Getting your playmaker on the perimeter

This series of plays originated from the base Speed Option play. The three plays were designed so we could designate who WE wanted to carry the football. When Speed Option is run the defense reacts to it differently resulting in sometimes the QB running or the running back. Often the Speed Option is stretched to the edge to provide time for the pursuit of the defense. By tweaking the blocking scheme, we were able to dictate when we wanted the QB to run, the RB to run or have the traditional Speed Option.

We use a zone blocking scheme with emphasis on double teams on the down lineman. It is full zone blocking for the Speed and Zone plays. For Quick we read the DE and have the playside tackle get his best release to the playside linebacker.

One simple rule for each play.

On Quick, we don’t block the Defensive End.

On Speed, we don’t block the Outside Linebacker.

On Zone, we don’t block the Corner Back

QUICK

In reality this is Speed Option with the pitch key being the DE. We wanted to keep it simple for the QB on his read. Expect a QUICK pitch. This way, the QB doesn’t have the unexpected fast read which sometimes results in a poor pitch. The QB is expected to pitch and the RB is ready for the ball early. Every time we ran this play, it resulted in a pitch to the RB. One positive is MAKE THE DE CHANGE DIRECTIONS and RUN !

SPEED

For most teams this is the traditional (funny to use traditional and Speed Option?) Speed Option play. As I have stated before, Speed Option is a better “CHECK TO” play or “CHECK OPPOSITE” play. What I mean by this is often times coaches see “speed is open”. When it is a huddle call the defense somehow knows and takes the play away. So avoid this by calling a favorite play with a “CHECK TO SPEED” tag. When the play is open run Speed or just run your favorite play. Or if the defense rolls extra numbers to the side of the call then added a “CHECK OPPOSITE” call.

ZONE

We called this Zone Option and did say that the Cornerback is the pitch key, but it ended up being QB SWEEP. The RB did stay in pitch relationship giving the option illusion until reaching the Cornerback. The RB would then look to block the Corner. Why did we call it an option? This helped key the RB to stay in pitch relationship until the last possible moment.

We had great success with this series out of our WING formation. The diagrams show the plays against a 4-3 defense with rolled Cover Three.