Baker Mayfield’s TD Pass To Chris Godwin Was A Week In The Making

New Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Cohen started off strong in 2024. The offense scored 37 points on four touchdown passes, including one from quarterback Baker Mayfield to wide receiver Chris Godwin. Week 2 was a tough battle for Cohen in his first time as a professional play-caller, as Tampa Bay was held to just 20 points in Detroit.

But that doesn’t mean Cohen didn’t get his chances. Before we get into the creative plays, though, it’s important to provide some context, because most great calls are prepared long before the play actually goes into the quarterback’s headset.

Liam Cohen introduces ‘Pony’ package to Tampa Bay

Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving and tight end Payne Durham – Photo: Cliff Welch/PR

Liam Cohen is looking to put a variety of playmaker combinations on the field as part of his new offense. One of those combinations will utilize both of the Buccaneers’ top running backs, Rachad White and Bucky Irving. In Week 1, Cohen ran the “Pony” package, which consists of two running backs, two receivers and a tight end, three times.

In the second week, Cohen returned to the well four more times.

Two-running-back personnel is nothing new in the NFL, but it’s rarely used. In theory, it can force defenses into tight personnel positions. If they choose to stick with the base personnel, they sacrifice speed and athleticism.

But if they choose to go lighter in a nickel package with five defensive backs, they sacrifice size to suit the run.The main reason most offenses avoid pony packages, however, is because one or more of their running backs don’t have the full repertoire of skills needed to take advantage.Those skills include blocking, handling as a receiver, and the ability to win in space.

Cohen, on the other hand, has used that package to minimize one of those skills. To date, the Buccaneers have split Irving wide pre-snap and moved him across the formation on snap motion. If a play was designed for Irving, like a sweep or end-around handoff or a pop pass, Cohen would run out of the backfield and put White on the backside of the play, so he wouldn’t be a key part of the blocking scheme.

The Bucks were big on screens in Week 1.

Par Pro Football Focus30% of Baker Mayfield’s pass attempts in Week 1 were behind the line of scrimmage. And the Buccaneers offense executed those plays very effectively, gaining 113 yards on nine attempts for an average of 12.6 yards per attempt. And all of that doesn’t even include an explosive screen to Chris Godwin that was negated by a holding penalty on Trey Palmer.

Cohen had plenty of practice with the screen, and it was sure to be a major focus for the Lions defense as the two teams prepare for their matchup in Week 2. Considering the Buccaneers have three players with different levels of danger in Godwin, running back Rachad White and Bucky Irving, Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn surely had his team ready to invoke these potential plays as part of the game plan.

Baker Mayfield teams up with Chris Godwin for trend-breaking play

Given the trends that were created by the merging of these two parts of the Bucks’ Week 1 game plan, it’s no surprise the Lions were ready to attack. And that’s when Liam Cohen bucked that trend and called for a vertical attack…

In the second quarter, the Buccaneers went back to the Pony package again with Bucky Irving moving across the formation at the snap. Chris Godwin, who plays a big part in Tampa Bay’s screen game from the slot, didn’t immediately rush onto the field on his route, and nickel corner Amik Robertson immediately targeted the screen. The first thing you notice is that he rushes into Godwin, thinking the ball might be going to him, then he quickly sees Godwin preparing to block and redirects into the backfield to block the screen to Irving.

Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin – Photo courtesy of USA Today

Then Godwin runs a vertical wheel route along the sideline. If the Lions are in Cover 3, it’s very hard to cover a vertical wheel route behind the post or in the middle of the field, and the Bucs know that. That’s absolutely true.

Mike Evans breaks through the coverage with a vertical bend to the middle of the field, drawing an over-the-top safety and field corner Terrion Arnold, which leaves the deep sideline uncovered and allows Godwin to make the catch and run to the end zone for a 41-yard catch-and-run touchdown.

Mayfield was asked about the play on Wednesday and acknowledged that the play had been prepared long before it was called.

“This is similar to how we’ve shown screens in the past. [running] “He went back and was trying to play that game against a flat defender, his eyes went in the wrong place and he dropped the ball in a spot where he wasn’t in the right position,” Mayfield said.[If] He goes with Chris, so I can just throw it at the screen and make sure they don’t go the right way. That’s why I said after the game, ‘I can’t believe how Liam puts the guy in such a tight spot.’ It makes my job a lot easier.”

For many of us, including myself, football is the ultimate game of chess come to life. For offensive and defensive play-callers, it’s not about the next play, it’s about setting up the next drive, the next quarter, the next game, or even later in the season or in the playoffs.

And when those plays are called and hit, it becomes moving poetry.