football-playbook- top unbalanced plays for your offense

This article looks at some concepts at the college level from Unbalanced formations. Several teams will be looked at including Oregon, Iowa State, UCLA, Nebraska and more. You see teams take advantage if they get numbers they like to a side, or run passes to the weak side if teams over rotate in the secondary.

An example of an over rotation is below. 2 things you can run vs that in the pass game is wheel out of the backfield or bootleg away from the unbalanced side. Both are shown below.

Zone Read with Formation into the boundary

BYU runs a nice zone read to the field with formation into the boundary. The bubble component further widens the alley defender as they are in man coverage. They read the EMOL which causes a huge alley. Qb makes a nice read and they are off to the races.

Love the fact you are going one gap wider and making a SS be the read key. Most SS struggle with that responsibility.

SS takes the dive, they are in man so Safety widens causing a huge run lane.

Nice execution

Oregon RB Wheel Route

Unbalanced backside wheel. Joe Moorhead in 2020, gets the look he wants as Cal rolls to the unbalanced side and leaves the CB middle 1/3. The LB has to run with the wheel and the RB beats him in coverage.

If you over rotate vs Joe Moorhead he will run this route. 

Wheel is wide open as cb is in middle of the field.

Great route and concept by Coach Moorhead

Bootleg

Let's look at Ohio State as they always have an unbalanced component. Here he ran boot vs Nebraska and Penn State in 2020.

He comes out in 11 personnel  and runs boot to the field after going unbalanced to the boundary. Has the route design set up as Fields designs to run it. 

Ohio State bootleg away from unbalanced.

The safety comes down to play the tight end which leaves the drag wide open. Nice design as Fields misses the drag and runs it for the TD. 

Excellent design by Day.

Boot works well for the TD

Sprint out to the Strength

Iowa State goes unbalanced 3x1 with a te. Then they run motion with the WR. Oklahoma state spins with motion. Runs sprint out to the unbalanced side with a nice sail route. Excellent design

Sail concept with Sprint to it.

They jump the flat and the sail route is open. 

Nice design by Iowa State

Nebraska 0ffense Scott Frost vs Wisconsin 

Unbalanced Gun Option with motion.

Nebraska runs option vs Wisconsin out of the gun. Both occasions they put the unbalanced  formation. The first the ball is in the middle of the field, the 2nd is  into the boundary. Both plays the use motion

The first time they run it with dive option after motioning the wr into the backfield.

They get numbers to run option and pitch the ball.

Great numbers the other way.

He gets boxed so he keeps it with the 2 lead blockers leading the way.

The 2nd time they run lead option to the boundary off the jet sweep fake to the field. The free safety tries to run the alley but is late  misses the tackle as the motion caused them to roll in the secondary.

They have number as they fake the jet and Wisc rolls the other way.

The DE fast plays it good blocking on the perimeter. Easy read

Both Clips below

 FSU vs Clemson- shovel pass

De works inside

Nice play call and execution.

Play Action Pass Weak

Short yardage Unbalanced out of 21

Iowa State vs Oklahoma State 

Iowa State come out in an unbalanced formation with 21 personnel on the field. They split the tight end out and the 2 wr to the same side. They take advantage of the the man coverage by Oklahoma State and run bootleg for the first down.Boot to the boundary.

Nice short yardage play. Boot back away from the run action.

Fake the wide zone and hit the FB in the flat. Nice easy design vs man coverage

full back wide open.

 unbalanced  jet sweep bc off vs pitt

BC runs a nice jet sweep on the edge with numbers.

Off the Jet sweep you can run the wheel route to that side with the Jet motion man or #2 wr that is eligible.  Both are nice concepts.

Unbalanced flea flicker off the jet sweep. 

Georgia runs the wheel off a flea flicker but you can do it off the jet/inside zone placation as well.

Georgia 12 personnel. Unbalanced into the boundary

Run jet motion with a flea flicker and hit the jet man down the sideline. Nice design that could also be run with simple play action. Nice scheme 

Great gadget play 

wheel is wide open 

beautiful play design.

Sequencing of plays is important.

Have answers running to and away from the unbalanced side and also answers in the pass game. 

Ryan Day Ohio State vs Penn State

Some of the plays he ran in this game included jet,  tight zone off the jet motion and jet motion play action pass. He faked the jet then the tight zone and threw the ball off it. Great sequential play calling.

But lets look at the sequencing of the 3 plays mentioned above:

#1 jet sweep

12 personnel

They go formation into the boundary but this game they put the Flanker off. They run Jet to the unbalanced side for a huge gain on the first play of the game. 

You see they have 2 tight ends on the  right side

The 2 tight ends are now on the left after trading. They flanker is off to the boundary.

The flanker comes in motion and gets the ball on the jet sweep.  Penn State stays 2 high and they find block it with the WR. He blocks the safety who becomes the run support in the alley. WR beats CB 1x1 for a big gain.

unbalanced jet

great angles on the perimeter

safety misses the tackle and a nice big gain after that.

#2 Fake Jet Tight Zone  on the 2nd play of the game!

The next  play  in the same game, they come out in it and run the flanker in motion. They fake jet and run tight zone. Nice design and a 11 yard gain. 

fake the jet and run tight zone.

Both clips are below:

Excellent design by Day to start the game off with a bang!

#3 Jet Pass

The 3rd play in the sequence is fake jet, fake tight zone and hit the wr on a wheel route. This is very hard defend as the Lions try to go cover 3 and that's a mismatch for the LB in zone coverage. This is a great play in college out of 12 because you often get some type of cover 3 vs 12 personnel. Even if you check to unbalanced it's usually some type of 3 look.  They slide the front to the unbalanced but go cover 3 weak with the secondary. This allows for the matchup and nice completion.

great fake and have a wheel run by the jet man.

wheels open off the jet motion great levels concept

Georgia 22 personnel

They go from unbalanced rt to unbalanced left and run pin and pull.

22 personnel end up going to bunch left with 2 rb.

Get the crack block from the on the line tight end and pull the tackle with the h back and rb leading the way. They do a great job of sealing the edge.

catches the defense  off guard and gets numbers.

great play design and hit it for a big gain.

Heres the clip.

These are just some unbalanced plays for your playbook.

New England Patriots Run game and play action game

 The New England Patriots are 3rd in the NFL in rushing averaging 159 yards per game and have always been one of the best rushing teams in the NFL.

They have rushed for an average of 5.1 yards per carry this year and have done it a few different ways. 

Some of its old school under center, power, counter, iso, toss schemes and then they mix in some zone read concepts with Newton out of the gun which makes them difficult to defend. The Boss read play weak is a real difficult concept to defend. 

The most impressive is that they constantly get 8 man boxes because teams don't respect their downfield passing game. Regardless, the Patriots still can rush the football and hit teams with their playaction concepts.

Here's some of the plays and plays off it

Play                               Play off it

Toss                               fake toss slant

jet                                  wing counter

iso/power                       play action dover concept (deep over)

boss   read                       play action to the tight end drag

Vs. The Bills in 2020

They do a great job running play action off their run schemes which I will show you later in the clips.

They really hurt the Bills running the ball then running a sequential counter, play action scheme. 

This is all being done with limited tight end and wr play in the passing game. 

Lets take a look at some of the concepts vs. the Bills.

They ran 29 carries for 183 yards  =. 6.31 yard

Toss.   7, 2,5,6,6,1. = 6/27 yards                                    4.5 ypc

qb sweep with toss blocking 2,19,5 = 3/26 yards            8.6 ypc

counter 22 td,    (309 3rd). 18, 7        2, 3 = 5/52            10.4 ypc

iso 2,2 ,13, 1=4/18 yards                                                 4.5 ypc 

power 4, 2=2/6 yards                                                       3 ypc

zone read 4. 1/4                                                                4 ypc 

boss read .  2/14                                                                7ypc.   play action  133 2nd 

qb draw for 3, 2                                         2/5                  2.5ypc

wide/ inside zone -2, -2 10=4/9 yards                             2.25ypc

wham 2                                                    1/2                    2 ypc

jet sweep 6                                                1/6                   6ypc

wing trap 6 off jet 3rd 10:15                     1/6                  6ypc

speed option 8                                            1/8.                8 ypc

The Patriots ran a toss crack concept against the Bills

1st and 10 for 7 yards 

TE cracks on de.        Wr cracks on SS       Tackle pulls for the cb

Whether its toss or qb sweep, that's the scheme they ran 9 times for 53 yards. 

1st and 10 in the 3rd quarter

They run the toss crack for 5 yards out of 21 personnel.

Only difference is fullback runs the alley.

Next they run the toss out of 22 personnel

Same scheme similar result-7 yard gain. You'll love the double pancake from the right tackle on the film!!

Later in the 4th quarter after great success, they hit the slant off the play action because they Bills were playing a lose cover 3. Had it in the hip pocket all game. They gave the same look and the Bills defense had no answer to it.

Heres some toss clips and play action ff it 

They also ran the qb sweep with toss blocking scheme. big 19 yard gain.

In the 2nd quarter the Pats start running counter.

The counter to the 1 technique side was another big play for the Patriots. Seemed to like running this to their left attacking the right side of the Bills Defense. Bills were rolling to the tight end side to take away the power /toss concepts.

counter blocking #1 22 yard td.

Counter blocking scheme 2 : 20 yard gain

3 counter clips are below:

Another sequence was the boss same side zone read 2 times. 

They ran it 2 times for 14 yards before running a nice play action off it.

Look at the hole from the boss fake, Cam reads the end 9 yard gain

After running boss read on 2 occasions, they run the play action pass for a 10 yard gain.

Hits te off the action for 10 yards

Here are 3 clips,

First the boss read then the play action off it.

The Patriots run jet earlier in the game, then they run the jet counter off it.

Again so much of what the pats do is sequential. fake the jet give the wing the ball.

Heres the wing counter for 6 yards 

3rd and 10 on the Bills 37

The pats run a zone read and give it  Burkett vs cover 1.

Great call figure go for it on 4th or get into field goal range.

Here's the toss play vs the Bills in 2021.

Offense 22 personnel with Tackle at tight end spot

Defense:4-3 cover 3 with SS down over the  tight end.

I hope you enjoyed some of the concepts the Patriots run game.