I’ve been writing about football for 9+ years at this point. Over that time I’ve learned quite a bit about football (although, the more I learn, the more I realize just how little I truly know).
Over that time, I have also heard a lot of comments from people who watch football. It doesn’t matter how they consume it - watching the broadcast view, watching the coaches film, catching clips/screenshots of plays on social media, etc. - I hear a lot of the same comments repeatedly. I hear a lot of, “Why didn’t the QB just throw to that guy? You see the open man? He simply should have thrown to that man.”
In a perfect world, yes, that is exactly what he should have done. In fact, if every QB just decided to do that, the points-per-game would skyrocket. It’s so simple. Do that thing. Call the play where you throw to the open man and just do that.
Of course, it’s not that simple. It’s never that simple. In this mini series, we’ll be talking about a couple concepts. The main thing we’ll be focusing on is the goal of the concept at hand: what is it designed to do? Sometimes we’ll be digging into the genesis/evolution of the concept, but it’s all with a mind to get to the heart of it. What is this concept attempting to do, how is it attempting to do that, and what is the quarterback’s job? That’s the central premise.
Since I don’t want distractions to creep in, we won’t be using any film. Game film can carry memories and feelings. Dear Reader, we are looking to strip ourselves of those things. We’re here for an understanding of the concept, not to dredge up memories of our thoughts when we saw a specific play on the field. So we’ll be using a chalkboard tool (and maybe the occasional hand-drawn doodle) to illustrate what we’re talking about.
My original idea was to do one post with several concepts, but it spiraled before I put pen to paper. So today, we’re starting with a single, basic concept: PA Boot.
We will start, of course, with Zone Blocking: specifically the Wide Zone run.
Hall of Fame tackle Anthony Muñoz described zone blocking like this (taken from Tim Layden’s terrific Blood, Sweat and Chalk):
Zone blocking, you’re on a track, like a railroad track, with your buddy, or all your buddies on the offensive line. If a defensive lineman or a linebacker crosses onto the track, your job is to take him and move him.
…
Let’s not see where the defense wants to move to; let’s dictate where they go by where we move along that track and then use their movement against them to create seams.
That last part is the central idea. Move as one unit along the offensive line (releasing horizontally along the track) and create seams for the running back to hit. Here’s a basic look at what that can look like up front.
Of course, you can’t just run a single concept. You need counters. Show this enough and defenses start to key in on it and start flowing with the play.
The main counter from a passing perspective is something I typically just tag PA Boot. Really, it’s a QB Bootleg with a Sail concept to the boot side. Get the defense flowing on the wide zone, then boot the QB out the other side and have a multi-level passing option for him: a flat route, a middle crosser and a deep sail route, all running parallel to the QB and all in his line of sight.
Now we’re getting into it. As marked above, the read on this is deep to shallow. QB comes out of the bootleg looking to hit the Sail route. If that’s not open, he works down to the crosser. If that’s not open, he works to the flat. If he works all the way down to the flat and that flat is not open, it likely means he has put a defender in conflict on the move, so he can use his legs to pick up yardage. While there are 5 eligible receivers on every play, that doesn’t mean they’re all running routes. And, even if they are, that doesn’t mean they’re all a part of the overall concept.
Here’s a simple but extremely important point. It’s one we’ll be coming back to often. In fact, it’s the entire crux of this series. If the first read is open, the QB will throw the first read. He will not look elsewhere. He won’t say, “That looks open, but lemme check everything else first.”
Now, “open” is a concept that can be different based on a lot of factors. The ability of the QB, the defense, the wide receiver, the way the defensive player’s head is facing, the level of football you’re playing, etc. The first read in the progression may be a little tight, but if the QB deems it to be open, he’ll throw it.
Let’s take the play above. Let’s say the QB comes off the playfake and is rolling out and he likes that Sail route. The safety to that side has been pushed to the inside and the boundary DB seems to be sitting on the crosser. Again, it might be tight - the throw has to be away from the safety and over the boundary DB who will be dropping underneath the pass as soon as it’s released - but there’s a window. So the picture looks something like this as he comes off the playfake:
As the routes are developing, the QB sees the movement I talked about above. With his ability, he believes he can hit the sail route (highlighted in green) in the targeted area (purple box).
It plays out roughly how I described it, because I’m drawing these up as I’m writing. There is - in fact - a window, and it is tight. The QB is just a little off on the throw, sailing it wide to the sideline and just out of the grasp of the wide receiver.
But wait! The announcer focuses in on the TE slicing under the line and breaking wide open into the flat. “He’s gonna be kicking himself for missing that later,” he chuckles to himself, while an entire fanbase sits enraged. “How could he miss someone that open? TAKE WHAT THE DEFENSE GIVES YOU.”
Here’s the (extremely) rough position of the players when the ball is released, based on what we’ve sketched out.
In this scenario, the DB I’ve highlighted in red got caught too far inside and wasn’t able to recover in time to pick up the flat. The crosser is picked up well by the linebackers falling back after initially creeping up on the playfake (and also keep in mind that the DB falling under the sail route would still be squatting on the crosser from the boundary at this point, but I couldn’t quite get the software to cooperate with me).
What do we have with this play? Was the slicing TE open with space to operate? Absolutely. Should the QB have adjusted to make that his 1st read or worked off the sail route to come down to the flat route? No.
We talked about the progression on this concept and the idea behind that already, but let’s run that down one more time in a summary form.
Progression on this play: Deep to Shallow
When does the QB move to the next progression: When the current progression is not a viable option.
When does the QB throw one of the routes: When he deems that it is open or will become open based on the defense.
The second route in the progression does not matter if the first route is open, and the third progression does not matter if the second one is open.
The TE was open on this play. That is a fact. That being said, the QB should not have thrown to him given the position of the defenders when it came time to throw the Sail route.
This version of PA Boot we drew up is a 3-man, deep-to-shallow progression. It is intended to work off the defense flowing with a wide zone run, then bring the offensive action back the other way and look to hit an explosive play. If the explosive isn’t there, then work your way back towards the line until you find the best option.
So the TE in our example was open, but the fact that the ball didn’t go to him was not a “missed read” by the QB. It wasn’t an example of just wanting to chuck it deep and ignoring the open man. It wasn’t an indictment of the QB’s ability to read the defense. It was an example of a deep route that looked good, but the throw missed.
As defenses have evolved to take away this concept, offenses have naturally started looking for ways to regain the effectiveness. In my next post, we’ll look at those defenses counters, the offensive response, and the “missed receivers” that pop open as a result.
Thanks for following along. I sincerely hope you’re not bored to tears. If you’ve got questions/comments, either drop them below or hit me on Twitter. We all get better when we can have an open dialog about these things.