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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


The Spin Offense

The Pass Game - Part III
by: Mike Kuchar
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Coaches spend the majority of their off-season performing a great deal of self-scouting. Assessing each game film, they evaluate what plays were productive and which plays to scrap entirely out of their playbook. After the 2001 season, Dale Weiner and his staff at Catholic High (LA) realized that the hybrid they created called the “spin” worked exactly as planned – incorporating Wing T offense with traditional “I” formation misdirection in the run game.

Opposing teams were left stuck in the mud watching the backfield action of the spin sweep, spin counter and spin pass as Weiner and Catholic High racked up astonishing numbers on the ground. But in order for the offense to be efficient, and to keep defenses on their toes, they had to find ways to utilize the pass game without compromising the precise run fake mis-directions that had made their offense so productive. So, Weiner came up with the three complimentary passes of the spin action run game: spin pass, spin bootleg and spin screen.

As far as play-calling goes, Weiner doesn’t follow conventional wisdom of a 50-50 run/pass ratio. In fact, Catholic High finished 2006 rushing for 3,142 yards while passing for 1,857 yards en-route to a one-loss season culminating in a last second loss in the Louisiana State Championship. Since so much of the spin offense is predicated on the misdirection of the run game, all of his passes are play-action- which is why his QB was efficient in more than 60 percent of his throws this season. Weiner wants to dictate the tempo of the game, forcing the defense into compromising situations. He doesn’t force feed his scheme to the defense; he simply takes what they will give him.

“I come in with a game plan depending on what type of coverage teams will be playing against us. For the most part, we’ll get a ton of cover 3 so teams can stay with an eight man front. I’ll start the game by establishing the run first, and see how they’ll adjust,” says Weiner.

When Weiner talks about setting up the pass with the run, basically there are three main run schemes out of the spin that he’ll attack a defense with: the sweep, the counter and the power scheme. Each play attacks a different area of the defense; the sweep is a D gap perimeter play, the counter is an off-tackle play that ends up in the C gap and the power is an A to B gap play. Each play compliments each other, so it is rare that a defense can be effective in stopping all three schemes. So Weiner will continually try to pound the football and rely on keys from his coaches up in the press box to when a defender is cheating. “If we start to see a true cover three team with that free safety coming down a little too quickly into the alley, then it’s time to burn them deep,” says Weiner.

The Spin Pass
The spin pass (See Diagram 1) is the complimentary play to the spin sweep. From a defensive standpoint, the two plays look exactly similar. It’s Weiner’s thinking that the offensive line blocking schemes must stay constant – you can mix up the backfield action as much as possible – but to the lineman spin pass and spin sweep are the same thing. They work on keeping their hats and pad levels low to sell the sweep action while taking lateral zone steps to the next adjacent man, just as they would in the sweep. The fullback will come across the formation and fill the backside C gap, picking up any edge rushers. The slot receiver away from the call side will come in arc motion and on the snap fake the sweep exchange with the spinning QB. He becomes an edge blocker to the front side of the play – essentially giving a seven man max protection for the QB on a three-man route.

Diagram 1. Spin pass right

Since the effectiveness of the spin sweep is based on the crack block of the wide receiver on a linebacker, Weiner keeps this action the same on the snap. The only difference is, on spin pass the receiver will “fan” on the backer and run a skinny post drawing the attention of the middle or near safety. It’s this action of the crack block that is the key element to make the play go. “We crack so much, I love to watch that play side cornerback come inside right away expecting the run,” says Weiner. “Once my coach up top gives me that tendency we go right for the jugular.”

The jugular is a wheel route by the play side slot attacking the area vacated by the corner. If by chance, the corner does not get sucked in by the crack block, the slot will convert his route to a comeback route at 15 yards. “If we’re seeing a two deep shell, the QB will read the near safety. If he stays on the hash, he’ll throw the wheel route immediately,” says Weiner. “If he jumps the wheel, we have the skinny behind him.” The backside receiver will mainly run a 15 yard dig, but his route can be tagged with a fade or 8 yard drag route as well. Once the QB pivots and fakes the sweep, he pulls up into the “B” gap and reads inside out – skinny post, wheel and the dig.

The Spin Bootleg
Just as the spin pass is predicated on the action of the spin sweep, the spin bootleg is what Weiner calls a “key breaker” off of the spin counter. Much of the spin bootleg resembles the traditional Waggle Pass that all Wing T teams have in their package. It’s the offensive line that again, has to sell the run action of the spin counter. If the huddle call is “Spin Bootleg Left,” (See Diagram 2) the offensive line will gap protect away from the call of the play, with the backside guard pulling just as if it were spin counter. The right slot will go in full motion and get downhill quickly to seal the edge to the side of the play, similar to the spin pass. The left slot, or play side slot will execute his counter steps- drop step, cross over and fake the counter right. He will wind up protecting the backside of the QB along with the pulling guard while the FB will head directly into the flat.

Diagram 2. Spin bootleg left

Again, the spin bootleg is essentially a three man route with the play side receiver running what Weiner calls a crack corner route at 15 yards to the sideline and the back side receiver running a deep drag just as he did on the spin pass. After faking the counter, the QB gains depth of about five yards to carry out the naked bootleg. He’ll check the corner quick, but most times will feed the ball directly to the fullback in the flat. Because there is no front side protection to the bootleg, the success of the play relies on an excellent counter fake and pulling lineman. Depending on how the defense reacts to the counter play, Weiner may wind up pulling both the guard and tackle away from the play. “Since we pull both linemen on counter, we’ll watch how that weak side end plays the counter. If he really starts to chase the play down the line of scrimmage, we’ll run bootleg at him all day. Chances are we won’t have to block him; he’ll take himself right out of the play.”

The Spin Screen
No run-oriented offense is successful without a complimentary screen play, and Weiner’s spin offense uses the spin screen (See Diagram 3) up to five times a game. The spin screen is in the same package as the spin pass and spin sweep. By design, it is a screen to the fullback using the exact same backfield action of the spin pass and sweep. In “Spin Screen Left,” the offensive line will initially zone block to the side of the sweep fake like they did in spin pass. The left tackle, left guard and center will pause for a count of “thousand one, thousand two” then release flat down the line of scrimmage. The tackle will be responsible for the widest defender (usually the corner) and the guard picks up the alley player (a free safety in cover three). After releasing, the center will turn back toward the backfield to pick up any rusher who has “sniffed out” the screen.

Diagram 3. Spin screen left

The left slot will go in motion to fake the sweep and then protect the front side edge, while the right slot releases vertically down the field to show pass only after checking for an outside blitz. The right wide receiver will run a vertical route as well just to soften the cornerback. The FB protects backside just as he would in spin pass, but then releases for the screen after chipping the outside shoulder of the backside defensive end. “It’s important for him to do this because it allows for a more natural release and turn for the pass,” says Weiner. “A lot of teams give away the screen because the receiver will slip directly out to the flat without hesitating. The entire play is based on timing.”

The receiver to the side of the screen will execute a push crack technique, pushing vertical for three steps then cracking on the first defender inside. The QB runs the track of the spin pass, sets his feet and then drops back a few more steps to throw the screen to the FB. While Weiner likes to call the play on third and medium (3-7 yards) situations, often times he would use it just to get his QB some confidence early in the game by giving him short, high percentage throws. “The play starts off pulling defenses to the sweep,” says Weiner. “Then as the defense recognizes pass, we take advantage of a hard backside rush by screening them.”

The Short-Yardage Package
Once he’s inside the red zone, Weiner will utilize his “Tank” formation, which is a double tight end, double wing formation (See Diagram 4). But instead of changing personnel, which would make it easier for defenses to see and adjust, Weiner simply moves his outside receivers into tight end alignments. It provides for a balanced front without any interchanging in the huddle. Weiner runs the spin pass the same way with the backside slot coming in motion to block the edge after selling the sweep fake. The changeup is the playside slot will run the flat route with the playside tight end running a corner route targeting the back pile on. The backside receiver will still run the drag, only this time it will be a tight end and not a flanker. The offensive line will turn to protect just as they would in the spin pass.

Diagram 4. 'Tank formation' - Spin pass right

Tank “screen left” is also utilized by Weiner as a goal line play. The entire line blocks the same technique as the spin screen, but the changeup is the slot gets the screen pass after slicing across the formation on the snap (See Diagram 5). The QB fakes the spin sweep to the right slot and the FB blocks the backside edge, like spin pass, instead of going out for the screen. The backside tight end will run a vertical route to draw the free or near safety. “It’s a sucker play on the goal line,” says Weiner. “Most teams won’t have the courage to run a screen on the goal line, but that’s the beauty in it.”
Diagram 5. 'Tank formation' - Screen left






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