Force of Will
With Falcons’ defense focused on Hopkins, speedster enjoys a breakout game
Fuller’s career game includes 217 receiving yards, three scoring catches.
The blistering speed of Texans wide receiver Will Fuller left the Atlanta defense behind all afternoon on Sunday at NRG.
But it was the Falcons’ respect for Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins that created an epic mismatch and resulted in a record day.
No play was more emblematic of how much the Falcons tilted their coverage to account for Hopkins than a 33-yard touchdown catch by Fuller during the first half of the Texans’ 53-32 victory. As Fuller streaked across the field, four Falcons defensive backs ran in the opposite direction to follow Hopkins.
That left a huge opening for Fuller. He capitalized on the lopsided coverage repeatedly for a career-high 14 catches for 217 yards and three touchdowns.
“Playing with Hop is easy,” Fuller said. “He gets a lot of coverages thrown his way. That’s why they brought me here, to help him out. It took me a while, but I finally had this big game. Just trying to help my dog out.”
Fuller joined Jerry Rice, Steve Largent and Jimmy Smith as the only players to have at least 14 catches, 200 yards and three touchdowns in a single game in NFL history. Fuller tied Hopkins and Andre Johnson for the most touchdown catches in a game in franchise history and Johnson for the most catches in a single game.
Fuller’s teammates on offense bowed to him on the sideline and lifted him off the ground as a tribute to his breakthrough game.
“He went crazy,” said wide receiver Keke Coutee, who filled in with Kenny Stills out with a hamstring injury and caught a seasonhigh three passes for 72 yards. “I wish I was him, but I was glad to see him to do that.
“We know Hop’s is always going to draw a lot of attention. He’s the best receiver in this league. Once he gets all those eyes on him, it opens up everybody else and lets everybody else make plays.”
Hopkins was thrilled to see Fuller thrive. Despite all of the extra attention paid to him, Hopkins also managed to catch seven passes for 88 yards on eight targets.
“Big satisfaction, honestly, man,” Hopkins said. “I know I can’t go out there and beat a team by myself. It’s the little things you don’t see on fantasy football. It’s real football.
“I love it. Will putting in work. Coming off of injuries, to come out and have that kind of game, I’m a proud big brother.”
The Falcons’ ill-fated coverage schemes engineered by coach Dan Quinn didn’t come as a surprise to quarterback Deshaun Watson, who threw five touchdown passes and piled up 426 yards for a perfect 158.3 passer rating.
“Starting with Hop, you have to double him. In my eyes, he’s the best receiver in the game,” Watson said. “You can’t allow him to beat you. He’s 99 on the (Madden) video game, so everything that comes his way he usually catches. Of course, they’re going to double the best receiver and see if their other guys can play man and lock up.
“Will Fuller is a prime receiver too, in my eyes, an All-Pro receiver. This offense can be very, very scary. Will did a heck of a job. And DeAndre did a heck of a job allowing Will to get open with double coverage and setting the routes up for him.”
The Falcons were befuddled by the Texans’ game plan. They never adjusted to what the Texans were doing and allowed 592 yards of total offense and 31 first downs as the Texans converted 10 of 13 third downs.
“We knew they were a pretty basic defense that wasn’t going to do too much,” Coutee said. “They were going to keep running the same thing over and over. Once we kind of found out their kinks they had, we just started capitalizing on our opportunities.”
Quinn provided an explanation the coverage issues that’s unlikely to satisfy a discouraged fan base after a 1-4 start.
“We certainly had good knowledge of Will heading into it, the shot plays, the speed he had,” Quinn said. “You better take care of Hopkins as well. There were times when we did roll coverage to him. That’s not why all Fuller’s happened, but I’ll obviously take a look and see which ones we can correct so it doesn’t happen again.”
The former first-round draft pick caught a 44-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to boost the Texans’ lead to 47-32.
“They were really zoning a lot of things off,” Fuller said. “We really had a lot of free, we were running into the coverages untouched. That really helped us out a lot. I think we took advantage of the matchup.”
The way that Fuller dominated falls in line with the vision the Texans have for their offense. They want to play fast, and Fuller and Hopkins’ complementary skills allows them to do that.
“I think what Deshaun sees, I think they were tilting a lot of things to Hop,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “Hop had his share of catches, but they were tilting a lot to Hop, which happens a lot, and Will had a big day.”
Fuller is one of the fastest players in the league, having run the 40-yard dash in 4.32 seconds. He suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament last October against Miami.
That injury set Fuller back. He’s just now starting to feel like his old self after a long medical ordeal.
“I’m still working on some things too,” Fuller said. “It still gets stiff here and there, still going to treatment, taking care of my knee. I’m starting to feel more like myself. Just staying on top of it because it was a serious injury.”
Fuller now has 14 touchdowns in 16 career games played with Watson. However, he entered Sunday with no touchdowns for the season on 14 receptions for 183 yards.
“I know I’ll see some stats out there where me and Deshaun, when we play together, I score every game, and this year we started out slow,” Fuller said. “I was just trying to get into a groove of things and help my team win.”