Losing Outside Leverage on the Slot Fade
A look at two perfect slot fade reps. How LSU used crazy good receivers to get their slot fade open against Florida and Ole Miss in 2023.
A break from Collin Klein’s offense today to look at the slot fade concept — something LSU ran last year as if they were commissioned to do so.
They ran it out of 3x1 often, sometimes as an attachment to the run game and other times as quick game. Today is a look at what they did in 2x2 with a particular out motion from the outside receiver. The two examples start out with the WRs in an almost-stack alignment with the defense appearing in MOFC Man.
In the first look, the cornerback is down and the overhang is up. Vice versa in the second look. LSU makes it work with both concepts because the defense is in man and they have a great WR running the route. But there is a leverage problem at play on both plays.
Against Florida
I’m not sure if this motion does anything for the slot fade concept other than get the spacing correct. Perhaps they go to the line with another call and check into this concept when they see MOFC Man. The backside is running a stack WR screen, so this must be a split-field concept rather than a full-field read. So the QB better know what he’s getting into if he’s checking the play because he has no backside option. If it turns out to be zone (assuming they stay MOFC), he should be able to throw the hitch.
Onto the slot fade. The overhang is about 7 yards off from the WR with square hips. The WR takes a slower, vertical release off the ball almost as if he is selling a block. The defender does a decent job of opening his hips to run with the WR pretty quickly, but speed kills. Perfect timing and perfect ball placement does the defender no help either.
As for why the free safety wasn’t a factor, it’s hard to say other than the speed of the WR was too much and he didn’t get enough depth. Since the ball was closer to the right hash, the middle of the field was left of the formation. So he was already to the side of the slot fade. The QB might’ve held him with his eyes, but it’s hard to say. At the snap the safety was lower, about 13 yards off the ball and started turning to play the fade at about 20 yards. Not enough depth, evidently. Result… big time play.
Against Ole Miss
LSU once again uses this out motion and once again, I’m not sure of its utility in terms of helping make the slot fade concept work. Unlike the play prior, the overhang is down and the cornerback is up. This isn’t the ideal look for the slot fade because sometimes the cornerback can get nosy and put his eyes in the backfield and cheat the route (while abandoning the hitch).
Not the case here. The cornerback is locked in on the hitch. Moving on to the free safety. At the snap, the free safety is playing to the left side of the formation. It’s hard to tell exactly where the QB is looking because the free safety is already to the left. So either the QB is staring the free safety down to hold him or he is looking to the slot fade immediately. He certainly isn’t being too aggressive with his eyes and looking right at all. However it worked out, the free safety didn’t react fast enough to make a play.
Another factor might be the length of the route and where it hit — on the play prior, the ball hit about 33 yards down the field. This one, happening in the red zone, hits not too much shorter, maybe about 27 or 28 yards from the line of scrimmage. The free safety was deeper than the other one. At the snap, he was walking backward at about 16 yards from the line of scrimmage. As is the nature of red zone defense, he stayed at the goal line and from there he broke for the slot fade. The speed and acrobatic nature of the catch was a massive factor too. Result…touchdown.
The Takeaway
The biggest takeaway from these two plays is that it sure is hard for a defense to beat a speedy WR and a perfectly placed ball in man coverage. In fact, from an offensive perspective, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect rep of the slot fade than either of these two. There was nothing (that I noticed at least) that the defense did wildly wrong. It was simply perfect execution.
The one thing both overhangs lost was their outside leverage. They have help inside from the free safety so by losing outside leverage, they lost all their help. Neither the press cornerback or the deeper overhang were able to maintain outside leverage. So as far as the takeaway for this route and concept: if you can catch a defense willing to give away outside leverage on the slot in man…run slot fade.
Until tomorrow,
Emory Wilhite
P.S. Check out all the cut ups here:
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