Technical Football - Offense

A little over a week ago I took a more in depth look at several facets of NFL defenses. This week I'm taking a look at the offensive side of the ball, with one small special teams matter thrown in for good measure. So prepare yourself for another dry but illuminating 3000 words. If you can make it through, congratulations.

Illegal Formation

This is one of the simplest parts of the game, but it seems to be one that the average fans haven’t quite figured out. The rules are fairly straightforward. An offense has eleven players on the field, seven of which must be lined up along the line of scrimmage. The other four players, including the quarterback, all have to line up back away from the line of scrimmage. The purpose behind these rules is to clearly define who is an eligible receiver. Anyone off the line of scrimmage is eligible, as are the two players on the outside ends of the seven on the line. The five interior players are ineligible and cannot be targeted with a pass. (As is the quarterback when he takes a snap under center. He is eligible if he takes the snap from shotgun. Don’t ask me why.)

There are a few ways illegal formation penalties happen. The first and most common is when a wide receiver who is supposed to be on the line of scrimmage lines up too far back, leaving only six players along the line.

 

Similarly, an infraction can occur if a receiver who isn’t supposed to be on the line of scrimmage lines up too far forward, giving the team eight players across the line. Sometimes the referees will not call this penalty, instead throwing a flag if the covered receiver attempts to go out on a pass. This can lead to a player being flagged for a penalty even if he did everything correct because one of his teammates moved up on the line beside him.

 

The final common way to get an illegal formation called is if an offensive lineman isn’t far enough up towards the line of scrimmage. It is often advantageous for a tackle to sit as far back as possible to cut down the angle a pass rusher has to the quarterback. Sometimes the tackle will get too far back, leaving the team with only six players along the line of scrimmage.

 

Pulling

Pulling is a fairly straightforward concept that most fans are probably familiar with. The purpose behind pulling is to create a numerical advantage by bringing an extra blocker from the backside of a running play around to lead block for the runner. This is done by having the lineman step backwards from the line and run through the clear space behind the other blockers, either kicking out a defender directly in front of him or turning upfield to go after a linebacker. Most of the time when you see a lineman pulling it is the backside guard, though occasionally you will see a tackle, a center, or even a playside guard pulling to block for a run towards the sideline.

Pulling is one of the most important parts of an offensive scheme, but it may be even more important to the defense. A pulling lineman almost always leads in the direction of the play, and it is one of the most crucial keys for linebackers and safeties attempting to read where the play is headed. The removal of a blocker from one side of the line also opens up a hole for a penetrating rush, and a quick defensive lineman can follow the guard down the line and make a play in the backfield. The extra blocker still makes it worthwhile for offenses to pull their linemen, but defensive players are very skilled at taking advantage of such a strategy.

Zone Blocking

Most run blocking schemes make each offensive lineman being made responsible for a specific man. There are a variety of arrangements involving pulling, double teams, and reach blocks, but in most cases offensive linemen come to the line, identify who they are responsible for, and find a way to seal that player off from the direction of the run. Zone blocking is the major exception to this, and over the past twenty years it has grown into a full scale offensive scheme of its own. A zone blocking scheme makes the linemen responsible for areas of the field rather than individual players, trusting that lanes will naturally emerge and running backs will make the proper cuts.

A zone scheme can be recognized by the initial step of the linemen. If every blocker takes the same initial step in the same initial direction regardless of how the defense is aligned in front of them, in all likelihood they are blocking on a zone run. Each linemen is responsible for a lane running at an angle down the field. They continue down this lane until they find someone to block, letting the adjacent linemen take care of anyone who slips around their lane. They often go to the ground to cut the legs of a defender, happy to create a pile as long as it gets their man out of the picture.

Zone running requires smaller, quicker offensive linemen than normal schemes. They aren’t asked to push their defenders backwards as much as direct them to the side. The philosophy behind this scheme is that no defense is perfectly sound, that eventually some defender will screw up his responsibility and leave a wide open running lane. It is up to the runner to find this lane and to attack it. A zone running back has to have excellent vision, and he has to be decisive. He needs to make a single cut and hit the hole, not wasting time dancing while the defenders run around his linemen. Every team in the league runs some version of a zone rushing scheme, but some teams do it more than others. Mike Shanahan is often associated with this scheme, and coordinators and coaches who descend from his coaching tree usually run a scheme heavy with zone rushing plays.

Option Route

An option route is a crucial part of every passing offense in the league, but most fans (and some commentators) don’t seem to understand what is going on. A number of passing plays called in the NFL are more complex than simply telling each receiver which route to run and letting the quarterback choose from between them. It is common to have one or two receivers in each play with the option of running multiple routes depending on what they read from the coverage. The quarterback is responsible for reading the coverage as well, and provided they both make the same read they should be able to find a hole in the defense for an easy completion.

There are many varieties of option routes in the NFL. Most hot reads are some form of option route, trusting that the receiver will see the same pressure as the quarterback and cut off his route to catch a quick pass. Back shoulder throws are often read plays, requiring a receiver to stop a deep route if he can’t beat the defender over the top. There are also more subtle variations in which a receiver will adjust the angle of his route to find a gap between defenders or stop running to sit down in a hole in the defense’s coverage.

Option routes are useful, but they are also dangerous. If the quarterback and the receiver read the coverage differently, the pass will end up nowhere near the receiver. A defender reading the quarterback’s eyes can drop right beneath the throw for an uncontested interception. Even if there is no defender around, it is common to see quarterbacks throw balls with no hope of being caught. On a good offense with smart receivers and a smart quarterback, option routes can be impossible to stop. Otherwise, they can absolutely kill an offense’s attempts to move the ball.

Read Option

An NFL offense is at an inherent disadvantage against a defense on running plays. The defense always has eleven players responsible for chasing down the ball carrier, but the offense essentially loses the quarterback the moment he hands off the ball. Even if every blocker successfully takes care of one of the defenders, that still leaves the running back alone versus two unblocked defenders.

 

The option has long been a way to even up the number game. In the past it dominated at the high school and college level in a more traditional form. The quarterback would receive the snap and run parallel to the line of scrimmage. The offensive line would not block one of the defenders, usually the end man on the line of scrimmage, and would leave him for the quarterback to read. If he goes after the ball, the quarterback pitches to the running back racing beside him. If he goes after the running back, the quarterback keeps the ball and cuts up the field. In this way, the quarterback essentially takes one of the opposing defenders out of the play, serving as a sort of tenth blocker for the offense.

The option never found much success in the NFL for one simple reason: the health of the quarterback. Passing the ball has always been more effective than running it, and with only thirty-two teams every team can have hope of finding a high quality passer. But passing quarterbacks are usually not great rushing quarterbacks, and they often aren’t built to take full speed collisions. The traditional option requires the quarterback to hold on to the ball until the defender is right on top of him, and there is no way for a quarterback to avoid or protect himself from a major hit. Against the large and fast defenders that populate NFL teams, an injury is inevitable.

The read option has changed things. Like the traditional option, the read option uses the quarterback as a sort of blocker to eliminate an unblocked player from the play. Unlike the traditional option, the read option allows the quarterback to make the decision farther back from the line, where he doesn’t have to fear major collisions. The offensive line again leaves a defender unblocked, and the quarterback reads this player’s response to decide where to send the ball. If the defender comes at him, he hands it to the running back on a sweep away from the defender. If he crashes down the line, the quarterback keeps the ball and runs through the lane departed by the defender. The read option has all the same fundamentals as the traditional version, and it does so without putting the quarterback in harm’s way.

 

Jet Sweep

The jet sweep is another new wrinkle steadily moving into NFL offenses. Every offense over the past few decades has included some variety of the end around, where a wide receiver comes running from one side of the field back around the quarterback and the running back to take a handoff wide in the opposite direction. This play is used infrequently to try to catch the defense off guard, and if the defense is not prepared to keep contain it usually results in a large gain. But the defense also has plenty of time to react, and if they can keep contain the play is usually bottled up for a large loss.

The jet sweep involves similar action to an end around, but it does it in a much more efficient way. On a jet sweep, a receiver lined up off the line comes in motion towards the quarterback parallel to the line of scrimmage. The ball is snapped just before he can cross to the other side of the formation, and the quarterback hands it off immediately by spinning from under center or handing it forward from shotgun. The receiver is already moving at full speed at this point, and it takes him only a few short steps to flank the defensive players in the box and turn upfield.

The advantage of the jet sweep is the speed with which it is run. The receiver is traveling at a full sprint by the time he receives the ball, and no one from the backside or the middle of the field has any chance of catching him before he reaches the edge. The only players who can stop this play are the linemen and linebackers to the play side, and they have to react extremely quickly to contain the runner and close down the lanes to the inside. Even if a contain man can prevent the runner from gaining the edge, he usually can’t collapse the blockers quickly enough to close down a cutback lane to the inside.

The only way to stop the jet sweep is for the defense to begin moving before the ball is snapped, but this leads to plenty of problems on its own. The jet sweep motion is often used as a decoy to force the defense to react, opening holes for the running game or seams for passes. The jet sweep is a very successful part of an offense, and there is no simple way to shut it down. Its role will only continue to expand over the next few years.

Packaged Play

I touched on this some on Wednesday when discussing Teddy Bridgewater, but I’ll go into more detail here. Packaged plays are the NFL’s most popular new trend, a twist on the ideas of the traditional option schemes. Like the read option, packaged plays allow the quarterback the versatility of the option without risking undue harm. On a packaged play, the quarterback has the choice to either hand the ball off or throw a quick pass to one of his receivers. He makes this decision based on reads before the snap and reads while the play is still ongoing. If a linebacker crashes hard against the run, this opens a lane for a tight end up the seam. If a safety playing over the slot receiver runs into the box, this receiver is open for a quick screen or slant. The rest of the team still treats this as a running play, and if the defenders sit back in their passing lanes it is very easy for the offensive line to overwhelm them while the quarterback hands the ball off to the running back.

Packaged plays are incredibly difficult to defend, for all the same reasons as the option. They take away the numerical advantage possessed by the defense, forcing defenders to beat the man in front of them in order to stop the play. Because the quarterback has the freedom to make up his mind after the ball is snapped, it is difficult for the defense to disguise their scheme and fool him. The only risk the offense runs is that the pass won’t come out quickly enough and that their linemen will end up too far downfield. But referees are slow to throw the flag on these plays, and offenses can get away with almost anything provided the quarterback doesn’t take too long to make his decision.

Swinging Gate

This isn’t technically offense, but I think it fits here nonetheless. The swinging gate is a scheme used on special teams—primarily on extra points, but also occasionally on field goals and punts—to try to create an advantage over the defense using formations. It is a scheme that is still gaining traction in the NFL, after achieving popularity in college and high school. There isn’t any particular reason for this slowness, besides the occasional confusion and mockery it provokes with the fans and the media.

 

The image above displays a common variety of the swinging gate extra point. The long snapper, holder, and kicker remain in the center of the field, but the rest of the team lines up in much different positions than what you would normally see. The tight end and wing on the right side line up split towards the sideline, while everyone else lines up in a tight formation to the left. The player responsible for receiving the snap—usually the holder—makes a quick read based on how the defense responds. In the case shown above, the defense only sends out five players out to match the offense’s six. If he sees a mismatch, the holder has the ability to snap the ball and throw it quickly to the advantageous position in an attempt to score two points. If no mismatch presents itself, the kicking team will shift into a standard kicking set and take the extra point.

Besides the outsider responses I mentioned above, there are a couple reasons the swinging gate hasn’t caught on at the NFL level. The most important is probably discipline. NFL players are a lot smarter and a lot better prepared than players at the high school and college level, and if the swinging gate is run often enough they will eventually adjust to eliminate any sort of advantage. Teams that run the swinging gate would end up kicking on every play, and installing a scheme they would never find any use for would just be a waste of practice time.

The rules of the NFL also limit the usefulness of this scheme. In most high school leagues, teams are allowed to place as many eligible players on the field when lining up for a kick or for a punt. This gives them more versatility in their formations, allowing them to do sneaky things like sneaking the left wing onto the line and moving the right tight end off of it, which would then make the long snapper an eligible receiver. There is no way to accomplish this in the NFL without declaring the long snapper as an eligible receiver, which would clue in the defense. The swinging gate isn’t used in the NFL because it doesn’t present as great an advantage as it does in the lower levels, but pulling it out every now and then could provide a small bonus to an offense.