Week 8 By Design: Breaking down the best plays from Sunday

Here's a look at the well-designed and well-executed plays that made our list in Week 8:

Passing Design of the Week: Heinicke's quick thinking nets Panthers 3 points

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton played a huge role in his team's 36-21 win over Baltimore, but his backup, Taylor Heinicke, makes our list in this category.

With five seconds left in the first half, the Panthers faced a fourth-and-7 near midfield. The plan was to try a Hail Mary, but since Newton was dealing with shoulder soreness, the Panthers had Heinicke come in to attempt the long heave.

However, rather than playing coverage, the Ravens decided to bring pressure, prompting Heinicke to make a split-second decision that paid off. Instead of waiting for his receivers to get downfield, the quarterback flipped a quick pass to tight end Greg Olsen (No. 88):

Since the Ravens rushed six players and had everyone else deep, Olsen found himself wide open on the left side and quickly motioned for the pass. After receiving it, he was able to get out of bounds, stopping the clock and putting the Panthers in position to convert a field goal on the final play of the half. They did just that moments later.

Rushing Design of the Week: Pin-and-pull pays dividends for Peterson

If you simply looked at the box score from Washingtons 20-13 victory over the New York Giants, you could be excused for thinking you'd traveled back to 2012.

Veteran running back Adrian Peterson has shown new life in the nation's capital - and he turned in another solid performance on Sunday, carrying the ball 29 times for 149 yards and a touchdown. The scoring play came late in the fourth quarter on this well-executed running play that uses a "pin-and-pull" element at the line of scrimmage:

Many teams are turning to this pin-and-pull element on zone-blocking plays - rather than having each offensive lineman flow in unison to one side of the field - because traditional zone blocking often asks a lineman to block someone to the inside who's aligned well outside of them - not an easy task. Instead, the pin-and-pull allows other linemen to pull around the initial "pin" to block on the outside.

Here, tight end Jeremy Sprinkle (No. 87) and right tackle Morgan Moses (No. 76) block down as the "pins." That allows right guard Brandon Scherff (No. 75) and center Chase Roullier (No. 73) to pull to the outside in front of Peterson. Roullier, in particular, executes a perfect block at the second level, which you can see with this replay angle:

Overall, it's a tremendously blocked play that gets Peterson into the secondary untouched and ultimately into the end zone for six.

Coverage Design of the Week: Bates reads Winston for pick-6

Hitch/Seam, or "Hoss," is a passing concept that's a staple for many of today's offenses. It's a two-receiver combination that pairs an outside hitch route with an inside seam route, often in the slot.

Teams like going to this design because it has an answer for any type of coverage, whether man or zone. Against a two-high safety look, such as Cover 2 or Cover 4, you can potentially hit the hitch route on the outside against a corner playing off the receiver, or you can throw the seam route in front of the safety before he breaks on it.

But to throw the seam, you have to be quick - and you need to make sure the safety's not reading your eyes. On Sunday in Cincinnati, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston did not follow that advice:

Here, Tampa Bay tries the Hoss to the right, but rookie safety Jessie Bates (No. 30) reads Winston's eyes and breaks on the seam route perfectly, stepping in front of the intended target and returning the interception for a touchdown. The mistake by Winston got him sent to the bench, while the pick-6 helped the Bengals prevail despite some late-game heroics from backup Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Pressure Design of the Week: Chiefs hound Keenum

Don't look now, but the Kansas City Chiefs are becoming a more complete team every week. Their offense has produced since opening day, but their defense is showing signs of improvement.

In their victory Sunday over the Denver Broncos, the Chiefs' D forced two critical fourth-quarter turnovers. The first was this strip-sack of quarterback Case Keenum by outside linebacker Dee Ford (No. 55):

On a third-and-9, Chiefs show pressure before the snap, putting seven defenders near the line of scrimmage, including linebackers Anthony Hitchens (No. 53) and Breeland Speaks (No. 57) over the left tackle, and linebacker Dorian O'Daniel (No. 44) outside the right tackle. Meanwhile, Ford's in a wide-9 alignment well outside the left tackle.

Upon the snap, both Hitchens and Speaks drop into overage as the Chiefs rush just four, but their potential blitz from the inside combined with Ford's wide alignment creates confusion and allows the latter to get isolated on left tackle Garett Bolles (No. 72). Ford gets around the big left tackle and all the way to Keenum, knocking the ball loose for Speaks to recover.

If this defense - which also intercepted Keenum in the fourth quarter on Sunday - can be opportunistic and give Patrick Mahomes more short fields to work with, the Chiefs will be tough to beat.

Mark Schofield writes NFL feature content for theScore. After nearly a decade of practicing law in the Washington, D.C., area Mark changed careers and started writing about football. Drawing upon more than a decade of playing quarterback, including at the collegiate level, Mark focuses his work on quarterback evaluation and offensive scheme analysis. He lives in Maryland with his wife and two children. Find him on Twitter @MarkSchofield.

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