Explosive Plays: Week 4, 2024

First week of adding the Packers, Vikings, and Texans to our breakdowns, and they made quite the impact!

18 ZAP SEAL

This play immediately stands out from an aesthetics perspective. You can tell a good rep of Outside Zone right away when you see the HB never get off his track and still hit for an explosive. He has to throttle down slightly as he’s approaching the hole, but his angle doesn’t change.

ZAP is an Outside Zone run to a 4 man surface, which the 49ers have here with the Y (Kittle) and the F (Jennings). SEAL is a back-side tag to have an extra blocker. Generally, it is used to cut off a C gap DE when the BST has to combo/climb through the B gap. I can’t say for sure that it was tagged here as I don’t have any access to their play calls, but normal ZAP has a two man surface back-side.

SEAL tag

The technique of the blocking surface is fantastic here, specifically by the Y and the RT. Kittle (Y) surely knows pre-snap that he has no chance of fully reaching the OLB over Jennings (F), so instead of hooking and fighting for outside leverage, he executes a match block, widening the OLB at first then throwing him out, clearly defining the outside edge of the running lane for the HB. The RT gets great hand placement on his hook block and absolutely drives the DT off the LOS, basically by himself. As the HB approached the hole, he stutters.

The Patriots appear to be in a version of Cover 2 as the CB was the force player outside the condensed edge and the Safety staying high as the “stay in coverage” player, waiting for the ball to cross the LOS before joining the fit. Due to the coverage, I might assume that the DT is attempting to play a 2 gap technique, and when he sees the HB stutter, trying to fall back in and make a play. The issue for the DT is he had been driven back so far already and the Y had already torqued the OLB out, so there was plenty of space in the C gap for the HB to continue on.

SAIL

Sail (Flood) has become one of my favorite concepts as it poses so many problems to so many coverages. Pair that with this backfield action, and it may border on unstoppable. The Texans run a trap pass protection with a flash fake. Between the pulling guard and the fake handoff, I’m impressed how quickly the defense was able to identify a pass play. Not only that, but the HB becomes the flat runner after the flash fake. All second level eyes are squarely on him, and while I’m not entirely sure what the back-side coverage is, the play-side looks like Quarters. The pressed CB turns and runs with the vertical, leaving the Safety to match the vertical of #2. Because of the space and timing, it almost turns into a downfield pick route where he can’t chase the Sail route. Had Stroud not been flushed out of the pocket, this play is likely an explosive off of that route. Instead, he finds his back-side Dover route left wide open as a result of the back-side safety attempting to help cover the clear out route. I also like the Check Over route as a hot route here in case the back-side LB tries to chase down the pulling guard. I’m very excited to continue diving into the Texans’ offense this season.

Paid subscribers have access to the rest of the article, featuring the creative way Mike McDaniel has begun adapting his run game to factor in the mobility of Tyler Huntley, a great counter to defenses fast-flowing to stop Outside Zone, and two new adjustments to some classic pass concepts that will torch modern defenses.

Paid subscribers also have access to a cutup of every explosive play each of these offenses created in Week 4, nearly 30 minutes long! Lots of great designs this week that I don’t have time to break all down, so see for yourself! We are also less than two weeks out from our October in-season Q&A for paid subscribers (October 15), and the link to submit questions is below.

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