Plan for Pressure

Three examples on dealing with Zero looks pre-snap.

Having a plan for pressure on every play is vital for any offense to survive the course of a game. Last season in our playoff loss, my own team faced the reality of what happens when you don’t have a solid plan. Since then I’ve paid special attention to how other teams provide plans for their quarterbacks to navigate pressure. That could be hots or it could be checks. There are many ways to do it and we’re constantly figuring out the best answers to give our quarterback.

One particular pressure that’s shown up over and over again is the double mug look from Minnesota. Though shown perhaps vulnerable the past two weeks, this deceptive all-out pressure look that Vikings’ DC Brian Flores is running is nothing short of a “serious problem.”

In the rest of this article, I’m going to look at three examples of teams facing the look and how they provided their quarterback answers to this problem.

Disguising the Popper

The defense presents a multitude of issues when they show everyone at the line and zero on the backend. The issue concerning protection is that you don’t know who all is coming — they might all come, they might drop everyone except 3 or 4 into a zone coverage, or they might drop based on how the pass protection plays out.

So a properly prepared offense needs to have a plan for all of these scenarios that they can get into when the defense shows this look.

One of those answers might be a slant which is good against man coverage. However, when a defender pops out, disaster can occur.

Example:

I believe Rodgers is throwing to the number two receiver. And based on the pre-snap look that appears to be a good, sound answer to this problem that the Vikings are presenting. But let’s look a little closer.

Though there are seven defenders at the line of scrimmage, only two of them have their hands in the dirt. So any five out of the seven could potentially pop.

The Jets have a six man protection called, so on a whiteboard they should be able to handle all but one of the potential rushers. Sorting that out is a problem for another day, but if one drops, theoretically they have the numbers. Getting the numbers matched up is not to be the focus today, and instead, the focus is on what is reasonably expected out of the quarterback.

First, I need to acknowledge that the Jets’ protection lets one through on the back side leaving Rodgers half a second away from being blindsided.

However, the ensuing solution still stands — if Rodgers knows that they pop out of this look, then the inside slants on this triple slant concept they’re running isn’t great. It’s a perfectly fine normal zero-pressure beater if all seven defenders come.

And as you can see here the popper in this instance is able to cover both the number three and number two slant. Problem.

So that leaves the number one slant to the trips side as the only viable solution. But we also need to acknowledge that we know this after watching the film. Could there have been a reasonable thought process that produced that option as an anticipated open route pre-snap? I believe the answer is yes, assuming you know they like to pop. If you don’t know that, then they’ll get you. If they sometimes pop and sometimes don’t, then on a route concept with three in-breakers, I’d want the quarterback to assume they will pop to be safe.

This triple slant concept has an answer but it also has traps for the quarterback. Those inside slants are begging for the ball against zero. But that’s not the answer if we anticipate the potential of poppers. Neither is the stop route up top. That route takes too long to be reasonable, and if that’s not open where should the ball go?

So pre-snap, the only answer is the outside slant. Unless that receiver falls down, the quarterback can assume that’s where he’s going to go with about 95% certainty.

Let’s move on to a successful play against a similar zero look with a dropping defender:

Tennessee’s plan against this look is to run verticals on the trips side as a true zero-beating option while running a solo slant as a quicker option if the space is there.

Once again the offensive line is facing seven defenders at the line of scrimmage, and once again, only two have their hands in the dirt. Alabama had shown this look plenty on film prior to this game and had brought pressure and dropped out of it. Unlike the play analyzed prior, the defense does not bring pressure and drops three and rushes four.

So this slant beats the dropping defender because of space and timing. There is too much space for the dropping defender to cover and pressure doesn’t get to the quarterback allowing him to let the slant navigate around the dropping defender.

The coverage up top essentially plays out like zero and the number two receiver’s vertical route gets the job done too if the quarterback had looked there and was facing an all-out pressure. So Tennessee had a couple answers on this play alone.

Disguising Protection

Lastly, let’s take another look at handling this type of defensive look with a beautifully orchestrated plan.

On this play, the Lions are turning the tables on the defense and disguising their plans in protection. Protection is the hardest part to figure out against these looks so that makes this play all the more brilliant.

The Lions are presenting an open 2x2 formation to the defense — in other words, at a maximum the defense would expect 6 man protection.

So they have seven men lined up, one more for the offense to take care of.

However, the Lions knew how to mess with the rules of the defense and sent their outside receiver from the left in motion to join the protection unit making it a seven man protection in the blink of an eye (this is a great YouTube video sharing some history on this protection scheme). If the Vikings had known the Lions were going to be in seven man protection then they would’ve wanted to show eight coming. They still end up dropping a defender so they are left with six rushers against seven in protection. Just about the exact opposite scenario DC Brian Flores wanted.

To pile it on, the defense also has trouble passing off the motion and completely busts the coverage letting the right slot get free. Goff’s look to the left probably helps but the motion and the sound protection scheme bear the load of effectiveness.

The result — a beautiful touchdown pass with beautiful protection.