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AFM Magazine


Inside the Option: Maximizing its Effectiveness and Keys to Defending it

by: Dan Weil
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The triple option offense has grown in popularity in recent years, with coaches appreciating the difficult adjustments that the option forces on a defense. We talked to three coaches who have had success running the option, and one who has had success defending it. On the offensive side, we spoke to Paul Johnson, head coach of Navy; Chuck Petersen, offensive coordinator at Air Force; and Mike Sewak, former coach at Georgia Southern. On the defensive side, Al Seamonson, outside linebacker coach at University of Maryland, gave us the keys to defending the option.

You have many options in running the option. Johnson uses the triple option as a base. But he’ll deploy seven to eight variations, including the mid-line, counter, trap, speed and belly. Like any other offense, the option all boils down to execution, he stresses. “If you execute, it’s good. If not, then it’s not very good,” he said. “If you’re having a hard time with certain areas on the field, you need an answer for the defense. If they can defend one part of the offense, you have to come back and take advantage of what they’re doing. It’s just like if you’re in a drop-back offense, and they play man under, you have to have routes that take advantage of that.” It’s all about adjusting to how the defense plays the option, Johnson said. “If they play real hard run support, then you need to be able to throw a play action pass. You need to have some different schemes. If they put a lot of people inside, you go to the perimeter. If they’re at the perimeter, you go to the inside.”

The option offense has a fundamental similarity with computer programming – they’re both about “if/then.” In the option, IF the quarterback sees the dive defender going to the fullback, THEN he will keep the ball. IF not, THEN he will hand off to the fullback. IF the quarterback keeps the ball and is closely defended, THEN he will pitch to the slot man. IF he isn’t closely defended, THEN he will pull the ball down and run with it himself.

In one sense, that actually makes the offense easier than a conventional one, because you’re reading some defenders instead of blocking them, Johnson pointed out. “The best thing about option football is that you don’t have to block everyone. You’re taking them out with your read.” Sewak pointed out that players’ analytical skills must be strong to make the option work. “Pre-snap, you have to look to see where you have the angles or the numbers. And after the snap, whatever the defense does, you try to take advantage of their movement. It’s a read and react offensive play.”

Petersen noted that mental toughness, discipline and intelligence are key to making the option offense work because of all the decision-making involved. “Prior to the sanp, no one knows who’s getting the ball,” he pointed out. “You have to block your assignments the same way for every play to be consistent. On one play, the defensive tackle may tackle the fullback. On the next play, he may not. In the same way, a defender may take the quarterback on one play and the halfback on the next one. You could run the play 10 times in succession and get different opportunities each time. You have to block every play like it’s coming to you. That’s why it takes mental toughness and discipline to be consistent every time.”

Physical toughness is important too, of course. The option is all about “hard nose running and blocking,” as Johnson puts it. In terms of the types of players you want to run the option, Petersen pointed out that you don’t necessarily need size as much as you do for other offenses. “Offensive linemen don’t have to be the biggest guys, but they have to have quick feet and be very sharp mentally because of all the different blocking schemes,” he said. Johnson agreed. “We don’t need 6’7”-6’8” guys that can’t get out of their own way. They won’t be good at what we do. They’re not two inches apart on the line of scrimmage. We may take a guy who isn’t as tall but that moves better.” The fullback, of course, has to be tough. As Petersen explains, “he will get hit just about every play.” As for the quarterback, “he has to have quick feet, and more than anything, he has to be a good decision maker,” Petersen said. “He also has to be tough, because he will take more shots than most quarterbacks would.” But Johnson said option quarterbacks don’t always take more big hits than quarterbacks in more conventional offenses. “We’ve had less injuries [to our quarterbacks] than guys who drop back.” Classic drop-back quarterbacks can be just as vulnerable to hits as option quarterbacks, he said. For the option, you want a quarterback “who is an athlete – an athlete who is fast and can throw.” For the most part, fullbacks must have similar skills in the option offense compared to a standard offense. “The only difference is that the one remaining back is closer to the line and runs more inside, and he’ll get the ball,” Johnson explained. “In other offenses, that guy will be a blocker.”

Petersen maintains that “Slot backs have to be the most versatile kids in the offense. Not only do they need great skills running the ball, but they are receivers and are as important in the blocking scheme as anybody.” Johnson and Petersen take issue with those who say the option downgrades the importance of passing. “If you want, you can throw off of it every play. We line up four receivers,” Johnson said. “One year at Hawaii [where Johnson was offensive coordinator from 1987-94], we threw for about 2,800 yards and 26 touchdowns. We threw as much as we ran.” Air Force averaged almost 171 yards per game throwing the ball last year. “Just because we don’t throw the ball 40 times a game, doesn’t mean we won’t throw it at all. We’ll throw the football, but most of it will come off the option look,” Petersen said. He and Johnson noted that when the defense charges hard to cover the run, it can be vulnerable to a pass, particularly play action. Said Johnson: “Our throwing game is used off an option fake when people are committed to stopping the option, and they are one man short in the secondary to cover the pass. Our passing game is more to create big plays from how they’re defending the option rather than controlling the ball.” Running the option also gives you an advantage in that many defenses aren’t accustomed to seeing it. “The biggest thing is that there are very few teams that run it,” Petersen said. “So in a short period of time, it’s difficult to prepare because of the unfamiliarity. It also forces defenses to play a disciplined style of football, which they don’t like to play. It forces the defense to play assignment football. It also creates one-on-one situations on the perimeter, forcing the defensive perimeter people to be great tacklers.”

So how do you stop the potent option offense? Maryland’s Seamonson, echoing Petersen, said, “The number one thing you have to do is make sure everyone on the defense is assignment oriented.” Seamonson explained how the assignments play out. “We have two guys on the dive. They don’t worry if the quarterback has the ball or pitches: they just play assignment football. And we have at least one player on the quarterback, one on the pitch and one half-and-half between the quarterback and the pitch.” As for the duo covering the dive, it can be a defensive lineman and a linebacker, Seamonson said. And generally a linebacker or defensive back or both will shadow the quarterback and the pitch man. “Paul Johnson has a wing T play too that you makes you honor the regular style as well as the triple option. And he has trap and double option schemes to get you to cover those. He tries to break your concept to where they only have to keep or pitch. And some plays are a pre-determined dive.” As for how it breaks down by position, Seamonson said, “Your inside defensive linemen will always be dive players. Your outside linebackers and defensive ends will be dive or quarterback depending on your scheme or the offensive execution and blocking assignments.” Here is how assignments could develop on the dive, Seamonson said. “Say you have a five-technique defensive end or outside linebacker lining up a shade outside of the offensive tackle. If that defensive player is base-blocked, he can’t take the dive. So now the inside linebacker has to take the dive. If you’re blocked to the inside, then the outside linebacker or defensive end has to take the dive.” “It’s real easy to tell the defensive end in the five technique to take the dive,” Seamonson said. “But he can’t do that if he’s being base-blocked. A lot of it is assignments based on the blocking execution of the offense.” The next phase of defending the option concerns who will have responsibility for the quarterback – outside linebackers or safeties. Then responsibility for the pitch comes from safeties or cornerbacks. “The play could go left or right, but the dive or the pitch has to be handled by that group of players either way,” Seamonson said. “The corners will be late run support once there’s no longer the possibility of a pass. Still, it all boils down to the type of defense you like to play. “If you’re a two-inside-linebacker team, the inside linebacker will take the dive or the quarterback based on the offense’s blocking scheme,” Seamonson said. "If I’m going against an option team, I would prefer a 4-3 stack defense, where the middle linebacker’s responsibility always starts with the dive and then goes to the quarterback.” Seamonson explained how an option play can transpire. “On a base triple option play, the offensive tackle veers inside for the middle linebacker. The defensive end, along with the middle linebacker, has to close and tackle the dive. The stack outside linebacker will have to play the quarterback. Then the strong safety would be the pitch player,” Seamonson said. “Based on this scheme, there are only two other players that can be involved in support – the cornerback if it’s a cover-two defense, or the free safety if it’s a cover-three. Those guys will cover the quarterback or the pitch, or they will play half-way, in the alley between the quarterback and the pitch.” On this play, the quarterback reads the defensive end. “If he doesn’t close immediately,” the quarterback will give the ball to the fullback, Seamonson said. If the defensive end does close immediately, the quarterback will keep the ball and take it to the next level – an outside linebacker. “If that outside linebacker was running away from him, the quarterback would duck up and keep it,” Seamonson said. “If the outside linebacker comes right up the field to take him, it forces the quarterback to pitch. Then if he does pitch, theoretically you have the strong safety playing the pitch. But obviously you have the offensive guys trying to block.” Seamonson injected a twist into the play. “A lot of people would not have the defensive end close to take the dive, which would force the quarterback to give the ball [to the fullback]. Now you have an outside linebacker coming straight to the dive also. The defensive end becomes the quarterback player. The outside linebacker that’s normally the quarterback player comes to tackle the dive. So you have an extra guying coming to cover the dive.” Like so much of football, “It turns into a chess play with removable parts,” Seamonson said. “You have a base defensive play and then an alternative where you change up the responsibilities. It’s obviously imperative that everyone be on the same page about any change of option responsibilities.” It’s important to make the option offense deal with different defensive looks, Seamonson said. “You want to make the quarterback more indecisive.” Certain defensive skills are paramount to stop the option. “You have to be very good in your lateral movement and change of direction,” Seamonson said. “You must be a good tackler. Great pursuit by all 11 players is imperative, so that no play becomes a big play.” In terms of how to practice defending against the option offense, he said, “A lot of teams practice against it with no ball, which forces the defensive players to play their option responsibilities and not try to do anything more.” The key issue for each defender is his responsibility for the dive, the quarterback or the pitch, Seamonson said. “You practice without the ball to make sure everyone on defense is playing to their responsibilities. It’s a natural human reaction to chase. That’s what makes it tough to go against an offense like Navy in one week of practice before the game. It’s so different from the standard offense you see week to week.” Defensive backs must make sure they cover receivers until it’s clear the ball won’t be thrown, Seamonson stressed. “If you try to support the run too quickly, that’s where option action passes can become big plays for a run-oriented option offense. The option offense may not throw the ball more than six to 10 times per game if it is doing well. But each one has the chance to be a big play, because the defense is so run oriented.” Defenses will want to be selective in using blitzes and stunts against the option, because “if you don’t execute your option responsibilities well, it could be a big play for the offense,” Seamonson said. He said Maryland does blitz against an option offense. “If you’re in a 4-3, you walk the outside linebacker up to the line next to the defensive end. You attack down the line hard to play the quarterback and dive immediately. If you run a little two-man pressure game to take the quarterback and dive immediately, you could cause a fumble at the mesh. You could also cause the quarterback to make a bad pitch or tackle him in the backfield, because he doesn’t have enough time to react.” You don’t necessarily need a lot of schemes to attack the option offense, Seamonson said. “But you better be good on the fundamentals of your favorite scheme. You need a few wrinkles and change-ups to make it look complex for the offense. If you line up the same way every time against Navy, you better have more talent than them, or they will pick you apart. There’s a fine line between being fundamentally sound and being aggressive.”





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