When Overhangs Carry

How To Beat It According to the Tennessee Volunteers

One of the first things I look at when watching opponent film is deciphering the method to the madness concerning the overhangs.

Some teams play them at an abnormal depth, some teams have their overhangs carry seemingly regardless of the coverage, they might collision violently, and others have their overhangs spot drop to nowhere. They’re vital to understanding the defense’s structure and they often dictate a lot of the passing game that week.

Today, we’re looking at the how to beat an overhang that carries verticals. It doesn't matter the coverage — if the overhangs carry verticals, the defense has great leverage on any vertical by the slot. But there is potential in the underneath space when the the overhang carries.

Take a watch at how Tennessee did it in their 2022 win against Alabama:

Why This Play Worked

Three reasons:

1. The overhang carries the vertical.
   This plays isn’t dead if the overhang doesn’t carry, but if he collisions and slows the seam down while also taking away the under route, then the QB’s only choice is throwing a laser into the seam window. Still, this play is also limited in it’s effectiveness because it is practically a one man route. You assume the overhang carries and hope there is enough space underneath before the Mike becomes an issue.

2. The QB gets the ball out before the Mike can become an issue.
   Any underneath route like this requires the Mike to be slow and/or the QB to make a quick decision and accurate throw to protect the WR. The QB’s token fake slows down the Mike but at the same time limits how fast he can get the ball out. However, it seems that it did more good than harm, plus it afforded the WR time to defeat a press CB if necessary.

3. The WR defeats the attempt at collision from the press CB.

   I assume the CB was worried about a threat of the vertical here because he wasn’t too aggressive and seemed to be backing up almost. This allowed the WR to get a clean release inside in a situation where I highly doubt the CB wanted that.

Conclusion

The purpose of theses posts is to slow down and pay attention to the details that make plays work. Whiteboards become useless after awhile and it doesn’t matter if you can draw up great scheme. Football is too chaotic for that. These details (like the three outlined above) are the actual factors that make plays work. Scheme matters, of course, but fundamentals and techniques are what matters when it comes to winning.

Until tomorrow,

Emory Wilhite

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