Seam route to Evan Engram cracked Bucs' defense
Giants tight end Evan Engram completes the pass from quarterback Eli Manning and runs for 54 yards against the Buccaneers during a game at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
What had once seemed like a comfortable 31-14 lead in a guaranteed win had suddenly vanished after a furious comeback brought the Bucs within three points late in the fourth quarter. At 31-28 with 5:11 to play, the Giants needed a big play.
Pat Shurmur was about to take his shot.
The Giants’ coach and offensive play-caller faced a decision on second-and-8 from the Giants’ 35 after a 2-yard run by Saquon Barkley. The perfect time for a route the Giants had rarely run this season.
Shurmur noticed the Bucs were in zone coverage, an alignment that protected against the long pass but also allowed the linebackers to be mindful of zeroing in on the run. With Barkley having a terrific game on the way to a career-high 142 rushing yards, the Bucs had to respect the possibility that he would get the call again.
So Shurmur had Eli Manning fake a handoff to Barkley and draw the linebackers up toward the line of scrimmage. Evan Engram, lined up to the right of the formation, ran a seam route up the middle of the defense and found the gap between the safeties. Manning dropped back and fired a perfect pass to Engram in stride, and the second-year tight end got behind the defense for 54 yards to the 11. Three plays later, Barkley scored on a 2-yard run, essentially sealing what turned out to be a 38-35 win.
“It was a huge play in the game, and it was a run-action because at the time, you’re typically trying to mix in the run to move the ball,” Shurmur told Newsday. “Evan did a good job of getting behind [the linebackers and safeties], and Eli saw it. Because there were two deep safeties, [Engram] will bend it up in there.”
The seam route. It’s one of the simplest plays in football, yet it’s one that has largely eluded the Giants in recent years, especially when defenses decide to play it safe with Cover 2 and Cover 3 alignments to limit the deep passing game.
“That route hasn’t popped as well as it did,” Engram said. “It’s been rare that it’s worked that well.”
The Giants’ inability to solve zone defenses has been one of the great riddles for this team in recent years. Even when Ben McAdoo went 11-5 and got to the playoffs in his first season as coach in 2016, he had problems dealing with conservative defenses. It traces to an Oct. 9 game that season at Green Bay when the Packers’ secondary was riddled with injuries. Defensive coordinator Dom Capers responded by playing almost exclusively in Cover 2, and Manning was unable to throw deep in a 23-16 loss. Opponents continued to use that defense, and the Giants couldn’t overcome it.
The seam route is one of the few plays that can consistently break through that defense and eventually force teams to play at least some man-to-man and allow players such as Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard a better chance to get open.
The one thing that you need to run the seam effectively: a good running game, something the Giants haven’t enjoyed until Barkley came along.
“That play was created because we ran the ball so well that game,” Engram said. “When you run the ball like that and control the line of scrimmage and gash defenses, [linebackers] have to take at least one step up. And when you have speed like we do [with Beckham, Shepard and Engram] and you have the defense respect the run, we’re able to get behind those zones. It forces them to ease up a bit. Plays like that can get sprung. At that point in the game, we had to answer, and we did it.”
One play, but one very important play.
The Giants will need a lot more to live their dream of rallying from a 1-7 start to somehow qualify for the playoffs.
A simple route against a simple defense.
At least it was a start.
And maybe an eventual solution.
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
