Untitled - Fast and Furious Football

28 FOOTBAIL COACHING STRATEGIES
The quarterback decid€s priorto the snap and
just after the snap whether h€'s soing to thrcw
him the ball or not. The quart€rback takes five
quick steps. Notice I said five big steps in the Z'
in. Now that we're thmwing out, the QB takes
frve qaicA steps. He can't lead the receiver with
the pass because any time you lead a receiver who
is mnning parallel to the ball, he'lI never catch
up to the ball .
Throw dgbt at the man's hip.Ilyou throw into
his body, the defensiv€ back doesn't have any way
to get to it. What we are trying to get here rs the
defensive back giving ground this way and then
losine lateral gound thh way. That'E on single
On this pafticular pattern both receivers do
the same thing, but I would say most often the
flanker gets it. The tight end tak€s an imide release,
goes straight up the field, and runs a fuU
speed cmssing pattern, but never crosses the ball.
The tight end on his basic crossing pattern is the
one you go to on man-under dcfense. If a team is
running rnan-under, that kind of an out rs surcide.
So ifour quaderback sees inside-out coverage
on v,'rde receivers, reasonably close, his drop
now goes right to the tight end; he's looking for
the tight end to beat a man-under linebacker.
M Pattem
The backs play a key rcle. They check the backers
on a blitz.After reading for the blitz, the back
r-uns what we call an M pattern .
In the M pattern, the back moves 1 1/2 to 2
yards back from his blocking position. When he
is 61ard. deep and 3 yards out.id. the offen"ite
tackle, he turns upfield looking lor th€ M pat-
/\
FIGURE 5
\,
)^cc
\'.
I
FIGUHE 6
WE
\oc
\
b
l
I s
N
d
nght end oplion versus
N
T
1
"" t)
c--
On the M pattem, the weak linebacker some
callhim a defensive end-takes away the square
out, we hold the ball, and pop it fisht off to the
hauback (see Figue 5).
There's also a tight end option off the double
lqLare-out patt€m. As you can s€e in Figurc 6,
wh€n both middle lineback€ru coverbacks to the
outside, andblitz one man, thiB isolates our tight
end on a backex He has a good chance ofbeating
the backer.
Hook Patten
Now let's look at the seven-step drop patteln. This
is one play that we've almoBt worn out.
On a seven-step drop patterl our receivers will
maneuver Werc going to run a blue left for us, a
right, which is motion, and we'rc going to r"un a 79,
which r. $ eak flo$ pasq protFction. NowX rs going
to run a pattem on the weak side (see Figure 7).