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Air Raid Offenseby: Hal MummeHead Football Coach by: Mason Miller Offensive Line Coach, Southeastern Louisiana University © More from this issue When you think of the “Air Raid” offense, the first thing that comes to mind is great quarterbacks and elusive receivers. Over the years this offense has generated a great deal of yardage through the air. A large portion of that comes from the involvement of our running backs. Our running backs play a vital part in our offense because they give us the opportunity to create mismatches with different defenders throughout a ballgame. Many times we get a fifth or sixth cover man matched on our backs, which is often one of our best athletes. Our philosophy is to get the ball to the person who can score as fast as possible. Throughout the years we have incorporated four routes that have been a crucial part of the running backs success in our offense. The Swing, Shoot, Angle, and Option are the four routes we will discuss as well as the drill work we use to teach these routes at Southeastern. STANCE AND ALIGNMENT Our running backs are in a two-point stance. Their feet are shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, shoulders over the balls of their feet with their hands resting on their knees. We place his heels at five yards, with his outside leg splitting the crotch of the offensive tackle. The running back’s first responsibility is to always check for the blitz before releasing into the pass route. When releasing on all of our routes we ball the toes of our inside or “plant foot” to prevent any false steps. When running all of these routes, if the back feels he has at least 10 yards in front of him, he will give a “ball” call which alerts the quarterback to throw him the ball immediately. SWING AND SHOOT ROUTES
The first two routes we will discuss are the swing
and the shoot. These routes are used to stretch a defense horizontally
and create passing lanes. Many times the defense does not extend
out to cover him. The swing route is a high percentage pass that
turns out to be nothing more than a glorified sweep. Pushing off
his inside foot, the back's first step or “open” step
will be made at the 3 o'clock position, not giving ground and keeping
his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage (Diagram 1). We want
him to run five hard steps and settle on top of the numbers slightly
drifting towards the line of scrimmage. There are a couple of coaching
points we use when teaching this route. When running this route
we never want to give ground or “arc” the route. Secondly,
we want our backs to keep their shoulders square to the line of
scrimmage at all times (as seen in photo 1). The backs are taught
to keep the quarterback and the linebacker in sight in case we get
a delayed blitz, which we would give a “ball” call. Finally,
we want to stress the importance of getting to the numbers and settle.
A good way to teach this is by placing the back on a line and then
have him run the steps listed above. Then place a cone where the
numbers would be to ensure that the back gets to the numbers.
Our shoot route is a great timing route that we use for a quick
release into the flat. We want the back to run in a straight line
to the numbers. When he reaches the numbers he must be at the depth
of three yards. Keeping out inside foot planted, our first step
is with our outside leg and we aim for the numbers. Our second step
follows, and on our third step, which should be on our outside leg,
we want our head turned back looking for the ball. By our fourth
step we should have the ball and are ready to turn up field (Diagram
2). If we do not receive the ball we want to carry the route to
the numbers and settle. As with the swing route we want to take
the route all the way to the numbers. Key coaching points to this
route are getting our head around looking back at the quarterback
and maintaining a depth no greater than three yards. We never want
to bend the route up field then out to the numbers. As a teaching
tool we like to use two cones: one is placed at the backs feet and
the second is on the numbers at the depth of three yards (as seen
in photo 2). Have the coach stand at the numbers to make sure the
back is not bending the route up field while also looking to see
if the back is getting his head around the third step.
The next two routes are used when we feel the defender is over
playing our back’s routes in or to the flats. We try to use
the angle in contrast with our shoot route, when the defender is
overplaying our backs to the flat. As on all our routes we push
off our inside foot. We want our open step to be in between the
shoot and swing route to give the defender the same look as the
shoot route. This is followed by our second and third step. Our
fourth and fifth are gather steps. The back must stick his toe outside
his foot into the ground (fifth step) and return towards the middle
of the field at a depth of three yards (as seen in photo 3). We
want to make sure our fourth and fifth steps are at the original
line of scrimmage (Diagram 3). A key point to this route is not
drifting too far up field, which would give the defender a chance
to recover. We also want to make sure that we sell the shoot route
and get the defender to over run the play.
Two key coaching points are to teach the back to not get any
deeper than four yards past the line of scrimmage and make certain
he
must
be ready to receive the ball out of his break. When drilling this
route use the quarterback and running back that will be involved
in the game so they can work on their timing. Place a cone at four
yards to make the back gain the proper depth, and then give him
a zone or man look. If you give him a man-to-man look, show him
inside or outside leverage. It is good to do this route without
the rest of the offense around so the quarterback and running back
can focus on each other. About the authors |
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