Category Archives: Play Design

TD or Penalty? Analyzing the Controversial End to Notre Dame vs. FSU

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This weekend’s prime time college football game featured #5 Notre Dame visiting #2 Florida State. With seconds to play, Notre Dame appeared to score the game winning TD on 4th and Goal, only to be called back for Offensive Pass Interference. But what made it Offensive Pass Interference?

The play is a common goal line pass play for many college and NFL coaches: a Slant route and a Shoot or Flat route with the hopes of a natural “pick” to make it difficult to cover in Man to Man coverage. Notre Dame ran the play from a “Bunch” formation, which is 3 Wide Receivers aligned in a triangle close together. The Apex, point man, (Middle WR) runs to the goal line and attempts to make himself a big target and box out any defender. The outside Wide Receiver runs a Slant route, and the inside most Receiver runs a Flat route. Florida State matches this with straight Cover 0: FSU is in all Man to Man with no Safety help anywhere, with everybody else blitzing. Notice the backside Tight End and Running Back do not go out for pass patterns, and the pre-snap assignments are shown below:

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Dakota formation: How Julius Thomas makes it look “So Easy” vs. NYJ

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Week 6’s Jets vs. Broncos match-up featured another two Julius Thomas Touchdowns, his 8th and 9th of the season. The second TD came from a formation and play the Broncos have fallen in love with in the Red Zone, a simple backside slant from the “Dakota” formation (also known as X-Iso). The Broncos have clearly revealed a tendency from this formation; the question is whether anybody can stop it. The Dakota formation features 3 Wide Receivers split wide to one side, with a Tight End split out alone as the backside Receiver. Given the Broncos personnel, the defenses must make tough decisions. Multiple defenses have decided to cover backside Tight End Julius Thomas with a Safety with no other defensive back to the lone Receiver side. The Broncos have repeatedly attacked this defense with a basic slant route. Here is a freeze frame of last year’s Chiefs v. Broncos game using a Dakota formation:

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Via Bleacher Report

This play resulted in a Touchdown via a Julius Thomas backside slant route. Fast forward to week 1 of the 2014 season. The Colts see the Dakota formation and decide to play Safety LaRon Landry in Man-to-Man coverage. Julius Thomas runs a slant again:

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Rodgers Play Action Progression leads to long Jordy Nelson Sting Route TD

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The first quarter of Week 5’s Thursday Night game featured a 66-yard Aaron Rodgers Touchdown to Jordy Nelson. Rodgers put on a QB clinic on this play with an excellent Play Action fake, going through his progression, looking off a safety, and then throwing an accurate deep bomb to Jordy Nelson on a Sting Route. Green Bay only needed a 2-man route to score a Touchdown. Here is the pre-snap look with the routes: Green Bay is running a Play Action pass faking Outside Zone to the left. Randall Cobb, (#18) at the bottom of the screen is inside releasing and running a deep “Post-Dig” route at 15 yards. Finally, Jordy Nelson, (#87) the Wide Receiver at the top is inside releasing, stemming to the corner, and then running a Deep Post (called a Sting Route):

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Minnesota is in a base 4-3 Cover 2 look, with both Safeties responsible for one “Deep-Half” of the field, and each of the Cornerbacks and linebackers taking an underneath zone for five defenders across underneath: Continue reading →

Texans’ Outside Zone Stretch & Arian Foster’s TD Cut

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Every NFL Sunday, the “Zone” run play is called and executed countless times. However, few run it better than the Texans’ Arian Foster. For years Gary Kubiak made the “Outside Zone” or Zone Stretch play a staple in the Texans playbook, and Bill O’Brien has continued to run the play with one of the NFL’s best Running Backs. A perfect example of the Outside Zone was on display this past Sunday on a 3rd Quarter Arian Foster Touchdown.

The basic premise of the outside zone (or zone stretch) play is simple; every lineman will “zone their gap”, or block the immediate area to the side of the play. (in this case, the linemen’s left). Lineman are given the “On or Outside” rule, meaning they should block the player immediately on them, or if nobody is on them, the first player to the outside. If a lineman has a defender immediately to the inside, they will give help so the next lineman can “take over” the block. Arian Foster will run to the outside leg of the Tight End and then make one cut: either continue outside if all the defenders are sealed, or if a defender has overrun the play, plant a foot in the ground to make a zone cut up the field. Here is the look the Texans saw against the Cowboys pre-snap:

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Here, the Tight End (#87 C.J. Fiedorowicz) will help the Left Tackle “take over” the Defensive End, (#58 on Dallas), and then attempt to reach block up to the Linebacker, #52, Justin Durant. Meanwhile, the rest of the line takes their Zone step in sync: Continue reading →

Ole Miss burns Bama’s 2-Blue Solo Pattern Read with Pivot, Dig, & Deep Post Route Combo

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This weekend’s College Football games were some of the craziest in recent memory, with 4 of the top 6 teams losing. #2 Alabama lead #11 Ole Miss by 10 in the 4th quarter, but gave up 2 Touchdowns late to lose the game. Both of these Touchdowns came from Trips passing combinations. In fact, Trips combinations gave the ‘Bama defense trouble all day. The game tying touchdown came with just under 6 minutes to go from this Trips look, with the backside Wide Receiver running a comeback. On the Trips side, the outside WR runs a Deep Post, the middle WR runs an intermediate dig (10 and In), and the inside WR runs a “pivot” route, or a 5 and out with an open face turn. This picture is seen below for a 1st and 10 from the Alabama 34-yard line:

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The focus throughout the play should be on the defenders circled in red: the Safety, Linebacker, and Nickelback. Continue reading →

Alshon Jeffery’s “Ghost Motion” Touchdown & how Brandon Marshall Affects Defenses

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The second quarter of Week 4’s Bears vs. Packers game featured a wide open Alshon Jeffery receiving touchdown on a play where only 2 Bears ran routes. Jeffery is an excellent Wide Receiver, but got an assist from both fellow Wideout Brandon Marshall and Coach Marc Trestman on the score. Before the snap, Alshon Jeffery went in Ghost motion, which is to arc behind the line of scrimmage from the outside.

Here is the pre-snap look with how the Packer defensive assignments will match-up with the offense: Jeffery will run back to where he started toward the goal line. Brandon Marshall will run a skinny post from the slot. (Both in navy blue). On the defensive side, Sam Shields (#37) for Green Bay is playing Man-to-Man on Jeffery (in red). Brandon Marshall is being “bracket” covered, or double covered, which is highlighted in orange. The slot Cornerback will play outside leverage, and #33 will be responsible for any in-breaking route from Marshall. The play is accompanied by play-action to the right, with a “Max-Protection” of 8 blockers.

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Safety and slot corner “bracket” inside WR Brandon Marshall

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