The Plays: Quick Slants

Mike Mizer, Head Football Coach and Athletic Director at Columbia Academy in Tennessee, wrote an article called "Slant Concept in the Quick Passing Game" in 2000:

EVERY FOOTBALL TEAM has a basic philosophy it can "hang its hat on." At Columbia, whenever our offense gets bogged down and begins to struggle, we can always turn to our quick passing game to get back on track.

Its key ingredients are base zone-side protection, a quick 3-step drop by our QB, and precise timing routes by our receivers. Specifically, however, it's the slant route that provides the basic frame for our entire 3-step package.

Regardless of the secondary coverages, some combination of the slant route will enable us to attack the defense.

We're not going to say it's easy to execute. For precise timing and execution, the slant requires more practice time than any other individual route.

This is the most important pass play that keys the entire passing portion of the offensive package I am presenting.  It is the one pass play ought to be able to go back to for medium yardage time after time.  Here is an article intro from Bleacher Report:

The slant route is perhaps the oldest route in all of football. It has always been an integral part of the short passing game from Sid Gilman to Don Coryell to Bill Walsh, and now to all of today's offensive geniuses; and among them Sean Payton is high on the list.

Payton has used the slant in many key situations over the past few seasons. In fact, it's been a go-to route on third-and-short or medium situations. 

It will be our go-to route as well.  It is a versatile play that can attack both zone and man coverage schemes effectively, and is fairly effective against the blitz.  What is important is the last part of the excerpt from Coach Mizer: "For precise timing and execution, the slant requires more practice time than any other individual route."

Successful use of Quick Slants against any defense requires you as a player to do three things:

1. Recognize the cornerback coverage - is it press or loose?  This tells you something about how long you will probably have to wait until either WR can get open because press coverage typically means bump and run at the line.
2. Recognize the WR releases on both side - did your WRs get inside or outside releases?  This is crucial because a WR running a slant route is supposed to use his body to block out the defender.  When the WR gets an inside release, there is no defender between him and the ball.  When he gets an outside release, the DB is between him and the ball - even if his back is to the QB, it is still a problem.
3. Recognize the LB and Safety help - are they close enough to where the WR will be when the slant is thrown?  Especially in Cover 2 or other zone looks, there will be defenders sitting in space waiting for the receiver to run into the spot they are taking away.  That affects the timing of the throw because now you don't just need to worry about throwing the ball when the WR gets separation from the man on him; now you need to worry about what's in front of that WR.

Spacing for the Release: Press versus Loose CB Play

The most desirable coverage you want for your WR is loose coverage - the looser the better.  Quick Slants is trying to take a 3 step drop and fire immediately, with the route timed to fire for separation right when the QB makes the throw.  If there is no bump at the line of scrimmage and the WR gets to run his route free of any defender pushing him off stride, you can hit the slant route in stride for big yardage.  The longer a defender can push the receiver around at the line or break the timing, the higher the chance a blitz can get to the QB before the play develops (even if this is a super fast developing play).

Let's look at what CB alignments you can see in the game.  First, we have very loose coverage with the CB sitting 6 yards off the left wide receiver.  This allows for lots of space and is typically used when the defender wants to avoid being beaten deep but will give up a short route.  The receiver is not in the frame, but you can see his shadow on the ground.

The next shot shows the left wide receiver with about 4 yards of space from the cornerback in front of him:

And finally, we have press coverage with the CB lined up in the face of the receiver:

The reason this matters is because the likelihood of a cornerback putting his hands on the receiver to prevent him from getting into his route is much higher when the CB is standing right in front of the receiver he wants to grab.  Especially with the Quick Slants route package where the outside wide receivers break into slant routes shortly after the ball is snapped, the chance a CB playing loose coverage will even be able to grab the receiver even if he wants to is low.

Now, don't take this to mean that every time you see press coverage you will always see bump and run at the line of scrimmage.  There are in fact zone schemes where the CB may make a token bump at the line but for the most part will let the WR run while the CB sits on the flat zone.  That kind of coverage or even a corner blitz will count on defenders behind the cornerback to pick up the WR.  Take this shot of ND playing this kind of defense, where the CB sits on the flat and you see the linebackers and safeties dropping back into coverage:

Notice the WR got a free release with no bump whatsoever at the line in spite of facing press coverage.  This brings us to our next point.

The Release: Inside, Outside, or Free?

The only reason we really care about the spacing in press and loose coverage is because it gives us an idea of what kind of release we will get from that receiver-defensive back matchup.  The release is the big deal because the release is what dictates whether the WR will be a viable target.  Here is Will Osgood talking Black and Gold X's and O's: Identifying Concepts: The Slant Route:

Assuming the play is designed so that the "slant read" is primary, the Quarterback must look at a few things pre-snap to see if the slant can be thrown.

First, he must know what kind of look he is getting from the corner or other defender. Many quarterbacks don't feel comfortable (and receivers for that matter) throwing the slant if the defender starts the play inside of the receiver.

For Drew Brees, he will still throw it as long as he knows Colston, Moore, Henderson, or Meachem are going to get that original defender to the outside of him.

Again, the best outcome is to get a nice free release with no bump at the line.  Let's continue the play above with Notre Dame giving our guy a free release at the line.  Watch as he makes his foot plant and explodes to the inside, splitting the coverage:

At this point in the play, there is a linebacker between the QB and the receiver.  To throw directly at the receiver now would be awful.  However, look at the flow of the action - the CB is guarding the flat against the HB while the OLB and FS are both moving toward the outside of the field.  When the WR plants his foot and makes his cut, he is going against the grain in the opposite direction of those two defenders.

This is what we want to see: our WR is now streaking across the middle in front of the safety.  The linebacker is no longer a threat to intercept or break up the pass, and we have a clear throwing lane to where the receiver will end up.  This is where the QB needs to start his throwing motion because he wants to throw along the dashed yellow path to where the receiver will end up if he continues running his route along the red arrow path. 

The result is an easy touchdown thanks to the fact that we had nothing stopping the route from developing.  The free release was what made this a very easy throw.  Note the other receiver entering the picture on the right is also open in front of the strong safety. 

So what does it look like when we have bump and run coverage? What would an inside and and outside release look like?  Here are the two WR on a single Quick Slants play immediately after the snap.  The left wideout has an inside release.  You can tell immediately at a glance because you see the red jersey color rather than the white jersey color of the defender.  The CB is on the outside looking in, and will not be able to stop our guy from breaking to the inside to run away from the defender.  This is Colston, Moore, Henderson, or Meachem getting their guy to the outside off the line.

Our right wideout lost the battle at the line of scrimmage and has been forced to take an outside release.  You can see this immediately by the fact that the defender's back is turned toward us - he is pushing the WR to the sideline.

Which guy is more likely to be open when we want to throw the ball?  It's always the guy with the inside release, so we look to the left side for an open throw and it is there.

Here's another look at a case where we have an inside release on one side and an outside release on the other side. Quick Slants against Wake Forest near the end zone, we see our left wideout has an outside release.  The fact that the Wake defender is positioned closer to where our receiver wants to break to means we are less likely to have an open, high percentage throw.

This means we want to look at the other side for an inside release, where our guy will be closer to where he wants to break to:

That's a winner.  How open is he going to get?  Look at the safety moving toward the middle of the field - our WR is running into the area that safety is vacating.

Quick Slants vs. Loose Man

Against loose man coverage, you get a free release and a quick, easy throw in front of the soft corner.  Here we have a soft corner on the right WR:

The cornerback is playing several yards off the receiver, and at the snap goes into a backpedal to play the deep routes.  As with the sequence shown above when the Notre Dame CB played the flat and let our WR blow past him at the line, we have a free release situation where the WR will plant and explode to the inside with nobody slowing him down.  The wideout has a clear path between the underneath defenders and the CB dropping into the deep zone.  Notice how similar this looks to the earlier shot of the left WR cutting in front of the Notre Dame safety:

This is where we start the throw - before the WR has cleared the defenders in anticipation of him getting open into the area where the referee is.  If we take this further back zoomed out, you can really see how similar it looks to the earlier setup:

So why is the right WR and not the left WR the correct throw?  Look at the safety playing centerfield.  He is standing in the red and white part of the endzone where the goalpost is.  That's a lot closer to the left WR than it is to the right WR - we want to throw away from the help.

 

Quick Slants vs. Tight Man

That is your ideal situation, though, getting a clean release off the line.  In most situations, the defense will challenge your receivers to break up the timing of the play.  Packers/Jets/Vikings QB Brett Favre's praise for WR Bernard Berrian makes it clear what kind of quick hitter pass play this is:

“In slants, you’re not going to be really wide open. You’ve got to be able to catch the ball in traffic and I think the Rams game the other day was a good example of him catching the ball in traffic, getting hit, holding on to the ball. That’s a tough thing to do, now: Go across the field when you know people are getting ready to pop you. I give any receiver credit for doing that. The good ones are the ones that can do that consistently. He just proved that in the last game.”

Getting good separation from defenders is hard for your receivers if they are jammed at the line, so you need to know how to recognize when the slant can safely be thrown even though there is a defender sitting on top of the wide receiver.

ProTip: To get consistent completions out of Quick Slants, follow the advice of Daniel Nations and set your pass catching strategy option to conservative.  "Why conservative? If you catch more balls and have fewer knocked out as your receiver tries to bring it in, your offense will continue to move forward. An occassional broken tackle might be nice, but you'll kick yourself when your receiver drops the ball on a wide open slant route on 3rd and 6."

Your receivers will get hit almost immediately after they catch the ball on the inside Quick Slants routes when coverage is tight, but that doesn't matter; you'll still be picking up 8-12 yards. Look again up top at the shots showing the left WR making an inside release against UNC.  The receiver has a defender right on top of him, but we know he can shield the ball from the defender with his body and owns the inside where the pass will be coming in low and fast.  The WR gets tackled amost immediately, but the play still gets good yardage as long as he holds onto the ball.