Explosive Plays: Week 9, 2024

25 WANDA F BUBBLE

This play has a lot of really good elements to consider. First, the formation. “Nub Trips” isn’t a novel idea in relation to stressful formations for defenses to defend, but I don’t normally see it used this way. Typically, I see it with the HB to the 3 WR side in the gun to primarily attack the closed side with strong side runs while still forcing the defense into a full 3 wide trips check. Because this is Inside Zone from the Gun, the point of attack is still essentially the closed side, even though the HB is aligned to that side and crossing face of the QB. The Lions don’t do it here because they roll to Cover 3, but that can have a massive effect on teams that sling their run fits to account for the QB in the run game in combination with how they defend the 3 WR side. Had the Y climbed up to the fitting DB and turned this into a Zone Read, the middle field safety would have had to be the QB player. That said, I still like how this fits up in terms of forcing a CB into the box for the run fit. Because the DE is outside the Y, the CB can’t just be a force defender off the edge and collect a spilled ballcarrier. He has to get into the box to have a chance at making this play, and since the DE didn’t set a hard edge, there is nobody left to keep the HB from a big gain on the cutback.

I also like what the wide receivers are doing here. I don’t know that this is a true RPO or just a decoy concept, but after being pretty set against pre-snap RPOs, I’m really coming around on them after my first year as an OC. The angles to make blocks from a regular split is very difficult, particularly against force defenders, so if we can’t block them, let’s read them, or perhaps more specifically, the space/grass around them. If I want them blocked, that’s when condensed formations can come into play. Definitely going to be taking a deeper dive into that arena this off-season, so stay tuned.

HI CP

I love this motion by Jayden Reed: fake the Out motion to create space for the In motion running start on the Hi Cross. This is another tool in the toolbox to add to the illusion of complexity. This formation (South) may be the most popular across the entire Shanahan/McVay tree. What this motion allows LaFleur to design is to still get that runaway start on the Hi Cross without having to align in a different formation to have space for the In motion.

It’s also another way to get to a core concept: Hi Cross, this time, with a back-side Corner-Post (CP) instead of the normal Dover and a 6 man protection with a Chip from the Y. It seems like every week, multiple variations of the Hi Cross play explode, and this motion exhibits a great way to dress up the same play a different way.