Explosive Plays: Week 14, 2024

The Shanahan/McVay tree lit UP scoreboards this past week! Let's see how they did it.

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We are going all through the air this week! So many great designs from the passing game led to big points this week.

ARROW GLARE

This is such a simple split field concept combination to beat man and zone coverage, and most of us probably carry both concepts, at least individually. Arrow (Air Raid Y Corner) is one of my favorite concepts as it carries built-in answers for many coverages on its own. While it does have the ability to beat man coverage, it is significantly better against zone (although a well-run Cover 2 can be problematic). Glare (Glance-Rail AKA Slant-Wheel) is likely not considered a base man-beater concept by most offenses, but when the HB is running the Rail out of the backfield, that’s the “man-beater” element of it. That’s how/why I would package them together, but I don’t think that’s what happens here.

This play starts out in a bunch, motion to I, and shift back to bunch from the Gun. The defense shifted from a 4-3 look to a 5-2 look, and Purdy canned the play. The Bears catch them with a 5 man creeper - dropping the weak OLB and bringing the Nickel off the bunch. The OL slides weak. My assumption is that the intent of this play was thinking the WOLB was rushing and that the ILB would be attempting to cover the Rail. Instead, the WOLB drops to cover the Rail while LT Trent Williams has to decide which rusher to let free because the OL slides opposite the pressure.

Even so, the HB runs a great route. With the OLB dropping out more horizontally, he turns the Rail up inside and outruns him up the numbers for a TD. In my opinion, that’s still a “man-beating” element to the play. It’s one-on-one coverage, and ultimately, it’s a matchup advantage - a skill player against a pass rusher. As far as the coverage, it looks like a match fire zone coverage, so not technically man coverage. Ironically, the Glare side plays out like man and the Arrow side plays out like zone, both essentially against the coverage I would want them worked against, and both were wide open (see Kittle on the Corner).

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