R&D ThinkTank: Observations From a 7 on 7 Passing Scrimmage

I just took in my first 7 on 7 passing scrimmage this last week. I was there to check out one of our conference opponents. Out of the 3 teams that participated in the scrimmage, 2 of them ran a 5-wide, pass-heavy offense.

While watching these teams run their offenses vs varying defenses, many ideas came to mind:

1) It's the little things that matter...minor details lead to big gains.

When it comes to any offense, there are subtle adjustments/alignments that teams use to gain an advantage. As a former OL, the one that comes to mind right away is an OL's split. Depending on what play you are running, you may want an OL to either widen or shorten his split to help move the DL around and get them in a better position to block. Widen a split to set up trap, shorten down splits for outside runs, or widen your split to open up the B gap more for Iso or Belly. All are minor details that can lead to big gains for the offense.

Well, with that said, when watching these teams run their spread offenses, it was awesome to see the minor details taken to set up the defense. As a former assistant coach that helped call the defense from the press box, you kind of get trained to look for subtle details that the offense does to give you a clue of what play is coming. So when I watched the 7 on 7 scrimmage, I was looking for those subtle things that may tip me off to what plays or routes may happen.

You will notice with these types of spread offenses that the alignment / "splits" of the wide receivers is a key to figuring out what routes are going to be run. The thing is that there is just as much variety of splits used by a WR versus splits used by an OL.

First, I always look at the outside WR, no matter how many WRs are on that side.

•  If the outside WR is tight, then you are looking at some kind of out cut.

•  If the outside WR is wide, then you are either seeing an in cut or he is creating space for someone else to get the ball.

Next, if you have multiple receivers to a side, I look at the splits between the receivers.

•  If the receivers are wide apart, usually one is setting up the other one to get open with spacing or one of the receivers is going somewhere else (not working a combo route with him). So maybe they are wide because a stick route concept is on and they are isolating the inside receiver? Or are they going to run a drag with the inside receiver and the outside receiver(s) has a different route combo or responsibility in the play?

• If the receivers are close together, usually there is going to be some kind of switch route or they are working a combo together. So a great example of this would be a trips look with an outside WR with a really wide split, with the inside WRs only a few feet from each other. Then you could get a Switch concept between the 2 inside WRs, and also work a Smash concept between the outside WR and the switching inside WR.

I saw a lot of tight splits between WRs due to one of the teams running press man coverage most of the time. That led to a lot of of switch routes and outside cutting routes due to the compression of the receiver's split.

Finally, another thing to look at is the structure of the formation, not just splits. A great example of this was done by a team with an extremely talented WR, who will be attending Pitt after this next year. Here is how they isolated him on an In route with their formation/routes:

First, look at the formation. The one side has stacked WRs, which were split wide. The other side is a typically twins look, with the inside WR slightly tighter to the OL. The back is set to the regular twins side of formation, which causes the defense to align a defender to that side to cover the RB man if he releases. When looking at the formation and routes, the goal is to drag the defense wide and isolate the stud WR in the middle of the field. All of this is done just by alignment of the WRs and simple route calls.

2) It's amazing how similar the 5-wide attack is to the Wing-T and other run heavy offenses.

No, I am not concussed nor have I lost my mind...

Let me start this out with a simple question...what offenses call for your defense to get out of its' base front/coverage due to the dramatic ability to move the ball?

I guarantee there would be 3 answers commonly given: Wing-T, Empty Passing, and Heavy Option teams.

SO ALREADY THERE IS A SIMILARITY!!!! HA!!!

All kidding aside, there is an underlying philosophy that these styles of offense live on...We have an answer for every alignment or adjust you have. No matter what you do, we will take advantage of it and attack you!

This is the key to understanding how to defend teams like this...you need to except their philosophy of constantly adapting and know what plays/formations they are going to use against you. As a defense, you need to take that information and prepare your team to defend those specific plays the offense will try to implement against your team.

For example, if you are playing a 5-wide attack and you plan to run man against them, you need to be preparing for routes concepts like switches, smash, outs, and digs. If you are playing a run heavy team, usually they look at what a DL is doing or if a secondary defender is getting to tight to the LOS. They will then run a play to take advantage of that technique, like a trap or a play action pass.

If you focus and filter what the offense can do to you defensive scheme, you can practice that filtered list of plays more during the week leading up to the game. That leads to a familiarity with the offense and what to expect. This can also lead to a defensive scheme that limits what a defender has to worry about in terms of reads or techniques. Ultimately, the more comfortable your defense is playing against the offense, the more likely you will win.

So even though these types of offenses can look dramatically different from one another, they are all running the same principles of reading the defense and trying to take advantage of your defense with specific plays.

3) When it comes down to it... TALENT wins!!!

Pretty straight forward...you got a bunch of studs that know how to play...you are going to win!

One of the teams at the scrimmage had some imposing receivers with great talent. They were 6'4 or 6'5 , while some of the defenders were more like 5'8. The coach of these WRs was not afraid to put that talent on show by calling out the WR, yelling out that he needs to bring this down (in front of the defense), and the play would be a fade to the called receiver. And based on what I observed, they were a percent 100% on making the catch. So the defense knew it was coming his way and the WR still made the play.

Talent doesn't necessarily guarantee a win, but if that talent is focused, coached up, and put into the right position to win.....you are going to win and win big!!!