Coach ,

Today’s focus is on utilizing concepts that can make things easier for your offense to move the ball. As we get into the late season and playoff time, being able to find yards against great defenses is critical, and that’s what these three tips are about.

#1) Cross Up the Defense

The Y-Cross is a great all-purpose route for any offense. It allows for versatility in how it is utilized and in doing so can create the opportunity for both easy throws as well as built-in pressure or hot throws while still giving the offense the opportunity to hit an intermediate route and take a chunk out of the defense. In this example, Lincoln Riley shows how the Y runs the route in order to protect the throw (click on image for video):

Video: Protect the Throw

#2) Make the Cutback Read for Your Back

Sometimes you need a play that gives a definitive read for your back. It may be against a team that is very good upfront causing the read for the back to get very muddy.  To clear things up and create running exact lanes for the back allowing him to play fast and get yards, prescribed cut-backs can work to an advantage (click on image for video):

Video: Insert Zone Game Clip

#3) Unbalanced for a Better Surface and Blockers

Unbalanced formations can provide many benefits for an offense. For one, it forces the defense to adjust to something that isn’t necessarily a part of your normal offense. It also allows you to create a better surface for your blocking scheme with a better blocker in the offensive lineman that you move to create an unbalanced set.  

When paired with some of your RPOs that forces a defense to cover down, the run game can open up even more. That’s exactly what 7x state champ Jason Mohns does at Saguaro HS (AZ). He diagrams and explains it here with a game film example (click on image for video):

Video: Unbalanced Split Zone RPO

Finding small adjustments that make things easier on your players is beneficial especially when facing the great defenses you will see in the postseason.

These tips should provide a few ideas in how you can create these within your own offense.

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski