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AFM Magazine


The Situation

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Your team is playing its opening game against the top ranked team in the league. You’ve just come off a great summer camp that enabled you to put in three offensive packages (Spread, Pro and Wishbone) and this year you have the personnel to run them all. It’s been a tough game so far, having lost your starting QB in the second series of the game. The score is tied 28-28. The kick return team did a great job just getting the ball back to your opponent’s 40-yard line with 1:30 left on the clock. The defense is playing a stack 3-3 with a Tampa 2 coverage mixed with rolling to Cover 3/boundary side of the field.

What’s your play call on this first and ten?


Daryl Williamson, Head Coach, Panama HS (OK). AFM subscriber since 2007.

First off, we would be in the spread package which we have implemented in our scheme for two reasons: 1. We use the spread series for our 2-minute tempo package; 2. Our back-up QB would be more experienced in the spread because we practice the 2 minute tempo package everyday with the 1’s & 2’s. The return puts us in a good situation due to the fact we can still throw the ball to the middle of the field or run the football.

Against a 4 Deep/2 Safety ‘Tampa’ look, we will check to Nebraska X-Drag. The QB will say ‘Nebraska, Nebraska’ (to whichever side) while flashing the Nebraska hand signal to the offense. He will then send the ‘Z’ WR on the short side of the field in motion (‘ROPE’ to the right/‘LASSO’ to the left) to the wide side of the field.

His initial read is to check the two deep safeties to see how they adjust to motion or move out of the middle of the field. Then he checks the linebackers to see if any of them are tipping their hand that they are going to blitz. If they are he will communicate this to the linemen. The WR is in motion between the #1 & #2 WR’s playside, splitting the difference before the snap, and then running the rail route as wide to the sideline as possible. #2 WR playside will push his route vertical briefly before finding the near safety and running directly at him before crossing his face and drawing him into coverage. #1 WR playside will split the difference evenly between the other two vertical routes. He will find the void in the coverage of the near corner and safety and run his seam route there. The backside WR will run a short drag route just in front of the linebackers. He will get across the field to the opposite flat as soon as possible in order to be the outlet route underneath the flat defender to the playside. The TB will block aggressively to the right in our roll-out protection package which we will use on this play and may turn into a lead blocker if the QB were to run the football.

The QB’s read progression is: Briefly check the playside corner to see if he is going to bail with the rail route or not and then turn to the near safety to see if he jumps the ‘go get ‘em’ by playside #2. If the corner bails and safety jumps #2, he hits the seam immediately. Once again, this is not a deep route. If the corner does not bail, hit the rail. The ‘go get’em’ is not necessarily an option because the Mike linebacker will be in the void between the safeties (2). If the secondary covers our verticals, check the playside flat player L (OLB) to see if the drag comes open underneath. If not, then run the football.

Gun 'Rope' 98 Nebraska X-Drag


Pat Murphy, Head Coach, Capital HS, Helena, MT. AFM subscriber since 2005.

In this particular situation, we have good field position and are in four down territory. There is plenty of time to mix in a few run plays and get a drive together and score. We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that if we don’t score a touchdown, we need to at least get the ball inside the 20 yard line for a game winning field goal. Since my starting QB is out we want to run a play that will be easy for our back up and allow him to get some confidence throwing. Since the stack 3-3 is a blitzing defense and they know we will need to throw the ball to save time, it’s a good bet that they will blitz. So our best bet will be our double screen pass from our spread shotgun set.

The stack 3-3 is at its best when the linebackers are stacked behind the defensive line. This makes their blitzes harder to pick up and it is harder to block the linebackers on run plays from their stacked positions. Therefore we want them out of their stack alignment and get them out of their comfort zone. A 3 by 1 set will do this if they are running Cover 3 and Cover 2. Most stack 3-3 teams running Covers 3 and 2 will shift their linebackers over one man in trips sets. If they do not, we have them outnumbered on the 3 man side. If they don’t adjust to our trips, or are playing Cover 2, we will throw the bubble screen. If they do adjust or play man, we will throw our fire screen to the single receiver side. The quarterback will read this pre-snap. Both throws are quick and easy out of the shotgun.

Spread Shotgun: Double Screen Pass






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