Modifying Your Passing Game

As I’ve mentioned before, pass protection at the youth, women’s and sometimes even the men’s semi-pro level can be atrocious. Lots of reasons for that, but the purpose of this article isn’t to fix the OL per se, but to give a coaching staff who realizes they can’t keep their QB upright and mobile in a drop back setting some ideas on how to get an effective passing game nonetheless.

Be a great screen team. Oddly enough, if your offensive line is otherwise a great pass blocking unit, sometimes screens don’t work well because they are easy to sniff out if the DE who has been shut down all day suddenly has a free run at the QB. Anyone in that case has to ask themselves, “why I am beating the blocker all of a sudden?” But on the other hand, if an OL pass protects relatively poorly, screens may work well. Especially for those of us who play under NCAA rules, screens are great. The Chicago Force is probably the best screen team I’ve ever seen, period, at any level. They ran a myriad of them last year and did them all well. Check for film on them.

Use a quick perimeter passing game. By “screens” above I meant mostly the half back / running back type of delayed screens. Another thing you can do to help your OL is to develop a quick perimeter game, which would include the various WR screens. These do not require the OL to hold blocks for long (and you may elect to free release your tackles to get involved in the blocking, just make sure your guards and center forms a shield up front) and they are normally easier passes for your QB to complete, giving him/her more confidence overall in the passing game.

Move the pocket. Utilize sprint out concepts to move the launch point of the QB and force the pass rush to adjust. By keeping the defense guessing where the QB will be, it helps to simplify the types of blitzes you will see, thereby helping with your protection. Also, by getting the QB out of the pocket there is always the chance that perimeter defenders will fill, leaving receivers open or if they stay back, giving the QB a chance to pick up yards on his/her own.

These last two are not my favorites by any means, but bear a look:

Teach your OL to cut. I generally am very reluctant to have my OL cut a whole lot. Usually it is only when there is a definite physical mismatch that we can’t otherwise counter with scheme or technique that I suggest giving it a try. The reason I don’t like it is that very often it isn’t effective – but maybe I just don’t coach it well enough. Usually what happens is my OL ends up blocking the 30-yard line while the defender jumps over them. But we have used it on occasion against an extremely quick and aggressive DT who in the confines of the trenches had little room to maneuver. I haven’t had much success with it on the outside against a DE though.

Modify your protection. There’s a couple of parts to this, and I don’t think you can safely do one without the other:

Cut down your splits. Down to 6” if you need to. I know an awful lot of teams who use the “water buffalo” cup type of protection. They get these big ol’ bodies all facing one way and just dare anything to try and come between them. Against a defense that continually blitzes inside, this can be a good counter. The problem then becomes on the outside – the reduction of the splits also means less distance for the outside rushers to get to your QB. So the second part of this solution, keeping the RB(s) in comes into play. An excellent example of this would be the Central Cal War Angels. They have a stout front five, and then two extremely big and strong RB’s. When they want to work their deeper routes, all seven stay in and they’re pretty darn tough to get by!

If you’d like an overview on the different types of pass protections, please see my January 8 post and my January 15 post.

Special note to offensive coordinators and head coaches: I understand that many of you want pretty, sophisticated passing games. You love drawing up route combinations that will bedazzle opposing defenses. I do too. But for the sake of your QB’s health, please remember that none of that will look very pretty with your QB sidelined due to injury. As Coach Mike Barry once said, “For every inch of passing routes some QB coach draws on a whiteboard, there is one second of protection that has to take place.”

Your job remains to get the defense playing with doubt, no matter what tools you do or don’t have at your disposal. Play the hand you’re dealt and remember that it truly does start up front.