Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Running on a 40-Even Front

When coming to the Line of Scrimmage in a double-slot formation versus a 4-2-5 defense, if a QB sees a safety in Cover 1, and all of his WRs have a man-on in press coverage, he's going to audible to a running play, if one hasn't already been called.
With Cover 1 against 10 personnel, he's only facing 6 in the box against a 40-even front, which means he is playing 7-on-6 (QB, TB, 5 OL vs. 2 DE, NT, DT, 2 LBs), so he has the numbers advantage to overwhelm the defense at the point of attack.


6 in the box

On the first play of the 2006 Texas A&M - Oklahoma game, Oklahoma came onto the field with their 11 personnel package, and A&M responded with a Cover 2 look. Seeing Cover 2, the Sooners stuck with a run call. The playcall was a simple TB Trap Off-tackle, with the RT blocking DE Jason Jack, RG trapping the playside LB (Mark Dodge), the Center and LG combo-blocking NT Bryce Reid, LT blocking down on DT Marques Thornton, and the TE blocking DE Chris Harrington.


The original playcall: TB Trap Off-tackle

Now, what actually happened was that DT Marques Thornton tried to run a stunt around Bryce Reid backside (taking himself completely out of the play), so the LT slides down to block Thornton, finds no one there, and goes to the next level and blocks backside LB Justin Warren.


What actually happened

The result is a nice funnel at the point of attack, and RB Allen Patrick, who is aligned 5 yds behind QB Paul Thompson in the Sooners' backfield, takes the snap and easily follows the trapping RG's block on Mark Dodge, gaining 6 yards on the play, and setting the Sooners up with a nice 2nd and 4 to go. The Sooners run the ball again on second down, make a first down, and go on to score on their run-heavy opening drive, giving them the early lead in the game.
Teams that run the Dart series can move the ball especially well against a 40-even front.
When running Dart Trap, the Center will downblock the NT, the backside OG will trap the DT, the backside OT will go to the second level and block the WLB, the playside OG will cross-block with the playside OT, and block the DE, while the OT blocks the Mike LB. The QB will read the backside unblocked DE before making his Give of Keep read. If the DE comes upfield, it is a Give read, the TB gets the ball and runs right at the A-gap, which has been cleared by the BSOG's trap block. If the DE crashes down, it is the Keep read, and the QBs runs outside to the C-gap, sweeping upfield.

When running Dart Option against the 40-even front, the BST and BSG will zone-block the NT, the BST going to the second level to block Mike. The C and PSG will zone-block the DT, the C moving to the second level to block Will. The PST will zone the PSDE. The unblocked BSDE is the read man. If he crashes down, QB makes the Keep read, and sweeps outside; if he comes upfield, QB makes the Give read, and the TB attacks the A-gap playside.





Dart Option vs. 40-even front

You can also conceivably run Outside Zone against a 40-even front, but it's rare, and I've yet to see anyone do it successfully. If I feel up to it, I'll diagram that tomorrow.

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