defender leaping into his face, and he still stands tall and delivers a bullet to Hopkins.
Play 17
Situation: 3rd and 4 at IND 42
Description: Q4 - (7:24) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete deep right to D.Hopkins.
Savage does a good job to start the play. He freezes the safeties for a second and then turns to make the throw to Hopkins. A miscommunication on the play leads Savage to think Hopkins is going deep when he’s actually running a comeback route.
Play 18
Situation: 4th and 4 at IND 42
Description: Q4 - (7:18) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete deep right to D.Hopkins.
Another miscommunication on this play. Savage expected Hopkins to run a comeback route, but Hopkins was running the fade. Hopkins had the right idea in continuing his vertical route after he beat the corner off the line, but Savage made the correct read and saw the safety creeping over to help cover the deep ball. Savage’s throw was ill advised though as Hopkins had no chance of making a catch on the comeback route.
If Savage gives Damaris Johnson an extra second before making the throw this play is likely a touchdown.
With Johnson’s speed and that much open space in front of him the touchdown is almost an after thought. He runs a great route, but Savage is so fixated on getting the ball to Hopkins that he throws it into coverage and it winds up incomplete.
Play 19
Situation: 1st and 10 at HST 20
Description: Q4 - (2:11) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete deep right to R.Griffin.
Savage drops back and feels the pressure in front of him and just throws the ball away. Savage’s problem on this play is that he just doesn’t look to the other side of the field. Had he done that he would have seen the outside receiver wide open on the comeback route.
Play 20
Situation: 3rd and 6 at HST 24
Description: Q4 - (1:58) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass short left to R.Griffin pushed ob at HST 32 for 8 yards (D.Butler).
Savage feels the pressure coming from the left and steps into the open space and fires a rocket to Griffin on the sideline.
Play 21
Situation: 1st and 10 at HST 32
Description: Q4 - (1:51) (No Huddle, Shotgun) T.Savage pass short middle to A.Foster ran ob at HST 39 for 7 yards.
Savage makes the throw to Foster who was his first read on this play. He sold the throw far too early, but the defense didn’t react quickly enough and Savage was able to complete the pass.
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Play 22
Situation: 2nd and 3 at HST 39
Description: Q4 - (1:45) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete short middle to D.Johnson.
Good pocket presence from Savage here. Feels the pressure, but doesn’t let it get to him. He delivers a catchable ball over the middle, but his placement is off the mark. The linebacker just barely gets a hand on the ball and causes Johnson to drop the catch.
Play 23
Situation: 3rd and 3 at HST 39
Description: Q4 - (1:40) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass incomplete deep left to D.Hopkins (S.Brown)(A.Jones).
Savage delivers a throw to Hopkins, but he puts too much air underneath it and that allows the safety to come over and deliver a big hit to break up the pass. Savage was injured on this play after being hit in the leg. Houston would call a timeout to give Savage a chance to recover and make one last play.
Play 24
Situation: 4th and 3 at HST 39
Description: Q4 - (1:34) (Shotgun) T.Savage pass short left intended for D.Hopkins INTERCEPTED by V.Davis at HST 48. V.Davis pushed ob at HST 40 for 8 yards (R.Griffin).
There’s a full press man on every receiver on this play with only a single high safety.
No one is able to beat the press which puts Savage in a very poor position.
The only hope this play had of succeeding was Arian Foster running a delayed route into the wide open space in the middle, but even he is pressed at the line and is unable to break off in time.
Damaris Johnson in the slot at the bottom of the screen also has a breif opening, but Savage never looked his way.
Savage never takes his eyes off Hopkins as he tries to force the throw in and Vontae Davis easily reads the play and makes the interception.
Final Thoughts
Tom Savage suffered from his lack of playbook knowledge in this game against the Colts. He had several incorrect protection calls and a few miscommunications with his receivers. With that said, I still see a lot of potential in Savage. His footwork is much better than it was in college, though it’s still inconsistent at times. Savage will still set his feet too early on occasion and make poor throws. However, he’s displaying lighter feet and a more consistent rhythm with his footwork. He also improved on his reads. He’s watching the safeties now and adjusting his throws to them. He’s also improved his internal clock and tries to get rid of the ball much more quickly now. In college he earned the reputation for his pocket presence because he simply held on to the ball too long. Now he’s not only standing in the pocket and delivering, but he’s making quicker decisions and smarter ones at that.
Where Savage still needs to improve is his field awareness. He seems to get tunnel vision towards one side of the field and needs to have better full field awareness. He also needs to stop staring down his first read and freeze the safeties more often. I blame this problem mostly on Savage simply not knowing the playbook well enough to anticipate who would get open. However, he had the same problem in college so it could still be a lingering problem. Savage also needs to get better at progressing through his reads. He simply doesn’t look around enough. This goes back to my tunnel vision comment, he gets so fixated on one side of the field, or even one particular receiver, that he blinds himself to the rest of the play.
Overall, I think Savage is on the right track. He’s far better than most people will give him credit for. His time under Bill O’Brien is doing him a lot of good, and should continue to help him grow as a player. As for his competition with Hoyer and Mallett, I don’t think Savage is ready to win a QB battle just yet. As a 3rd string QB, there are certainly worse options to have, and as a backup he’s a decent replacement. If given some more time to actually learn the playbook and develop some chemistry with his receivers I could see Savage competing for a team’s starting spot in 2016.
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