The Plays: HB Counter Wk

The fourth rushing play in our standard offense, which completes the running portion of the offense, is the HB Counter Wk. When you hear people talk about the Redskins' Counter Trey under Joe Gibbs, this is close to the play they are talking about.  Counter plays are misdirection runs, which in real football are used to fool defenses that are too aggressive.  The run starts going to the strong side and then immediately switches direction to flow to the weak side.  The FB acts as if he is leading the play to the strong side, which can fool defenders looking into the backfield into committing to that side of the field.  Instead, the two strong side linemen pull and wander down the line looking to execute trap and kick out blocks on penetrating or weak side defenders.  This opens a backside hole for the HB to take the ball through.

Here is Roger Mills of the St. Petersburg Times with a concise description of the action in the traditional Joe Gibbs Counter Trey from 2004:

Here is how it looks in the playbook: The offense lines up in a traditional set, with the tight end on the right (strong) side and a tight end/fullback on the weak side. On the snap, the ballcarrier charges left as he takes the handoff. In a flash, the left guard and left tackle pull to their right. The running back then switches direction and follows the two linemen.

In theory, both linemen are able to create a seam by overpowering smaller linebackers or safeties, so the running back can scamper for big yardage.

Tampa Bay CB Ronde Barber:

"It's the tight end sealing the backside so the defensive end can't run it down. Then you have a guard and tackle pulling on whoever the outside flat defender is and the first inside backer."

 Tampa Bay LB Shelton Quarles:

"You have those big linemen pulling, and when they pull, that's a lot of meat coming around the corner. . . So if you don't play it right, you get gassed. It's different seeing two linemen, instead of a fullback and a lineman. Your keys aren't the same."

Tampa Bay DT Anthony McFarland:

"It's a misdirection, downhill play. . . You have a lot of different types of running games. The outside run, the inside run, the downhill power run and the misdirection run. But when you look at the counter trey, you're combining a little bit of power and a little bit of misdirection."

How the Play Works

The play acts like a gap blocking power run to the weak side. As stated above, your TE and the FB leading the fake to the strong side seal off the back side of the play. To the front play side, you have your C, weak side OG and OT down blocking and two pulling linemen to lead the charge. Their job is to kick out the strong side edge defender and lead block the inside linebacker in the hole. All the HB needs to do is read that lead block and scoot for some yards.

"I Left Split Right Max 36 Counter Trey" from mightymitesfootball.org

The key to running the play successfully is watching the pulling linemen to see where they end up lead blocking any inside or penetrating defenders on the weak side.  Take the following HB Counter Wk left against Florida State:

There are two defenders lined up wide, outside the LT, with a FS to the outside and a LB directly over center.  Notice the wide gap between the RDE and the RDT.  The Seminoles are stacking heavily against the inside run to the strong side.  This is a defense whose vulnerability is right where the Counter is going to attack it.



At the snap, we can see the RT and RG start to pull and move down the line.  The LG moves up to take on the RDE charging to the inside, while the ROLB actually floats off into the flat zone.  Because the ROLB does not push down into the backfield, the LT moves up to take on the RILB in the center of the field.  Our pulling RT hits the LDT trying to penetrate, leaving the RG pulling around the weak side.  He will kick out that ROLB once the LB realizes he needs to play the run.

Everyone is blocked on the weak side while the FS drops into a deep zone in centerfield, leaving a clear path into the secondary.  This run goes for a solid nine yards.



Here is another HB Counter Wk left play call against Florida State. Again, the RT gets a nice block on the penetrating interior lineman while the RG pulls around the formation to lay a nice block on the LB to the outside.  Take note of the LT who flows with the play and basically reverses field into a hefty crackback block (except that he's not a receiver from outside the tackle box).



What we have is very similar to the Power O run, which has a kick out block to the outside and gap down blocking inside to open a hole a little off-tackle:

Good execution of blocks and seeing where the lane opens up like in a Power O run is the big part of using the play effectively. Make no mistake, though, this is still mostly an inside run that will not stretch the defense too far:



The play stays between the hashes, but still turns it upfield for 11 yards.

Cutback Opportunity

The play is designed to aim diagonally toward the outside, but occasionally you will see major overpursuit from the defense as they try to take away the edge.  In such cases, you will see lots of penetration on the weakside while a hole opens to the back side of the play.  That is where you cut it back and exploit the hole the defense offers to you.

Here we have Notre Dame loading up the weak side, sending the DT crashing through to the weak side.  You can see the FB pull up and spot the strong side LB patrolling the hole left by the DT.

Look at all the deep defenders running to the perimeter on the weak side, taking away the corner in the upper left of the picture.  Meanwhile on the strong side, the FB takes on the LB, leaving a huge cutback lane to the strong side:

By the time the deep help arrives, our backup HB has picked up 11 yards and a first down.

This completes the four basic run play package. As Anthony McFarland said earlier, we now have one run of each type: Iso - The Inside Run RB Stretch - The Outside Run Power O - Downhill Power HB Counter Wk - Misdirection On any down, this allows us to run at any part of the defense from this single formation.