Explosive Plays: Week 11, 2024

UNLOCKED showcasing how to use defense's rules against them, the best way to block weak-side Counter vs. Odd fronts, and a pro take on a high school staple!

BOW

This is an absolute masterclass in using a defense’s alignment rules against them to get to an advantageous situation while dressing up a core play. Nickel defenses send the Nickel/Star to the passing strength, i.e. the side of the formation with the largest passing threat. Because both flanks to the formation are even (2 tight stacks), the offset back in the gun becomes the determining factor to the passing strength. He aligns to the left side of the QB, so the Nickel goes to the offense’s left.

First, Jazz motion sends the HB to the offense’s right, away from the Nickel. The defense doesn’t match the motion, presumably because it would cause one of three things, all of which put the defense in a less advantageous position than staying pat:

• Full secondary rotation

• Traveling the Nickel all the way across the formation

• Bumping the Nickel to the middle and the MLB out

After this motion, the MLB appears to be manned on the HB. I also really like the addition of the Hump motion by Tyreek Hill. Significantly more often than not, offensive playcallers, myself included, use motion as part of the concept. It’s a sound idea in that we should be creating an advantage with a runaway opportunity, a switch release on the run, etc., but it comes with the caveat of potentially alerting the defense at the very least to the play-side of the passing concept. This is a great changeup to potentially get a defense’s eyes in the wrong place pre-snap.

As far as the concept itself, it looks to me to be the 3 man version of Bow, one of the largest staples of this system. The Arrow route acts as a pick on the MLB, so the HB gets out of the backfield completely uncovered for an explosive catch and run.

SUN SWIRL

Another great example of a simple motion using the defense’s rules against it. To the top of the screen, Dallas is playing Quarters. Mixon motions to the flat. I like the motion coming from the opposite side of the QB. The Nickel goes to the extended twins to the top of the screen as that would be considered a larger passing threat than the tighter twins at the bottom, but if a team were to have send the Nickel to the “3 WR side,” this motion would have left the Nickel on the back-side too. Regardless, he is the flat player in Quarters. Some defenses will also flip their inside linebackers based on the HB’s position, putting the better tackler opposite the HB expecting a cross face run and the better cover linebacker on the same side so he can handle the fast flat. This motion would also counter that defensive alignment.

I wonder if defenses tend to think that the offense is doing them a favor with motions like this because it’s a pre-snap “push” for the flat and hook defenders instead of during the heat of the play, but this concept really preys on overplaying that motion. The ILB gets a bit lackadaisical in pushing with the motion and has no regard for the Glance bending right behind him and in front of the Safety.

SPOON RAIL

This is a great adjustment to when the DBs are chasing the back-side of a Hi Cross concept, i.e. the Safety taking the Hi Cross and the CB chasing the Basic/Dover: force the flat defender to cover the Rail. Here, it plays out similarly to the classic Post-Wheel Cover 3 beater with the Hi Cross occupying the deep middle Safety. Darnold being flushed out of the pocket brought the Safety over early. Had Darnold been able to stay in and deliver this ball, I’d bet it gets taken to the endzone.

STUTTER

I love how this play is blocked up. This my base way of running weak-side Counter vs. an Odd front, and I don’t think it’s talked about enough. My least favorite block in football for a lineman to make is the play-side tackle base blocking the DE in an Odd front on weak-side gap runs. If the DE is a head-up 4, then it muddies up the kick for the back-side guard while giving the DE a two-way go to fit off the ballcarrier. If the DE is a 4i, I have had trouble getting my play-side guard comboing with the center up on the back-side ILB because there isn’t much space for him to get through. Both of these issues can be solved with the same adjustment: fanning the play-side tackle out as the Rams do here. That makes the DE causing all the problems the kick man. As a bonus, most DEs won’t squeeze down because the tackle isn’t blocking down, so it sets up for a nice trap. Everything clears up for the OL, and they deliver a fantastic crease for a nice and tight weak-side Counter run.

TOP SAME 25 WIZZ

The Packers put their spin on a high school staple: GF Counter away from Jet motion. A popular way to run Jet Sweep is behind a HB and sniffer lead blocking. When teams overplay the Jet Sweep, the natural Counter is…Counter. The Packers use Jayden Reed as their primary sweep guy, and this plays off of the Top Sweep behind the QB. Instead of running Counter, it’s Split Zone, but it plays out similarly.

The motion is going to hold the play-side force defender, giving the blocking surface 6 hats for 6 defenders. The angles against this front plus the same-side tag almost make it seem like the OL is just blocking down on the play-side of a gap scheme like Counter behind the Sweep action. The final part of the explosive run recipe is complete when the WR blocks the near safety, and the only unblocked players are the CB and the middle field safety.

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