Offense in the NFL is evolving rapidly, and outpacing Defense at a record pace.
Watching the close games the past few weeks, I’ve seen two “hook and lateral” plays, and it got me thinking:
If you can predict with a reasonable degree of certainty what the safety or corner will do in a particular coverage, you should be able to determine what they will do post-completion as they track towards the ballcarrier. At this point, you could anticipate - and plan for - where the next pocket of space will open up.
For so long it’s been a one hit approach: find the open man, and he runs in space until he scores, gets tackled, or goes out of bounds.
What if it was a combo approach? Find the open man, gain yards, and provide him with an option to lateral to a crossing receiver who should be able to get another chunk.
You see this with rugby runs all the time. Why not more often in football? [Reply]
Originally Posted by lcarus:
Contact after downfield completions occurs too quick typically to attempt it. You could draw some stuff up for short routes for when the defense is playing deep I guess but then every team has plays for that and they only use it when they're desperate at the end of half or 4th quarter. And you see how those plays typically work out...
This reminds me. When we had 4 seconds left I was hoping our offense would get a chance. Yes they squibbed it right down the middle but hell they could have told the returner to quickly throw it out of bounds slightly behind them or run out if possible. I wanted to see Mahomes try to throw a 75 yard hail mary lol.
You train your receivers to read the defenders and analyze if/when they should lateral to the crosser. Or, you call each route with a chaser route and have the primary receiver catch it, then run the option downfield - keep or pitch. [Reply]
Originally Posted by OlineDline:
What are you cutting from practice to install this?
Also, what cyborgs are you drafting to run it?
Because scheduling the install for new packages is something that professional football players and coaches aren’t accustomed to doing.
As far as the type of player capable of handing the ball to a teammate or not handing the ball to a teammate, I’m just not sure. We’d probably have to develop them in a lab. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Dante84:
Because scheduling the install for new packages is something that professional football players and coaches aren’t accustomed to doing.
As far as the type of player capable of handing the ball to a teammate or not handing the ball to a teammate, I’m just not sure. We’d probably have to develop them in a lab.
I give up...go find a team and run it. Post video here please. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
They do it on kickoffs and punts. I don't see why it couldn't be done on offense with practice in the right situation.
Not sure if I missed if someone else's mentioning it, but doing it in the backfield or on a punt/special teams return is meaningfully different from doing it downfield. Why? Because in the former two instances, you're not dealing with the defense being underneath. Not only does that increase the likelihood of a turnover (because in a sense you're not as "alone" if you have a simple miscue), but you also can't easily plan for the spacing you may or may not have given that you'd have to go into the next dimension of the play in considering where the defenders would be during the lateral downfield. It would truly be some next level shit if that became a regular part of the playbook.
I'm happy for someone else to figure that out first. We have enough gimmicks in our offense. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TwistedChief:
Not sure if I missed if someone else's mentioning it, but doing it in the backfield or on a punt/special teams return is meaningfully different from doing it downfield. Why? Because in the former two instances, you're not dealing with the defense being underneath. Not only does that increase the likelihood of a turnover (because in a sense you're not as "alone" if you have a simple miscue), but you also can't easily plan for the spacing you may or may not have given that you'd have to go into the next dimension of the play in considering where the defenders would be during the lateral downfield. It would truly be some next level shit if that became a regular part of the playbook.
I'm happy for someone else to figure that out first. We have enough gimmicks in our offense.
Maybe you scout the defense's reaction to certain receptions when they are in a particular coverage, and know where the space will open up.
Also, if you call these along the sideline, the ball just goes out of bounds if the pitch is missed. [Reply]