Football RPO, Crack Screen Game & passes Throws Behind the Line Of Scrimmage

College Football RPO & Crack Screen Game

This article looks at screens and RPO's thrown behind the line of scrimmage. Most are excellent man beaters. 

 The college screen game is a little different than the NFL game because if the ball is thrown behind the line of scrimmage, WR, TE  and OL can block downfield. It's a definite advantage and teams are taking advantage of it with some short yardage type RPo's and crack screen game. They like them especially vs man type coverage.

Coastal Carolina

They start stacked and motion the wr down, He blocks the edge run support and they get a nice 10 yard gain on the h  back to the flat off play action

Wisconsin Crack Screen

This crack screen is mostly run vs 3x1 with some type of man coverage on the backside. Excellent play to run vs those type of coverages. The WR will crack on the man covering the running back, and the tackle will block the CB. Easy play and design to run as it takes advantage of angles and leverage.

Wisconsin runs it for a nice 20 yard gain.

Clemson Crack Screen

Oregon 2021

Oregon runs shovel pass with the rpo attachment. Presnap bubble if you get 3 over 2

Post snap shovel option after your presnap read. Read the DE for the inverted pitch read. Pull the backside guard for the LB. 

Clemson Crack Screen

Clemson goes twins to the boundary with the H Back that way. 

Clemson gets a cover 1 look to the boundary and takes advantage with a crack screen to the field vs cover 1 to the boundary. 

You can see the nice design as the crack block starts to develop. 

Maryland vs Michigan

3rd and 1

Maryland runs a nice run pass option against Michigan who is in man coverage. They run the slot across behind the line of scrimmage and throw him the ball behind the line of scrimmage. This allows both WR to legally block downfield. The safety tries to come off and pick up the WR and they get a 2 for 1 on the perimeter. Nice design for a 10 yard gain.

Maryland vs Michigan film

Oklahoma

2 back bootleg

Now, this may be an Rpo and has some zone read elements, with the Qb reading the DE, the nice part about this it is a designed pass to the HB and the wr are blocking downfield, which makes me think it's an RPO. If the DE Takes QB I assume he gives it. Again they get the nice read and easy completion in the flat behind the line of scrimmage.

T

Mississippi State vs Georgia.
Man coverage

They run a nice crack screen to the 1 wr side and block the weakside LB.

Here is a 3rd route with the quick out by the  h back and the #1 and #2 wr blocking. 

Nice design and 25 yard gain but it's called back on a holding penalty.

Houston Cougars run the h back out with 2 wr blocking behind the line of scrimmage. 

You can see the play below:

Texas RPO with HB/H Back swings

Texas throws the ball to the h back on a nice designed h back to the flat design with 2 lead blockers. Nice design vs a 2 high coverage for a 6 yard gain. (film below)

Here's another nice design vs Georgia for a 7 yard gain. This time they get the h back leading the swing screen and get nice blocking on the perimeter. (film below)

2 clips of the concepts above!

3rd and 8,

Texas gets a pre snap man free read.

They call the crack screen for a nice 20 yard gain.

Pre snap looks like cover 1 run the crack screen to the HB to the boundary.

The WR blocks the LB and they get a 2 for  one on the perimeter as LB is trying to cover RB

You can see the 2 OL getting out on the perimeter with nice space ahead. 2 for 1 with WR works out well.

Nice blocking downfield for a nice 20 yard gain. 

Nice play designs by Texas in 2018 under Tom Hermann.

NC State vs Clemson

Outside zone/shovel pass RPO. NC State reads the end/c Gap defender for the shovel pass. Clemson plays the RB so they shovel the ball.

Here Notre Dame recognizes man coverage. They go 3x1 into the boundary as they see man free. They motion the h back to an off the ball 1 yard off the tackle in the backfield. Fake the zone read and crack with the #1 wr. Great design and execution.

The Chiefs run a nice RPO off their zone game. They send the #2 WR on the CB which if he makes the block could be an even bigger gain. Mahomes gets a pull read and throws it on the perimeter. 

You can run this out of 11 personnel or even 12 with an athletic te but the Chiefs do it with Hill to try to get him the ball.

LA Chargers:

run the rb to the flat off play action with him. Very effective man beater when you bring the #1 and #2 wr down inside. You fake him the ball then throw it to him.

 

Wr outside 11 perrsonnel will motion inside. All indications is it's man coverage.

Motion with a pick design but OLB comes down inside which makes it easy for the qb

Good fake to the back and they have the easy dump off to Ekeler.

Wide open for easy completion

Nice design as they ran it 2x vs the Texans

Houston Gets the ball to the #1 wr on short yardage.

12p

motion to tight bunch 3x1

Bring the #1 wr all the way across the formation and hit him on the drag crossing route behind the los.

This looks like a pass pass option as he has the option to throw the ball to the flat. 

Flat wasn't open so he throws it to #1 coming across with 3 lead blockers. 

Great design for a nice 40 yard gain. 

TCU return screen

Rb runs to toward the flat and then returns back inside and catches the ball behind the LOS, allowing the offensive line to get out in front. They send both guards to the LB in the tite front.

Nice screen play by TCU with 2 blockers on the LB with the ball thrown behind the los.

Other Resources:

crack screens

http://smartfootball.com/offense/the-crack-toss-sweep-and-the-double-crack-screen-against-an-overloaded-defense#sthash.MS7m6gMh.dpbs

swing draw

https://www.stateoftheu.com/2018/8/15/17683474/miami-hurricanes-football-clinic-talk-spicing-up-the-swing-draw-pro-malik-rosier-mark-richt

pass first rpo:

http://breakdownsports.blogspot.com/2018/08/football-fundamentals-pass-first-run-pass-option-RPO-PRO.html

Here are a few examples with more to come!

Offensive Breakdown: Analysis of The Denver Broncos Offense

The Denver Broncos have been struggling on offense this year. They have an excellent coach in Hackett and an all pro qb but haven't been able to put it together. They have been seeing a ton of man coverage on both early downs and also on 3rd down. Thus they are at 30% 3rd down efficiency. On 3rd down vs the Colts they were 0-13 on 3rd and 3 or more which is not very good. That leads to poor 1st down % as they have a 4th worst 29% at getting first downs. There are several reasons the offense has been off schedule which I highlight below. 

Why the struggles:

1. They don't score TD. 6 Td's in 5 games is not very good. Lowest in the league. They are terrible in the red zone as well, ranking last in the league.   They are averaging .6 touchdowns per game in the red zon.

2. The wr don't get separation and are not very good at working the middle of the field. There are times when they have openings vs zone coverage but I don't think the wr take advantage of it. 

Here vs. The Texans they run a good concept vs cover 2, but the spacing is a little off and Russ makes a poor read. They high low the will and both lb's play the shallow and you have the dig/in route behind it. 

Another example.

Look at the #2 wr and the easy route adjustment he could make vs the coverage the Texans are in. He bends it he's wide open.  Like this is bad imo. Easy adjustment to make.

Also, to me it's single high cover 3 presnap, as a qb I would work the top side route concept. Lot of room to operate on the tops side of this formation.

Here vs the Texans, should hit the dig for a 20 yard gain. Run a route. It's slow motion. Seems like this should be an easy completion for a nice chunk of yardage.

3.  Defenses have been effective playing their outside wr in man coverage while playing underneath concepts on early downs. This has effected their boot, vertical passing game as wr have not been able to get open on some vertical concepts. Really has effected their play action downfield passing game on 1st and 2nd down. Texans did a great job against them using this concept. The Broncos won 16-9 but the Texans had a really good game plan.

vs Texans 

Here is a similar situation vs the Chargers. They run boot but no one is open vertically down the field.

Here are 2 examples in the chargers game.  They run boot with the crossing route and their is no place to go with the ball. The Chargers do a nice job matching the coverage.

4. They also have been a little predictable, like running this little flip play vs the Colts. They ran the same play several times against the raiders and you can see the Colts adjusting to the formation. No body is fooled and it's a 3 yard loss on the play. I'm not spending 40 hours on film breaking it down but teams have seen some things and game planned effectively.  Take it out of the playbook or run a compliment because every team has sniffed it out. 

5. They get themselves into some long 3rd down situations because of their inefficiency on early downs.  Too many 3rd and 10+ situations has really handcuffed the offense. 

6. On 3rd down they are near the bottom at 30% efficiency. Their struggles were evident last week as they were 30% efficient vs the Colts. 

7. Often times they have wr and qb not on the same page. A wr may run a slant and RW things its a hitch. He throws a fade and the wr runs a hitch. Russell has made some very bad decisions in games and has been slow to process. Really surprised by some of his decisions.

Here's another example where Russ has an easy check down but forces the issue downfield. Take what they give you. LB runs with the wheel, throw to the rb. Easy concept.

These are just some of the struggles and I'm excited to see the adjustments for their future games. 

NFL PASS CONCEPTS # 6 SHALLOW CROSS

THE SHALLOW CROSS

THIS IS PART 6 OF MY UNIVERSAL ROUTE CONCEPT SERIES. I BELIEVE IN ROUTES IN THE PASSING GAME THAT YOU CAN RUN VS MAN OR ZONE AND TEACH QB THE PROPER READS. YOU HAVE ANSWERS VS ANY COVERAGE.

ROUTE CONCEPTS AND OTHER ARTICLES

#1 DOVER https://coachkoufootball.blogspot.com/search?q=DOVER+ROUTE

#2 MESH https://coachkoufootball.blogspot.com/2021/12/meshroute.html

#3 SAIL ROUTE https://coachkoufootball.blogspot.com/2021/02/nfl-pass-concept-3-sail-route.html

#4 4 VERTICALS https://coachkoufootball.blogspot.com/2021/02/nfl-pass-concept-4-4-verticals.html

#5  DAGGER https://coachkoufootball.blogspot.com/2022/01/DAGGER.html

#6 SHALLOW CROSS

THE SHALLOW CROSS IS A GREAT ROUTE CONCEPT. IT IS EASY TO RUN AND A QB FAVORITE AT BOTH THE NFL AND COLLEGE LEVEL. 

IT CAN BE RUN WITH THE RB RUNNING A CHUTE ROUTE OR AN OUT AND UP, WHICH YOU WILL SEE CERTAIN COACHES RUN. 

ROUTE CONCEPT #1 

NOW KEEP IN MIND YOU HAVE A TE RUNNING IT OR A WR DEPENDING ON THE FORMATION AND PERSONNEL GROUPINGS. YOU CAN RUN THIS CONCEPT WITH ANY PERSONNEL GROUPING WHICH MAKES IT A GREAT UNIVERSAL PLAY.

WORKING LEFT TO RIGHT, THE #1 WR HAS AN OPTION ROUTE. IF THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD IS OPEN HE WILL RUN A POST. IF IT IS NOT HE RUNS A 9 CUT. THE QB CAN SNEAK A PEAK WITH #1 BUT HE ISN'T THE PRIMARY WR. AT THE PROLEVEL THIS WILL BE AN ALERT THROW. #2 WILL RUN A DIG  ROUTE AND CAN SIT IT DOWN VS ZONE AND # 3 WILL RUN A SHALLOW(CAN RUN THIS WITH #4 WITH A RUB ROUTE OFF #3. RB RUNS A CHUTE TO THE FLAT.

EXAMPLE #1 

VARIATIONS

#2 BRING THE BACK ACROSS THE FORMATION.

#3 RUN AN OUT AND UP WITH THE RB-SMART FOOTBALL GETS INTO THE CONCEPT IN MORE DETAIL.

http://smartfootball.com/passing/bobby-petrinos-shallow-cross-concept-concepts-routes-and-protection#sthash.cvpUhw3s.dpbs

#4 RUNNING THE DIG AND THE SHALLOW CONCEPT TO THE SAME SIDE. BOBBY PETRINO IS A COACH WHO WILL RUN IT THIS WAY. 

Thanks to Chris Brown's article on the NY Times Fifth Down Blog

#5 IS GETTING THE RUB ROUTE VS MAN BY RUNNING #1 OFF OF THE SCREEN BY #2 LIKE DEMONSTRATED BELOW. 

Air Raid Playbook: Shallow Cross - CougCenter

Air Raid Playb

NOW THE READS FOR THE QB:

1. SHALLOW: THE GOAL IS TO THE HIT THE SHALLOW

2. IF THE SHALLOW IS COVERED LOOK TO HIT THE SQUARE IN. 

3.  THE RB

4. SOME TEAMS WILL THROW THE POST IN AS THE #3 READ BUT MANY COACHES I SPOKE WITH WILL USE THE POST AS A PRESNAP ALERT TYPE THROW. 

WASHINGTON ST LEACH

I THINK IT IS AN EXCELLENT ROUTE CONCEPT VS COVER 2 AND YOU WILL OFTEN SEE THE DIG OPEN VS COVER 2

WASHINGTON ST VS COVER 2

Air raid version shallow

COVER 2

IN THE CONCEPT BELOW, THE LB TAKES THE SHALLOW CROSS WHICH OPENS THE DIG. THE WR FINDS THE VOID IN THE ZONE FOR A NICE COMPLETION.

shallow to dig progression.

IN THE NEXT EXAMPLE THE CROSS IS WIDE OPEN SO THE QB THROWS IT. NICE ROUTE EASY COMPLETION.

HERE;S THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD OPEN CONCEPT.

LOOK HOW QUICKLY THE BALL IS OUT. THIS MOF CONCEPT IS SOMETIMES AN ALERT THROW AT THE PRO LEVEL. 

MIDDLE OF THE FIELD OPEN PRE SNAP. QB MAKES A QUICK DECISION AS IT'S COVER 4 WHICH MEANS MIDDLE OF THE FIELD MAY BE OPEN. HE MAKES A GOOD READ AND HITS IT FOR A BIG GAIN.

Here you see the shallow with the  dig window opening up.

Nice job taking a peak and hitting the wide open post route for a touchdown.

HERE'S ANOTHER THROW WHERE THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD IS OPEN.

VS MAN COVERAGE,

YOU WILL OFTEN GET THE SHALLOW OPEN ON MAN AT IS A TOUGH ANGLE FOR THE SAFETY TO GET THERE IN COVERAGE

SEAN MCVAY Y CROSS-

JAMES LIGHT  DOES A NICE JOB LOOKING AT THE CONCEPT WHEN MCVAY WAS WITH THE WFT.

SEE HIS CLIPS HERE 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YOMrKgTEGk

MCVAY HAS THE #2 WR RUN A STOP/HOOK PATTERN RATHER THAN A DIG OR SQUARE IN. 

HERE IS THE ROUTE OUT OF 12 PERSONNEL WITH A WING FORMATION

Here are just some of the shallow cross concepts you will see.

Game 1 Recap Nassau CC defeats Sussex 27-7

The Nassau Lions travelled to Suxxex CC and defeated Sussex 27-7. It was an overall great day for the Lions as they opened the season with a great victory.

Defensively, the Lions were flying around the field all day. The 1st string defense didn't allow a 1st down and they shut down the Sussex run game. The defense was only on the field for 34 plays and were outstanding except for a last minute touchdown. Dante Antione, Jaden Sinclair, Khristan Hernandez and Sonny Mayo were outstanding in pass coverage.Shaq McPherson also added an interception which changed the momentum early. 

The defensive line was tremendous. Frantz Compere and Jordan Campbell led the defensive ends with 2 tackles each and were all over the field. Dashaun Polk and Cesar Villenueva were dominant on the interior, eating up double teams to free up the Linebackers. 

Nyrel Sevilla led the way with 5 tackles and was in the backfield all day. He was selected player of the game for his performance. Fellow LB Jaden Martinez  added 4 tackles. Jalen Ware contributed a sack and had the hit of the day. 

The Special teams performed well all day. They were led by Deyvon Wright who had some great returns. Wright also contributed a pass break up on defense. Here is 1 of his 2 40 yard returns. 

Offensively the ground game led the way with the 3 headed monster of Brian Lowry, Kayee Williams and Albert Daniels pounding the football. The offensive line was led by Shamar Riley, Josh Becote, Thomas Goncalves, Anthony Blanco and Yosef Karmi. Greg King was rock solid at tight end as both a blocker and receiver. 

Brian Lowry put the Lions up 7-0 on a nice run early in the 1st quarter. He touched the ball on all 4 plays on the drive, accounting for 45 yards and the 1st quarter score.

The passing game was diverse as LIU transfer Luke Sprague led the way. He was sharp and hit his brother Cole on a 41 yard touchdown pass to put the Lions up 13-0. Luke stayed in the pocket and delivered a strike on a key 2nd quarter drive. Overall he spread the ball out to several receivers.

After a 13-0 lead going into halftime, the 3rd quarter began with an outstanding interception by Khristan Hernandez. One of the top Juco corners  in the country, he made 2 great plays in a row and the interception below was top notch.

This set the Lions on their way as the offense took over and marched down the field. The drive was 10 plays and 80 yards. It was finished with a beautiful 25 yard strike from Cole Sprague to Josh Limage. 

The final touchdown came after another great return by Deyvon Wright. He returned a punt to the 8 yard line. From their Kayee Williams punched it in to finish off the scoring with 2 great blocks from Ethan Bonachi and Josh Becote. That put the Lions up 27-0. They gave up a late touchdown and ended up with a 27-7 victory.

In case you missed the game, you can see the game below on YouTube. 

Also, Sussex has some photos from the game on the link below.

https://www.sussexskylanders.com/sports/fball/2022-23/photos/0001/index

The Lions will travel to Lackawanna Saturday. The game is at 1pm. 

You should be able to see the game on the channel below.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBqcuz-KVmqAPKSBMXZX2KA/live

The Ravens Read QB Counter game

 RAVENS QB COUNTER GAME

The Ravens do a great job in their run game. They have a tremendously gifted running qb who causes real issues for defenses.

The past few years they started running qb counter with a read variation.

The way the play is run,   Lamar can either give it to the running back/jet man  if the de stays home or pull it if the de takes the jet and folow the guard and tackle on the counter play. 

An added component in addition to the zone read and power game is the qb counter play, They have the jet/rb go one way on a outside zone path and have the guard and tackle pull the other way and Lamar reads the de. This play has been very deadly for them this year.

They love to run it out of 21 personnel and often split the 2nd rb out and bring him back in with jet motion. 

Lets look at the play and some examples.

#1

3rd and 2 vs the Giants.
The giants sit the defensive end so Lamar gives it to the jet man on lead sweep. They get an easy 7 yards on the play. They get a nice 8 yard gain and maybe a td if not for a shoestring tackle. 

   

 

On 1st and 10 in the red zone, the Ravens run it again for 17 yards. Lamar gets another give read and a great lead block from the rb. The giants are in a weird alignment with de in a 4i which makes this an easy give and they are outnumbered weak with only 3 players on the weak side. 

You can see the g/t counter element with the guard and tackle pulling. 

On 3rd and 4, the Ravens get a 5 man box. They run the ball due to it. They get a nice double team with a lead from the guard and tackle. A nice 8 yard gain. The de gives a keep read and Lamar runs it for 8 yards. 

Here is the film: 

Here they run it vs the Giants for 17 yards. Later for another 20. 3 for 45 yards.

On a 2nd and 10 they run it again and Lamar makes the read and keeps it for 20 yards.

Vs the Cowboys they used it in short yardage and killed the cowboys with it. This is a very hard play to defend.  Ran it 2 time for 56 yards. 

Here they run it vs the Browns and Lamar gets a keep read and takes off in the b gap.

Vs the Bengals

They have counter action one way and are reading the defensive end the other way on a read play. The counter action draws the play side Lb. Lamar reads the right defensive end who loses leverage so he gives the football.

Vs the Jaguars,
They ran the play 3 times vs the  Jaguars.

Here are videos of the 3 clips. Easy read for Lamar and positive yards on all 3 versions of it during the Jacksonville game. 

This is a very big part of the Ravens run game. they do a great job with it and it's a very integral part of their run game.