Rev-Up Your “Jet” Motion Offense with Explosive Play-Action Passes (Part II)
By Joe Austin, Head Football Coach,
Southwestern University
Jet Motion Play Calls:
Our menu of play-action passes incorporating “jet” motion fall into one of three families. We don’t necessarily pass from all three families each week. That being said we certainly enter every game with at least one pass off of “jet” motion that we are confident in. These pass plays are often featured as part of our opening script. In 2016 our “jet” motion play-action pass game produced a 64 percent completion percentage and averaged 20 yards per completion.
Figures 1-5 detail our “jet” motion play-action families. They are organized into vertical seams, single wide receiver isolations, and running back wheel routes.
Vertical seams (Figure 1, Figure 2). These concepts capitalize on any/all advantages gained by “jet” motion. Vacated curls lead to open seams, fewer deep defenders lead to two-on-one numerical advantages, and displaced linebackers that don’t drop allow for easier downfield access. Vertical seams are a big part of our overall passing attack. As a result of this emphasis we feel confident in running vertical stretches against any coverage.
Single wide receiver isolations (Figure 3). The rotation of safeties in the direction of “jet” motion leaves corners in one-on-one isolation with a single wide receiver. This defensive movement puts linebackers in a particularly difficult situation where they are either looking away or moving away from the single side receiver.
Running back wheel routes (Figure 4 and Figure 5). The running back is often the forgotten man in pass defense schemes against “jet” motion play-action. Force players typically focus on getting to the point of attack while rotating safeties are usually concerned with replacing the area vacated by the rushing force player. In this confusion the back is easily lost in the shuffle of responsibilities.
Schematically the adjustments in blocking for the three “jet” motion families are easy to make. We make few changes for our offensive line when changing from a power read run to a play-action pass. In our play-action protection everyone blocks power while staying on level one. With the front-side aggressively blocking down the pulling guard stays on the first level instead of wrapping to a level two linebacker while the backside tackle is man to man.
Adapting Jet Motion:
The menu of play types we use is certainly not an exhaustive list of options. For screen teams there are multiple options for running back and wide receiver screens off of “jet” motion fakes. The same possibilities are available for other offensive styles.
“Jet” motion runs are an effective means for setting up play action regardless of the passing scheme a team uses. Establishing a running game makes the passing game easier. The reverse scenario is also true (passing assists the running game). Under-developing or under-utilizing one of these two elements undermines the overall effectiveness of including a “jet” motion element in your game plan.
We have found “Jet” motion to be a beneficial tool for our offense. Implementing effective play-action to complement our runs has helped us stretch the field, creates big plays, and challenges defenses to adjust on the fly. With minor adjustments it stands to benefit any offense looking to improve its efficiency.
Joe Austin is the head football coach at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas where his team went from a start-up in 2013 to undefeated Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference champions in 2016 with Austin receiving the conference’s coach of the year award. Prior to Southwestern, Austin was the head coach at Hanover College (IN) where he transformed the program into a consistent contender for the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship. For the last six years Austin has been on the coaching staff for the Tazon de Estrellas Division III all-star game, including serving as the offensive coordinator for the last three years. Austin has also served as the offensive coordinator at the University of Dubuque (IA) and Augsburg College (MN), as well as an offensive assistant coach at Concordia University, St. Paul (MN).