The key to any successful play-action pass is the ability to sell the run. But, there are a few other things to consider when trying to maximize a play-action. First, make your routes simple enough so that they can be carried over from one formation to another. The first example is a play action pass off of an inside zone scheme out of a 2 x 2 formation.
As you can see, to the action side you have a 15-yard dig on the outside and an over route by the front side TE. To the back side, you have an outside WR clearing the corner. The inside TE has an arrow route with a two second delay. If your inside skill player back side is a WR, he can run a pivot route to allow him to get to the “flat” on time.
The important coaching point on this route is to not get too far inside and too deep so as not to interfere with the over route. Have the WR works inside to just outside the OT at a depth of 3-4 yards, then he pivots back to the flat. Out of a 3 x 1 formation, you need to get a skill player from the front side to the back side flat.
The example shows the #2 skill player coming across the formation, bluffing the back side DE, and releasing into the flat at a depth of 3-4 yards.
As you can see, with these 3 examples you can incorporate this pass concept into any formation with just about any personnel grouping. This pass concept can even become a drop back pass out of a 2 x 2 spread formation with a RB swinging to the field.
Second, protecting the back side of the play is paramount in getting the play off. Our rule is that if the backside OT has 2 defenders outside of him, he “blocks back”, not selling the run play. The issue with this is that if you have a 3 technique backside, the OG now has to “block back”. Now you aren’t selling the run action as effectively as you could. The way to combat this is to put a TE in back side so that the “blocking back” by the OT and OG does not need to happen.
Finally, there are two important aspects in getting your OL to sell the run action, specifically off of zone looks. Making sure they stay low (keeping helmets down) AND making sure they continue running to the direction they are selling the zone run to. It has always been hard early in the installation of the play-action off of the inside zone to get the OL to understand that. More times than not, if you keep running in the direction of the run action, the defense will continue to try to “follow” and not get “reached”. In other words, if the OL stays low but stops running in the direction of the action, the defense will figure it out quicker than if they continued “selling” it.