Setup: Trips – Wide, Slot, Tight

Read: Short to Deep

  1. Center – Quick Slant Strong Side
  2. Slot – Go/Streak/9
  3. Tight – Corner
  4. Wide – Streak up Sideline

Description:

Once the ball is hiked, the Wide receiver runs back toward and in front of the Quarterback while the QB rolls a little toward the strong side. After faking the handoff, the QB should look for the Center on the quick Slant. Here you are looking to get the ball to the center about 3-5 yards up the field. The goal is to make the defender on that side commit to the short pass or drop and run with the Slot receiver. You want the defense to react to the two deep routes before making a throw. If the throw is made before the defense has time to react to the other routes, it becomes an easy play to defend (unless of course, you’re looking for short yards to pick a first down)

If this short route is covered, then the options become the Slot receiver on the 9 route and then the Tight receiver on the Corner route going underneath the Slot.

With the Blue receiver, you have a few options. Here I show the receiver going in motion, fake handoff, then a streak up the opposite sideline. This can be effective since the quarterback’s focus is on the left shift, the defense may shift that direction and forget about Blue.

However, a better option may be to have Blue be an outlet receiver. After the fake handoff, the Wide receiver should run across the field about half way to the opposite sideline. After running up the field a little, the receiver should come back over the middle.

Variation: One variation is to just hand off the ball to the Wide receiver as he runs in front of the QB. A minor variation is to have the Center run an out route instead of the slant. This will give the QB a little more time to complete the fake and look up field.