By Design: The best plays from Wild Card Weekend

Wild Card Weekend was entertaining, with three of the four games decided by one score. We were spoiled for choice, but here are the four best designs.

Passing Design of the Week

The game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Bears will be remembered for either a Cody Parkey missed field goal or a Nick Foles touchdown pass to Golden Tate, depending on your perspective. But the Eagles needed a pivotal third-down conversion a few plays before the TD throw, and that goes down as our passing design of the week.

Facing a crucial third-and-9 with under two minutes remaining and trailing by five, the Eagles break the huddle with two tight ends in the game, Dallas Goedert and Zach Ertz. They align with Foles in the shotgun and a bit of a full-house backfield look, including wide receiver Alshon Jeffery lined up deep behind the quarterback:

NFL/NBC

Jeffery doesn't remain in the backfield for long. He motions into the slot on the left side, where he'll run a quick little Bang 8 post route:

NFL/NBC

Between the offensive personnel and formation, the Eagles catch the Bears in a base Cover 4 coverage. That allows Jeffery to find space between the cornerback and the safety to convert this critical third down:

Your browser does not support the video tag. NFL/NBC

It took four more plays for the Eagles to get into the end zone and finish the drive, the scoring pass to Tate coming on a variation of Sprint Right Option - a play made famous by "The Catch," a pass from Joe Montana to Dwight Clark that helped propel the San Francisco 49ers to a berth in Super Bowl XVI. But it was this third down that set the stage for Foles' latest heroics and has the Eagles faithful dreaming of more Super Bowl finishes.

Rushing Design of the Week

Saturday night's tilt between the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys picked up steam after a slow start. On perhaps the biggest play of the game, the Cowboys and their rushing attack decided things - and Ezekiel Elliott wasn't the one carrying the ball.

With just over two minutes remaining, the Cowboys clung to a 17-14 lead and faced a third-and-14 at the Seattle 17-yard line. The Seahawks had one timeout and the two-minute warning, so the Cowboys were keeping an eye on the goal line and the clock.

Having made a curious decision to throw on the previous play - the attempt fell incomplete - the Cowboys opted to run the football in order to force the Seahawks to either burn their final timeout or let the clock bleed down to the two-minute warning. They called a quarterback draw, putting the football in Dak Prescott's hands with center Joe Looney and Elliott leading the way:

NFL/FOX

Despite the distance to gain, Prescott found a crease behind the blocking of Looney and somersaulted down to the 1-yard line:

Your browser does not support the video tag. NFL/FOX

On the next play, Prescott snuck into the end zone for the touchdown. The Seahawks scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion on their ensuing possession, but their onside kick attempt was handled easily by wide receiver Cole Beasley, clinching a Cowboys victory. This crafty quarterback draw on third down might have been the biggest play of the game.

Pressure Design of the Week

Many prognosticators - myself included - believed the key to a Los Angeles Chargers victory Sunday afternoon was limiting the Baltimore Ravens' running game.

The Chargers largely succeeded at this task, holding the Ravens to under 100 yards rushing and keeping Lamar Jackson to 54 yards on the ground. But their pass rush really set the tone. The Chargers sacked Jackson seven times, and their pass rush turned in the game's final big play.

Los Angeles' usage of Melvin Ingram was key. The Chargers moved him all around the defensive front, on the edge or even on the inside. When the Ravens faced a second down with under a minute remaining, trying to pull off a miracle comeback, the defense aligned Ingram inside over the left guard (outlined in red), with defensive end Joey Bosa on the outside of Ingram (outlined in blue):

NFL/CBS

Putting two pass-rushing specialists on the left side creates a one-on-one opportunity on the opposite side. In this case, that matched up Uchenna Nwosu (outlined in yellow) against rookie right tackle Orlando Brown, who fell from a potential first-round draft selection into the third round due to concerns about a lack of athleticism and strength.

Nwosu gets the better of Brown on this critical play, beating him to the outside and knocking the football from Jackson:

Your browser does not support the video tag. NFL/CBS

Ingram capped off a huge day for the Chargers' defense with the recovery, ensuring Los Angeles will come east for a second straight weekend and take on the New England Patriots.

Coverage Design of the Week

The first quarter basically tells the story of the game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans.

The visitors raced out to a 14-0 lead by scoring on their first two possessions of the game, and on its first defensive possession, Indianapolis forced a three-and-out from the Texans. On Houston's second offensive possession, it finally moved into Indianapolis territory but faced a fourth-and-5 at the Colts' 45-yard line.

Enter cornerback Kenny Moore.

The Colts used a lot of Cover 2 in the secondary, keeping two safeties deep to help over the top of DeAndre Hopkins and trying to limit big passing plays. They ran a mix of zone and man coverage underneath, and on this play, Moore is aligned in the slot.

The Texans empty the backfield and put three receivers to the left and two on the right. Indianapolis runs a Cover 2 scheme, leaving the underneath defenders in zone coverage. Given the down and distance, strong safety Clayton Geathers also spies Deshaun Watson, preventing the quarterback from scrambling for the first down.

NFL/ESPN

Watson, meanwhile, wants to hit Ryan Griffin on the curl route. He thinks he has a window as Geathers slides inside and away from Griffin to spy the quarterback - but the safety isn't the only defender sliding. Moore slides inside, passing off the vertical route from Jordan Akins and jumping the curl route:

Your browser does not support the video tag. NFL/ESPN

This angle offers a better look at how Geathers and Moore play this to perfection:

Your browser does not support the video tag. NFL/ESPN

This well-designed defensive scheme forced an early turnover that helped keep Houston in an early hole. For their efforts, the Colts earned a trip to Arrowhead Stadium, where they'll try to handle the Kansas City Chiefs' offense in a hostile environment.

Game Plan of the Week

Whether it was containing Jackson and the Ravens' running game or harassing the quarterback when he looked to throw, Anthony Lynn and Gus Bradley seemed to have all the answers Sunday.

In stopping the run, the Chargers relied on a high percentage of six- and seven-defensive back packages, using speed and athleticism to counter Baltimore's power rushing attack. As we discussed, the Chargers moved Ingram all around their defensive front, creating and then winning some advantageous one-on-one matchups. Another game plan like that could take the Chargers to the AFC Championship Game.

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.

Copyright (C) 2019 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.