It's a general term I have always used for a route concept that focuses on routes that cross over the offensive formations. The more famous route concepts that do that are Shallow, Drive, and Mesh. These are all staples of the Air Raid offense.
So...Yes, I am mixing the Air Raid offense with the Wing-T offense. Other coaches have done this before and have had success. I have already talked to a few coaches on Twitter that run similar concepts to the I am covering in this article. This concept is just my spin on it and what rules I would teach to players.
I think my concept is a little unique because I really have 4 route concepts integrated into the Crosser concept. What route concepts present themselves depends on the formation that the Crosser concept is run from. I will give you the rules and break down what you get out of each formation.
Rules for Crosser concept:
SE: Curl Route (depth can vary depending on personnel or philosophy)
TE: Dig Route (10 and sharp cut across)
Wingback/Slotback: Drag Route (Replacing the DL's feet; work upfield after you cross the field)
Halfback: If Split side, run Arrow route; If Tight side, run Wheel route
Let's look at the Crosser concept out of a traditional Right/Left (100/900) formation:
Right away, you should see 2 fundamental route concepts built into the Crosser concept out of Right/Left. To the split side, you have a Hi-Lo/Delta concept. To the Tight side, you have a Drive concept. You might be surprised by how nicely these 2 concepts work together.
Since you are flooding the flat to the split side, it requires 2 defenders to run with the Arrow and Drag routes. If that actually happens, your Curl or Dig can be possibly open. If someone doesn't run with the Arrow or Drag, one of those should be open. The compression of the TE/WB also makes it very hard to defend the Drive concept part of the play because you can hardly run man coverage and the defenders do not have great angles to defend it with zone.
Let's look at Crosser concept out of Bunch, which is 100/900 with the HB strong:
With Bunch, you still have the Drive concept, but now you have created 2 isolation routes on either side of the formation. That will spread out the defense and give you the ability to take advantage of a possible mismatch. The big advantage I see is my HB running a wheel against a single defender, which can be a huge mismatch, depending on who takes him. Also, if a team is running Cover 3 to the split side, you can high-low the read on the flat defender, using the Curl and Drag as your options.
Let's look at Crosser concept out of Slot (Slot 100/900) formation:
You get the isolation routes again, but the crossing route concept has now changed to the Shallow concept. That now changes the dynamics of how the defense must defend the middle. We do not have the crossing routes going in the same direction anymore, but actually going in opposite directions. Again, mismatches are key out of this formation and the drag may pop open due to the wheel pulling people one way and the TE pulling people the other way. This formation also allows us to tag the Crosser concept with a "Mesh" tag, where both the SB and TE will run a drag and mesh them up.
Finally, lets look at the Trey formation, which is just the Slot formation with HB strong:
Just like the Right/Left formation, you got 2 concepts in one. You have the Delta concept to the split side and the Shallow concept to the Tight side. You have 2 concepts you can pick from depending on the coverage, with this look lending itself to open up the TE more or the Delta Concept.
Finally, here is the what it looks like out of a Red/Blue formation:
All the concepts wrapped up in one play! Love it!!!
The thing I love most about this concept is how the rules for the players never change, but depending on what formation I put them in, it gives you slightly different advantages. Even the QB reads are going to easy because he can rely on the players routes to be consistent, no matter what formation we are in. If I can simply the rules, the kids do not have to think...which equals execution.
This concept is a 5-step or, to fit the Wing-T philosophy, you can run it with play action in the backfield. My guess would be that it would be a good play action off of plays from the Belly series, due to the route the HB has to run.
Hope you enjoyed and there is more to come!
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