Explosive Plays: Week 13, 2024

Outside Zone Lead, Quads Dagger, Zone Triple, and more on Week 13's Explosive Plays!

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TOSS 19 SAMMY

Towards the end of this past season, this became my preferred way of blocking Outside Zone vs. 3 down defenses. “Sammy” is a strong-side run, and “Sideline” would be its weak-side counterpart. What both runs are designed to do is to isolate the Fullback on the EDGE defender. I like it because it keeps the blocking consistent for my OL when they don’t have to worry about accounting for a down OLB, and it also allows them to execute their blocks with better leverage fighting to the outside because their targets are head up or back-side instead of already aligned to the play-side if the blocks had to be fanned out to account for the EDGE defender. One of the things that has killed Outside Zone runs for me in the past is the defense simply stringing it along so far that third level players are able to fit and back-side defenders are able to catch up. Allowing the OL to use play-side leverage and essentially have the HB read off of the FB’s block can create much more consistency getting to the edge where the vast majority of runs in high school football explode. Those same principles can be seen in this clip.

The FB has the OLB, number 45. The entire rest of the blocking surface is blocking somebody to their back-side (including the Center because I count head-up defenders as back-side players as a default rule. We should beat them to the point of attack because we know where we’re going and they don’t, therefore putting them in the back-side gap is what I coach my Offensive Linemen). Watch this clip from the endzone view and see the leverage every blocker has on the defense. The HB simply has to see which half of the EDGE defender the FB takes and make his cut from there.

DAGGER SPECIAL

Matt LaFleur does such a good job at running the same concepts week in and week out by presenting them in different ways. This is a nasty formation for a defense to account for:

• Quads

• Empty

• Closed/Nub TE

With the Closed side having the on-ball TE, that’s where the strength of the front goes, especially at the high school level. Conceptually, this is Dagger Special, regular Dagger with what I consider to be a Hi Cross from the #3 WR. The two inside verticals essentially force the defense to clear out space for the Dagger. It’s protected with double chip protection to ensure time for these deep routes to affect the defense.

What is so impressive to me about this clip is that if you pause it when Love throws the ball, you can argue that he throws it to the least open eligible and the play still explodes. He probably has a TD if he leads Christian Watson on the Go, they’re at least getting inside the 10 if he hits Jayden Reed on the Cross, the Dagger is open right inside the numbers, and the defender over the HB is deeper than the defender over the Y. It would be one thing if the defense was pressuring, but this is just a 4 man rush on 1st and 10. That is such a testament in my opinion to play design on Matt LaFleur’s part that he can get every single eligible open on a concept they’ve run all season. This play is a nightmare to defend because it messes with nearly every single rule of match coverage that I’m aware of, and even in man coverage, there are runaway opportunities.

Speaking of of opportunities, enrollment in the Winter cohort of Wide Zone Warriors is officially closed! I’m looking forward to get to dive deep into a few offenses and help evolve them moving into next season. The next enrollment period will be in February with the Spring group going from March-May with a focus on designing spring install and evaluating spring practice to move into the summer, so be ready in February!

Paid subscribers have access to the rest of the article where we break down an elite tendency breaker, zone triple option, and two play action passes! Also included is the full cutup of every explosive pass and run (23+ minutes) from this tree in Week 13, and there were a litany of fantastic designs this week.