NFL Pass Concepts #5 the dagger concept

The dagger concept is a major concept at the NFL level. It has great value because it is an excellent route vs man and zone. It is highly effective vs. both coverages. Some great  qbs such as Rivers, Brady, Mahomes, Wentz and Stafford have made a nice living off this concept.

First the route concept

The route concept is a play side dig by #1 and a post by #2 to run the safety out. The shallow cross comes from the other side with the other wr  with him usually running a vertical corner/deep out route followed by the shallow cross. You will often see teams stack the 2 wr to help get an off man situation like the Eagles do below.

Advantages of the concept:

1. It is good against any zone: cover 2, cover 4, 6 or cover 3 variations.  The read is the same, read the alley player(curl, flat defender. You read the dig to the shallow.  It is also effective vs cover 1 defenses.

2. The safeties and cb are taken care of by the post or skinny post by the #2 wr and this opens the dig window.

3. It is excellent vs man as most teams will run it vs some type of stack formation. This usually creates some type of soft coverage and again the reads are the same. 

4. It is a great route to run with 6 man protection. You can handle most 5 man pressures and the shallow cross is a great man beater if it's a 5 man pressure with man principles. There is no sit down and he usually can get open on the crossing route.

5. When you hit the shallow it allows the wr to catch the ball full speed with room to make more plays in the open field.

Again the route concept below

The reads are the same for both which makes this route so hard to defend.

VS COVER 3

The Patriotts come out in 12 personnel and the Raiders go cover 3 with the single high. The great playaction opens the window for the shallow cross. 

Lbs are playing the run off the play action

Easy read on the shallow 

Here's another example of the route vs cover 3.

Rivers loved this concept with the Chargers, you can see it opening up.

Nice call and the dig is open so he throws it off the alley defender.

Here's 3 clips from The Chargers vs cover 3

Rivers and the Chargers run it vs the Falcons. Nice design, good spacing and easy read for Rivers.

Dig window is closed so he throws the shallow off the curl flat defender.

Nice read and completion.

Here's a few clips of the concept vs cover 3

You will see some completions on the dig as well as the shallow. 

VS COVER 4 

The Eagles vs the Vikings.

Eagles in 11 personnel but split the TE in a flex alignment. They do a nice job running the safety out of there with the #2 wr which opens up the dig window. Again sane read for the QB.  

Nice job as the dig is open as well as the shallow but makes the right read.

Here some clips vs cover 4

vs cover 2

Again the route concept doesn't change and the reads are the same. That's the beauty about running the dig, it's great vs all zone coverages.

Here Tom Brady and the Bucs do a nice job on it.

Same read as it's a universal route.

vs Cover 2 clips

vs cover 1(man)

There are 2 nice options as I see it.

1. When you run the shallow with the tight end because he will often get outside leverage by the nickel db. This puts him in great position leverage wise to beat the Nickel or safety inside.

Cover 1 

TE is getting open.

Good concept as the TE wins the battle on the crossing route.

2. When you get man, you will see teams stack their wr which often leads to off man and you can run your shallow and all your other routes as well from the stack look, (mesh is another common one) This is a great man beater because if the front man runs a good route, it is very hard for the cb to get thru the traffic and be a factor on the shallow crosser.

Again man coverage 

WR gets a great release.

Dig isn't there so take the shallow.

good concept and completion.

Here are some man clips

Jaguars variation of Dagger out of 3x1

The best thing you can do vs 3x1 is take advantage of the cover 4 and 2 read variations where they want to jump #3 vertically.

By rule that happens below

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.