R&D Labwork: Slant/Angle Route Concept from the Wing-T

Okay, time for another installment of drop back passing from the Wing-T and we are going to be focusing on Slant route concepts, including the Angle route as a modification of the slant.

The Slant route is another great quick passing game route that can be high percentage and gain huge yards. Usually you will see it paired up with an arrow route, a bubble, or even a streak, but can also be a great isolation route to the backside of a play. The route is usually a 3-step route for the receiver, planting on the outside foot, then turning at 45 degree angle to the inside and looking to get open. The depth and angle of the route can be changed depending on the level of complexity of the offense.

So...how can the Slant be used in the Wing-T offense? Most would say the SE can run it and maybe you pair another route up with him to get a combo route. Yes, that is one way to do it and I will show you ways of doing that later. The more interesting and unconventional way of running the slant concept in the Wing-T is run it on the TE/Wing or TE/HB side of the formation. I will let that soak in a little bit and introduce to you a "cousin" of the slant route...the Angle route.

In the diagram above, I want you to focus on the top box and ignore the streak routes for now. The one back is running what is called an Angle route. It sometimes is just a check route if the back has no blocking responsibility or it can be run at the snap of the ball. Many west coast/pro style offenses use the angle route as a way to get an athletic RB in space on a LB or the LBs are dropping so much that they are leaving the underneath wide open. A great example of a team that has used the Angle roue for years is USC. They used to run it with Reggie Bush all the time and have used the route with many of the athletes they have had on their team. The most recent player that USC ran the Angle route with was Nelson Agholor, who got drafted by the Eagles recently. 

The video below shows Agholor running the Angle route from the backfield, starting at the 0:25 mark. Also, check out the play that starts at the 1:30 mark and you might see where I am going with the Slant/Angle tie-in:

The first play (0:25) I pointed out is straight forward...Agholor is in the backfield, runs an Angle route, out maneuvers a LB, and makes the catch. The second play (1:30) is the focus of how to get a slant concept run with a TE/Wing flank. The wing needs to run the initial steps of an arrow route (3-5 steps) and then bang it up field or inside, based on the coverage (just like how Agholor ran his route in the second play). The goal is to suck the LB outside and then beat him back inside. It would look very similar to this play drawn up by Smart Football about the BYU passing attack:

Now, the difference here is there is 2 other WRs to that side to help spread out the D. So how can you get the Wing isolated on a LB? You will have to take the TE and run him on a streak. This accomplishes two things: 1) Gives another route option that the QB can throw to and 2) The TE will pull the LBs deeper and wider to give the Wing more room to run his route.

Here are 2 examples of how the concept would work versus different defenses:

So to run a slant concept to the TE/Wing side or a TE/HB side, all you have to do is run the Slant route like an Angle route. That will give you the room you need to get open, even though you are in a compressed formation. If you want a TE/HB flank, then the TE will still run the streak and the HB will run just a normal Angle route from the backfield. Gives you the same read and concept!

Side note, look at the SE side and you really have a couple of route options to combo the SE's slant route with to attack the D. You can have the HB run a streak as well and that gives you an under concept. You can have him run a bubble/arrow route and that gives you that common horizontal stretch pass concept out of the quick game.

The QB will take a 3 step drop and will be looking for the slant/angle route on the TE/Wing side by keying the ILB/OLB to that side. If the QB is looking to hit the slant to the SE side, he needs to key the OLB (or flat defender) to the SE side.This is a high percentage throw that is looking to take advantage of a mismatch between a RB/WR and a LB.

Here are a few other examples of how the slant concept can be run out of different formations:

Again, another wonderful integration of  a great, high percentage, quick game pass concept into the Wing-T offense! Hope this has given you some inspiration on developing a passing game out of the Wing-T, as I feel there is much untapped potential for passing out of the Wing-T. 

Please feel free to leave me any feedback, good or bad, about this material, either by leaving a comment or tweeting me a message.