One thing I’ve noticed over the last few years is that it is becoming increasingly harder to get outside with the Outside Zone/Toss Sweep play. I’m not talking about the stretch play that often cuts inside the end man and creases a defense. I’m talking about pitching the ball to your running back and watching him circle the defense.
The primary reason for this is that defenses are getting “wider”. Due to many offenses taking a pass-first mentality, defenses are widening their defensive ends to give them an edge on the pass rush. The by-product of this widening is an inability of the offense to reach block the DE. So then the question becomes, “How do we get outside without having to always throw it out there?” Answer, we trick the defense into giving us the edge.
Typically, if an offensive tackle or tight end steps down, the defensive end in a 5- or 9-tech will squeeze down with him. Video 1 shows an example of this as we attempt to run the inside zone to the left (offense’s right). The right DE will squeeze the hip of the tackle and then shuffle down the line.
Obviously, the Zone Read play could solve this problem IF the QB is athletic enough to pull it and beat the DE around the edge. Most years, ours is not that kind of guy. They’re great at pulling the ball down and getting yards but not very quick. So my answer over the past three years has been to flip it. Let’s continue to read the DE but place the tailback (or Fly Sweep Receiver) on the outside path and leave the QB inside running behind the offensive Line (Figure 1).
We do not want our QB to be the primary ball carrier on the play, and we instruct him of the play’s intent (to get the tailback outside) when we install it. After the QB receives the snap, he extends the ball and we allow one slide step toward the read end to give him that little bit extra decision-making time. We’ve found that if the QB takes any more steps, he is getting outside the point of attack the offensive line is providing him. Even if the DE stands still, we believe the mesh-back’s momentum and speed will allow him to reach the edge. In these instances, it is incredibly difficult for a QB to reach to outrun the DE from a standstill and is the primary reason we choose to keep him in the box. Therefore, the only way the mesh-back won’t get the ball is if the DE widens with the read or rushes straight up the field.
Rarely will we run the play without a lead back (the tailback becomes our lead back when we run our Fly Sweep play). The lead back operates as if the play was outside zone and looks for the first Level two defender outside the box. Under no circumstance is the lead back allowed to block the DE. In video 2, the DE squeezes down and then reacts to make the play for a 7 yard gain – which we will take every time.
We haven’t gone as far as to take the outside zone completely out of our offense, but this past season we ran this version of the inside zone by a 5-1 ratio over the outside zone. We have, therefore, effectively given our offense an inside and outside play and kept our offensive line teaching to a minimum.