Inside the Clemson Offense: Quick Passing IV

 
This is the last of the series on quick passing before we go on to some more dropback stuff that we hope to finish before the season kicks off. I want to make it clear that even though I have mostly used our 2x2 regular sets to diagram these plays up, because it lets you see how mirrored quick routes work, that this offense is not all one-back sets. The offense uses all the formations I highlighted in the first post of the series here, and it is mostly run-run-play-action. Highlighting the quick passing game the way I have is just the simplest way to show everyone how it works, and how simple teaching an offense is. Its not rocket science.

We talked about how the QB begins reading coverages and how the offense adjusts the alignment based on the coverage here, so now what do you do against teams that play multiple coverages and can disguise them well?  Lets say for example that you face a team like FSU, that plays mostly Cover 3 zone defense with a little mix of Man coverage. UNC wouldn't be all that dissimilar. Both teams would show a lot of 1 High coverage, but you can't tell directly from that whether its Cover 1 or Cover 3. If they can hide it well, what do you do? You design plays that have a C1 beater on one side, and a C3 beater on the other side. That way, once the ball is snapped and the QB can read the defensive coverage, he'll know which side to look first.

Now we break the mirrored setup and start mix & matching the patterns that we highlighted in the previous posts on the quick game, taking the best coverage beaters and combining them. A good bet would be to flood the underneath zone on one side and a crossing route on the other side. That way, if they're in C3 you throw one way, and if its Man, you hit the crossing routes.

An All-hitch play works against Cover 3 or Cover 4 because it puts alot of short routes against a coverage that is there to prevent big deep plays.

 
And the quick Out and quick In are crossing routes that are used to beat Man under coverage teams.

 So just put them together like so:

The QB reads are the same here as in all these posts, he looks for the best leverage on the slot WR to pick the side he wants to look at post-snap, particularly if he can read the coverage as C1 or C3.

If the QB sees this coverage, it can be C1 or C3. He'd look to the best leverage to pick a side, but if he can discern C1 from C3 here after the snap, he can throw right against C3 and look left against Man.

Here the Hitch would be good against a C3 defense on the left, and the In package on the right would attack a C2 or Man defense well.

Pair the Out-Go with the Slant-Arrow to attack C1/C2 on the left and C3/C4 on the right.

Using the same concept out of a Trips set. If the SAM and CB don't pass off the #1 and #3 receivers to the right side well, one or both would get open and the SS is occupied by the #2 receiver on the Post.

Of course the best defenses might split their coverage call, and actually be playing Man on one side and Cover 2 or 3 on the other side. TCU is one team that does this well out of their 4-2-5 package, and the complexity this adds to the QB reads is one reason why their defense is so successful. Still, you cannot reteach your offense when you play a team that does that kind of thing, and the QB will have to learn via film study how to pick the side with pre-snap leverage the best way.

Even in dropback passing, you mix & match patterns on one side and the other to attack defenses this way. Since this is the last post on quick passing, if there are any questions now is the time to ask them before we go forward.