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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


The Zone Read in the Pistol Offense

by: Terry Jacoby
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“This concept is rapidly growing around the country. Most high schools that are good at running this are doing it out of an off-set. We are doing it out of the Pistol alignment because we think it gives him a better downhill angle to attack the line of scrimmage and not so much sideways.”

Coach Steve Rampy of Blue Valley High School in Stillwell (KS) won a state championship last year using the Pistol offense. But even though they didn’t win a state title this year, he is convinced now more than ever that making the transition from the single back/I offense under center to the Pistol was the right move.

Blue Valley went to the shotgun three years ago and went exclusively to the Pistol two years ago. “This season we lost 21 seniors and had a very young team,” Rampy said. “We had a sophomore and a junior quarterback learning all the things that go with playing that position. As the season went along, everyone got better and we came within one game of making the playoffs despite having a very young team.”

One of the more successful plays Blue Valley runs out of the Pistol is the zone read. “It’s the best thing we do,” Rampy says. “It’s not really a novel play. Anyone who is in a shotgun will run the zone read. But I also get a lot of people calling me and asking about that specific play.” Rampy has put out a series of videos on running the Pistol offense and more and more coaches are starting to implement it into their game plans. The zone read is one of the plays that keeps the offense shooting like a pistol.

Blue Valley will run this play on any down and anywhere on the field. They will run it to the weak side or strong side of the field. And Rampy says it’s a ‘great’ play for inside the red zone. “What happens (in the red zone) is you get a lot of man-to-man coverage so no one contains the quarterback,” he said. “If he reads it correctly and we get everyone blocked up front, it becomes a quarterback run. And if they have somebody in there to spy the quarterback, then we just flip it out to the back. So it’s a real good play on the goal line.

In 13 games last season, Blue Valley ran the zone read 226 times with the A back getting the ball 180 times. The quarterback kept it and ran it 26 times for about a six or seven yard average. He threw the bubble 20 times and completed 16 of them for an 11-yard average. “We zone block to the right when the quarterback reads to the left of the defensive end,” Rampy explains. “If the defensive end chases to the running back, the quarterback pulls it. We have a lot of things we do on the back side of this. Some are designed to make the quarterback run the ball; some are designed to throw a bubble screen to a wide receiver; and some are designed to have him pitch the ball to another running back or another receiver. It’s all set up on whether the chase defender pursues the ball carrier.”

The Play

Rampy walks us through the zone read facing a 4-2 defense:

“Let’s get in the formation. We are in the Pistol alignment with a tight end to the right. And we have three wide receivers to our left. The outside receiver is on the line of scrimmage. The two inside guys are both off the line. For argument's sake, let’s say we are facing a 4-2 defense, which we see a lot. They have a guy covering the guard or the inside shade on the left with a stacked linebacker behind him. They have a guy on the outside shoulder of the right guard with a linebacker stacked behind him. They have a defensive end on our tight end to the right. They will probably have an outside linebacker or something to the right, outside the tight end. They will have a corner over the top of him. And a free safety slid to the trip receiver’s side with an outside linebacker out on the number two or three receiver. And a corner on number one.

“The quarterback takes the snap and opens up and pivots on his right foot and looks at the left defensive end. This is where his chase read is; that is, with the defensive end. The A back will take a jab step with his left foot and his aiming point is the right hip of the center. So the play is actually designed to go to the right. The left tackle and the left guard are going to zone block the guy over the left guard and the backside linebacker. The center and the right guard are going to block the guy to his outside shoulder and the linebacker stacked over him. And the right tackle and the tight end are going to block the defensive end to the outside linebacker. All three of these combinations are doing the same thing; they are blocking the down lineman to a linebacker.

“If the defensive end chases a running back, the quarterback will pull the ball. If he freezes or spies or tries to contain the quarterback, then he will let it go. And the running back will read the two down guys inside and find the open lane. The quarterback pivots on his right foot and extends the ball, back arm straight to his left hip. The A back takes one jab step to his left and then comes straight down hill where his stomach aligns to that football. The quarterback rides from his back hip all the way to his front foot. The longer the ride is, the longer the quarterback gets to read that defensive end.” (See Diagrams 1-3 for examples of the Zone Read).

Diagram 1: Pistol 35 Zone Read To Split Side/QB Runs to Backside.

Diagram 2: Pistol Zone Read To TE Side/Bubble Screen on Backside With Trips Receivers.

Diagram 3: Pistol Zone Read to TE Side/Bubble Screen On Backside With Two Receivers.

The Quarterback

Rampy says this play really requires that a quarterback have the savvy of an old option, Oklahoma type quarterback.

“He really needs to have the savvy where if that defensive end is chasing then he just keeps the ball and goes,” he says. “Our quarterback last season was really good at it. He ran for almost 800 yards and threw for 2,200 yards and was really effective.”

This year Blue Valley didn’t do it as much. The two young quarterbacks combined for about 400 yards rushing because they were just hesitant to do it.

“It’s almost like you have to have a guy who wants to do it and has the confidence in his ability to outrun the defensive end,” Rampy said. “Sometimes when they are young and still finding their way, they lack the confidence you need to successfully run this. There were times I wish he had pulled it and gone, but they gave it off and he got tackled. Sometimes, it’s a hard thing to get going. But once you get it, it really becomes a very effective play. And our guys improved at it as the season went along.”

In other words, you have to make your read, trust your read and then have the confidence to run it.

The play is designed more for a team with a real agile quarterback. The quarterback catches the shotgun snap and extends the ball like an old wishbone quarterback; he reads the backside end or the backside defender on the line of scrimmage. The running back is running toward one side while the quarterback is watching the backside read guy. If he chases the running back, the quarterback pulls it and either throws it or keeps it or pitches it on an option to somebody else. Rampy likes to call it triple option football out of a shotgun.

“This concept is rapidly growing around the country,” Rampy says. “Most high schools that are good at running this are doing it out of an off-set. We are doing it out of the Pistol alignment because we think it gives him a better downhill angle to attack the line of scrimmage and not so much sideways.

“If you watch West Virginia, they come from the side view and kind of come across the quarterback and the running back runs lateral to the line of scrimmage. We push it behind the quarterback so he is more in a downhill position to attack the line of scrimmage and going perpendicular to the line of scrimmage. We think this way puts more pressure on the defense to react. It’s more of an I mentality where the A back is running down the hill. The steps, the footwork, the timing and everything we did we had never seen anyone do before. It’s kind of something we stumbled onto ourselves.”

The Reads

Rampy says that if the defender is going to chase the running back, he can’t redirect and chase the quarterback. The Blue Valley coaching staff teach their quarterbacks to read three things before making a decision on which option to select during the zone read play:

Eyes: Where are the defender’s eyes taking him? Is he watching the running back or is he watching you? During the course of a game the quarterback has to learn how to determine what his eyes are telling you.

Posture: His posture means is he turned to the inside? Does he have his stomach facing the inside where it will be harder for him to open his hips and run back to the outside?

Alignment: His alignment means has he physically moved down inside to where he is in a closer proximity to where the ball is?

“I can’t tell you when you can outrun somebody,” Rampy said. “There may be some big, slow defensive end whose alignment may be really wide. But he’s turned inside looking at the running back and if you can outrun him, then go. But it may be a little quick guy who, even though his alignment is moved inside, his posture is still square and he’s looking at you. Then you know he’s going to follow you so you better get rid of the ball.” Rampy says this is all tied into quarterback savvy and how to make the best decision. It might take some time to get down but it’s something that the quarterback should improve on as the game progresses.

The Wide Receivers

Rampy breaks down what the receivers are doing on the play:

Far outside WR: “He’s going to crack and come down inside on the free safety. The free safety is 10-12 yards off the ball and probably aligned off the #3 receiver.”

Middle WR: “He’s going to run the bubble and is going to have to open his hips to the outside and try to get six or seven yards depth and turn back to the line of scrimmage full speed. By that time we try to get him the ball before he crosses the line of scrimmage if we are going to throw to him.”

The Inside WR: “He takes a flatter arch and avoids the outside linebacker and goes to the corner to block him. The outside and inside receivers are actually crossing to block the free safety and the corner.

“We like to have our most athletic guy in the middle receiver spot on this play,” Rampy said. “Having a great athlete out there is a way to stretch the defense a little more. If you have someone out there who is pretty dangerous, then they have to get those three guys out there. One of the problems we had this year with this play is that we didn’t have as many dangerous skill guys. So they packed it inside a little bit and dared us to throw it. Last year we had some dangerous guys. They had to widen the field and they were nervous about them catching the ball and taking it all the way.”

Passing Out Of The Play

“If the defensive end chases and the quarterback pulls it, the outside #1 receiver is going to crack the free safety. The closest receiver is going to run an arch route and go block the corner on the outside. The quarterback’s second read becomes the outside linebacker to that side. If he sets to tackle the quarterback, the QB will throw a bubble (a deep, arch type release) to the #2 receiver as a pass. And as long as it’s thrown behind the line of scrimmage, the fact that the linemen are working down field toward the linebackers doesn’t matter because it’s really a screen pass.

“So if the quarterback opens, reads the defensive end and if he chases, he pulls and his eyes instantly go to the outside linebacker,” Rampy said. “If he’s set and looking at him, then he just throws on the run to the #2 receiver. If that linebacker widens and runs with the bubble guy to prevent the pass, the quarterback will just pull it in and go. And he should have a pretty nice opening.”

Different Looks

This past season Rampy’s Blue Valley team showed defenses something they hadn’t seen from him before. And hadn’t seen from anyone else, for that matter. “We took one of our receivers and put him behind our A back behind the quarterback,” he said. “And he was our option pitch guy for one of our zone reads when the quarterback read and kept.”

Rampy says the play, like many plays, is designed to keep the defense off balance. “We will come out in the first part of a game and show six or eight or 10 or 12 different alignments and formations,” he said. “And we chart them all and say this is where they align to this and this is where they align to that. See where they look sound and where we might be able to take advantage of a weakness.

“How they do and what they do against these different alignments will dictate what we do the rest of the game. The beauty of what we do is that everything we do, all the running plays that we want to run we can run from any look we have. We have the inside zone read and that’s our best play. We don’t ever get in a formation unless we can run that and variations off of it.”

Worth Noting

Rampy said the quarterback counter is a good play to help set this up or run after the zone read.

“It looks the same in the backfield and the quarterback opens up and does the same thing,” he said. “We then either pull and kick out the defensive end that he was reading, that left defensive end. Or we would have a tackle stay with him blocking him up the field. It’s just a counter-action where the quarterback keeps the ball and it’s a designed run for him.”

Keeping Defenders Honest

No matter what type quarterback you have and no matter what his experience is or his savvy is, the zone read is a play you always should run.

“I think you have to run it to keep people honest,” said Rampy. He didn’t have to look far to compare and contrast a fast quarterback with a slower one and how effective each is running the zone read. We had two quarterbacks this year; one was a junior and one was a sophomore. And one of them I can still out run. So we tried to do it some with the slower quarterback, but he’s just not as fast. However, if he reads it right, he can still get up field and get four or five or six yards, which on first or second down is a good gain. Our other quarterback is more of an athlete and he can take more chances. He just needs to be more aggressive with it. He has the physical tools but, being a sophomore, he didn’t have the confidence at the beginning of the season.”

Blue Valley will always have this play in its playbook and opposing defenders better get ready to try and stop it. The difference in quarterback abilities might dictate plays they run off of this. “There are certain aspects on the back side of it,” Rampy said. “There are also ways to block it where the quarterback is going to keep the ball and run it. And it’s not really an option pitch, it’s not really a bubble, it’s just him keeping the ball as a quarterback running play. We wouldn’t do this with a slow quarterback, only with a fast one.”






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