Adding Play Action: PA Comeback Slide

The next play we examine is the play action pass that works off the RB Stretch play. This is a full play action pass with a B fake into a naked bootleg. The basis of the play is the misdirection, which is why this is a paired play that is set up off the outside zone play. "Here the idea is to sell hard on the fake run and get action flowing that side (here the left) of the field, when suddenly the QB emerges from the other side. With (Michigan QB Denard) Robinson it puts him in a good pass/run option that will put a lot of pressure on the SAM."

 Al Borges, Brady Hoke's Offensive Coordinator at Michigan, enumerates the advantages we are getting from the naked bootleg play action:

• It gives the quarterback the opportunity to get outside, which shortens the pass distance.
• It equips the offense with a deceiving misdirection package.
• It complements the wide zone and in turn helps offensive linemen block the run effectively.
• It can be run from a variety of formations and groups using any number of receivers.
• It gives an athletic quarterback a run-pass option by putting stress on the contain man.
• The blocking scheme is easy to execute.
• The inside receivers (TE and RB) can work under and behind second-level defenders. 

We're going to focus in on those two highlighted in red. Just to establish what kind of play action fake we are talking about, here is the action on the B fake demonstrated in slow motion by a semipro QB:


Let's look at Coach Borges' coaching points for the action on the play:

1. "The playside wide receiver clears the corner wide and deep to protect the flat receiver."

On the play diagram, that is the X receiver, who will take the deep cover man out of the play to allow the TE and RB to operate underneath. This is a three level attack where the wideout pins the deep coverage while the FB out in the flat pins the shallow coverage. This is what will free up the TE crossing the field behind the linebackers. This is a very standard flood combination that attacks the shallow zone coverage. See for instance the diagram for 69 Y Cross at the bottom of this analysis of the Ohio State zone series. This three level route bootleg action is what you will see in "waggle" plays.

 2. "The quarterback can look upfield if he breaks contain quickly. If he sees the defense is blatantly outflanked, he must get the ball to the flat receiver quickly."

If you don't want the QB to get tired, you can dump the ball to the FB in the flat in instances where he is not covered. This is a good idea if you don't have a running quarterback that can take advantage of open space with his feet.

3. "The backside crossing receiver has the option to throttle down if he stays in good relationship to the quarterback's movement."

 All this means is that the TE has the option of settling down and sitting in the open spaces between zone coverage as long as he keeps a decent throwing angle with the quarterback's position on the rollout. When you look at the video above showing the rollout, you can see that the QB's torso is twisted as he tries to whip around and get into a throwing position. The TE cannot slow down so much that the QB must keep turning to get an angle to throw back against the direction he is running in.

The Pass Option

The primary aim of this play in the is to hit a medium range pass that gets us about 12 yards to the tight end.  After the ball is snapped, the TE will release and execute his plant and cut to the inside just as the play fake is developing in the backfield:



As long as there is no blitz coming, your QB will wheel around and pull the ball up. That's when you look at the playside edge defender. This is the contain man Borges was talking about before. In the case that the contain man has an outside position and cuts off the lane, you want to look upfield for the throw. As you roll out, the TE will come across the field in front of you, moving in the opposite direction of the defense's focus.



If the routes are run cleanly, you should have an open lane as the TE slips behind the underneath LB zones. The deep zone is held all the way in the back by the deep WR route, while you can see in the foreground the shallow cover man moving up to take away the FB. Had he hung back near where the TE is running into, you can dump the ball to the FB arrow route for a decent pickup.





The Run Option

Sometimes you will roll out and see a lot of open field in front of you. Normally I still try to dump the ball to the FB in the flat since I never have running quarterbacks, but if you have a guy that can exploit the running room, you should take it. Here we have a PA Comeback Slide against Nevada, and after the play fake you can see a wide open weak side. Notice no lineman is pulling out in front of the QB, which is what makes it a "naked" bootleg:



That is just asking for it.  Sure enough, when you look up into the underneath zones, you can see the "flat" defender hanging back quite a bit and the linebacker looks like he is sitting to take away that inside area that a slant pass would normally be thrown to.  Those two defenders are going to get in the way of the passing lane to the TE if we try to force the ball in there.



Instead, let's take the open field in front of us. This is the reason a standard play action rollout run/pass option play can be as deadly as a read option play with a running QB like RG III or Denard: "The fifth threat is what separates the boot from other play-action passes. In normal play-action passes the QB sets up to read the defense, but in the bootleg he is rolling out away from flow and becomes a downhill running threat. If you are able to cover all the routes, you still have the threat of the quarterback run."

Adding Play Action: PA Power O

Play Action Fakes in NCAA 12

Play Action passing was broken in previous versions of the game, but was a major improvement EA made to the franchise with NCAA 12.  Play Action still works in NCAA 13, but it appears to have been toned down and now defenses will cover the middle attacking route better.  Still good, just not as automatic a play now.

This is the play action pass that is linked to and set up by the core Power O rushing play from the base I formation.  The first thing that you need to know about play action passing in NCAA 12 is that every single play action fake in the game is one of two types: A fakes or B fakes, using the terminology from the Top Gun QB Academy.

The A Fake is the full play action fake that most people think of:

An A fake is one where you want to do the best job fooling the defense. The A fake is the one where you want to get the back tackled; you want it to be a great fake (Figure 7-1). You want this action to appear identical to the run in every way until the last tenth of a second...

As he then moves to the faking back, the ball will stay at that level.  The quarterback will locate the faking back and should look at the back’s midsection – the area where he must place the football. He will then extend the ball with both hands to the back so that it is directly in front of him, clearly showing an exchange is imminent.

Now, as the ball is being pulled back to the quarterback’s body with the off hand, the arm normally used to give the ball to the running back must be allowed to swing away, as it would if the quarterback had actually given the ball to the faking back. At the same time, the quarterback will take a peak at the back of that hand as his arm swings away in the same direction as the running back; this completes the fake.

The B Fake is a quick move that is a bit more than a token fake, but is only used in NCAA 12 on rollout PA fakes:

The B fake is a little different in that you still want to deceive the defense, but you are a little less concerned with hiding the ball for a sustained time period. You want to show the ball to the defense and bait them into flowing to where they think the play is going, then peel off and go the other way (Figure 7-3)...

A good example of this would be a play where you want the defense to think you are running an outside stretch play to one side of the field, and then reverse out of that, and throw to the other side of the field (Figure 7-4).

That type of fake is used on the paired play action PA Comeback Slide, which is a play action pass set up by a strong side RB Stretch play.  The run play goes strongside, but the pass play has the main action flowing to the weakside.

The third type of play action described by Top Gun is the C Fake, which is a really quick flash of the ball to make a particular defender hesitate and open a passing lane briefly.  This is the token play fake that you sometimes see good quarterbacks using on quick passes.

The reason you want to know about this is because the A Fake and B Fake play action involve the QB turning his back to the defense and executing a full handoff motion - this is very time consuming, and requires the QB to pull the ball back and set to throw.  If the defense is blitzing in NCAA, the defensive linemen and blitzers do not react to the play fakes at all - you will get sacked because there is no time to even throw the ball away or pull it down to run.  The animation for the play action simply takes too long.  Therefore, if you think the defense is blitzing, audible out of a play action pass immediately.

That said, let's consider PA Power O, one of the most reliable medium distance pass plays you can run against anything other than a blitz.

Opening up the Tight End

Dennis Hamby, a high school coach from California, wrote an article in the December 1997 Coach and Athletic Director magazine that describes exactly the PA Power O play in NCAA 12.  Nearly every element is identical:

1.  A full play fake with the tailback.

Because we used the fullback as a receiver in the Power Pass, the end man on the line was left unblocked. This defender had to either tackle the tailback or be blocked by him. In either case, a good play-fake made the tailback's job easier.

The tailback can be used to run the flat route, which, as in the ran play, makes the fullback responsible for blocking the defensive perimeter. This adjustment can alter the play significantly, however, as sound play-action will compromise the tailback's ability to get into his route cleanly.

2. FB runs a decoy route to hold the flat coverage.

The second crucial clement to the play's success is the spacing among the three play-side receivers. The fullback must occupy the flat coverage. He must clear the line cleanly and run a flat route at exactly five yards.

If the route is run short, the flat defender can void the zone and elevate to the "out" being run on top of the fullback by the tight end. If the fullback's route is run at more than five yards, the flat zone will never be threatened and the defender can simply stay on top and effectively take away both the fullback and the tight end.

Though the fullback is rarely thrown to with Power Pass, his importance cannot be overemphasized and he should be "coached up" for taking pride in doing exactly what is expected of him.

3.  The playside Flanker goes vertical to hold the deep coverage.

The widest play-side receiver runs a "go" or "fade" route to occupy the deep outside coverage. There is nothing spectacular about the route. The wide receiver must get a clean release and pressure deep and outside. Like the fullback, the flanker rarely receives the ball, but again, pride in execution makes the play effective.

4.  The backside SE comes across the field to hold the centerfielder.

The single backside receiver runs a basic post route. A "throwback" is an effective way to get the ball to this player against a safety who tends to vacate the middle third with the run fake or who does not "squeeze the post". A "throwback" route should attack the backside zone more quickly than the receiver's standard post route.

Now look at the play diagram:



5.  The other three routes are all designed to get the TE open along the frontside sideline, which will be essentially 100% of the throws on this play.

The tight end is the primary receiver on the Power Pass. He makes his initial move as if blocking the run play, but getting into his route is the principal concern. He must never bury his head or get tied up with the defensive lineman. He must step inside for a count or two, as if doubling with the tackle; release, working to regain his width immediately, and drive up field eight to 10 yards.

At that point, the tight end breaks to the outside, and looks for a hole in the zone to sit in and runs away from any LB covering him in man to man. 

This is very close to the hole in Cover 2 that Ron Jaworski identified to Tim Layden in Blood, Sweat, and Chalk on p.180:  "'There's a sweet spot against the Tampa Two,' Jaworski said in 2006, 'Eighteen or 19 yards on the sideline.  But any less than 18, 19 yards, and the receiver is still jammed; and, any more, and the receiver is in the hospital because the safety came over to hit him.  And it takes a great throw.'"  That is basically the same spot your TE is running into, using the FB to hold the CB and the FL to hold the S if the defense is in Cover 2, breaking open away from the LB as he exits that underneath zone.

EA actually put up a video of this that didn't suck:



Waiting for the TE to Break Open

Now for some shots of this in action.  Here are two examples from the Poinsettia Bowl at the end of the first season as Hawaii on Heisman against Air Force.  The first play is I Right PA Power O versus 3-4 Cover 3:



Against this defense, we have the TE getting ridden up the field by the SILB in front of him until he reaches zone depth.  At that point, when the TE breaks to the sideline, the LB is passing responsibility out of his zone, but there won't be anyone left to pick up the TE: the SOLB is in the flat taking away the FB while the LCB is dropping to his deep zone with the FL.  All of the SILB's outside help is occupied by the flooding of that side of the field with three routes:



At the play fake execution, you can see the coverage dropping and no extra blizters - the routes are allowed to develop and right now the player's eyes move to the TE to see when he gets open.  The SILB is on him, so we need to wait for him to make his break and get separation:



Following the A fake, the quarterback pulls the ball down and turns to look.  The safety playing the deep middle third of the field is held by the crossing route - if he moves up to the TE, the backside crossing route is open for a touchdown.  The correct play by the safety is to stay relatively deep to make sure he doesn't surrender the TD.  That leaves the TE open on the sideline with a clear throwing lane to the receiver for an easy 15-20 yard pickup.





Remember that hole in Cover 2?  Here we have Cover 2 out of a 3-4 alignment:



In the next picture, you see the same TE breaking to the outside in front of the deep outside guy running with the flanker.  The MLB is stuck in the center of the field against the crossing route, and the deep backside safety is also stuck taking that away.  Meanwhile on the frontside, the SILB is too shallow and outside while the RCB is pinned in the flat by the FB arrow route.

The Plays: Cross In

The next pass play to add to our playbook is the I Formation Cross In, which can be used as a short yardage staple to complement the run. It recenters the ball on the field after you have run the ball to the right several times since both targets are to the weak side. The route combination here is something called a Dig-Drag concept because it is a read off the Tight End running a drag route across the formation and the Split End on the weakside running a dig route. Take a look at this with a Don Coryell pass route tree, a little different from the one on National Football Post, but used in the Top Gun QB Academy Multiple West Coast Offense manual:


In our formation, the TE is the inside receiver.  The outside receivers are using the standard Don Coryell passing tree:



The SE is running a 6 dig route and the FL is running a 8 post route.  Earlier from the "inside receiver tree," we have the TE running a 2 drag route.  That means this play is running a three digit Coryell-style 628 combination.  From the Top Gun Manual, we have the example:


The labeling has it reversed and it should be Slot Left 628 Flat Backs Gone, but that's okay.  What we're really interested in here is the 628 is exactly the patterns in the NCAA 12 play Cross In.  Flat Backs Gone just means the split backfield running backs are going out into the flats and leaving nobody home to help block.  For a non-flipped version, a little later in the play action section of the Top Gun Manual there is this play:



That looks almost identical to Cross In.  The only difference is that this is using the Iso play action (the "Fox 2" in the name).  Otherwise, we again have 628.

The Dig-Drag Concept

The Dig-Drag concept is very nice because it stretches the defense horizontally and vertically at the same time.  The sideline to sideline route put pressure on man coverage to stay with the receivers.  Against zone your guys running are in and out of each defender's area of responsibility, getting open as they cross seams in the coverage.  That's the obvious horizontal stretch aspect, but what is the vertical stretch in the play?

We're going to go old school with a 1983 video of Illinois Head Coach Mike White diagramming his version of Cross In, "77Y Shallow Cross":



At 32 seconds in, White says "the key to this play, and I think the viewer saw it all day, is that Tim Brewster (TE) comes across on a shallow pattern which consumes the linebackers.  In other words if there's one linebacker or two linebackers, they seem to come up and pay their respects to Brewster, which allows Dave Williams (SE) to come across behind.  And then this (Williams) is basically a secondary receiver for Trudeau.  He looks at Brewster.  If Brewster's not there, he throws it over the top (to Williams)."

This great article at Smart Football gets into the versatility of the shallow cross.  The section relevant to what we are doing is labeled Hi/Lo and has the following diagrams:

The base read is in-shallow-RB dump-off. (As a footnote, Texas Tech reads it always shallow-in-RB. I think this is probably the better read for lower levels QBs, since it ensures they will get the ball off quickly and get a sure completion, only throwing the route over the middle when the defenders maul/jump the shallow.)

We are using the Mike Leach read progression that goes short to deep. This is converting the play from a deep to short progression the same way we did with X Post, applying the ideas behind the levels concept to a play with multiple routes cutting across the field at different depths. Chris Hatcher from Valdosta State tells us why the label Hi/Lo is used: "The complimentary pattern to the mesh is our shallow cross. The objective of this pattern is to give the mesh look but have a high-low read on the linebackers." You only have to look at diagrams 3, 4, and 5 to immediately see it is the same thing.

So what is that post pattern on the other side of the field for? The Top Gun Academy slide packet on The Base Progressions in any Passing Game has a fantastic slide on this labeled "Dig with a post alert":



What they mean by "post alert" is that you have a deep ball that can be thrown behind the defense if you see an opportunity. It's nothing more than a little check you can make that might be there if you are lucky and/or think your protection can hold a zero blitz long enough for your guy to beat press coverage. Otherwise, look at the read progression suggested and think back to the Texas Tech progression and Chris' note from Smart Football. This is telling the QB to take the "normal" dig to drag read rather than our reverse quick hitting read.

Adding a Bootleg Element

Now we are going to further modify the execution of the play beyond reversing the dig-drag read by adding a designed bootleg type run-pass option. This is going to give us the same benefits that we got from a naked bootleg in the PA Comeback Slide by potentially adding a rushing threat and changing the launch point of any pass the QB throws. The defender to key on at the snap is the edge defender:



Highlighted in cyan, what we want to know as the QB backpedals from center is this: "Is the edge defender rushing the QB?" If the linebacker drops into coverage and the DE does not try a deep speed rush around the edge, the quarterback can safely drift out of the pocket in the same direction as the shallow crossing route. This will put extra pressure on the defenders to the weak side, who must decide if they want to cover the TE crossing the field or move up to stop the QB from running.



Look at the coverage we are getting. The CB is running back with the SE down the field while the WLB is moving over to the flat. The MLB is coming across the field with the TE, and will hand him off. The safety is coming up from his deep spot to take away the curl underneath. If we throw to the TE, he is going to get destroyed by that outside linebacker. Likewise, we can't run with the QB because the LB is just waiting there for anyone to come into his area. This is where the vertical stretch of the dig-drag concept comes into play.

The defense is overcommitting to taking away short options like the drag and scramble. As the safety comes up to the underneath zone, it leaves a hole in the 3 Deep layer for the SE to dart into. The quarterback is throwing basically on the break so that the receiver's route is not given away and the ball is delivered to an open patch of turf where the WR runs to go get it.



Goal Line Offense

An excellent use of this play is for short yardage and goal line situations. Because the TE crossing route is so fast to develop and the throw is really short, it is ultra high percentage. This is a play that you can count on for 2 or 3 tough yards when you need them. Those tough yards can even be at the goal line, and adding a running option makes it even better. Take this play on Heisman against Kansas State at the goal line. Again we want to read the edge defender to see if he collapses the edge:



Since he does not come upfield and instead drops back into coverage, the edge is open and the QB can roll out. The inside of the defense crashes the middle to stop a run up the gut leaving everything open to the outside. The corners are in man coverage, so even the weakside corner back is ridden out into the back corner of the end zone by the wide receiver. This leaves nobody home on the backside:



QB tucks and runs it in untouched:





The Cross In play at the end of this drive also punches it in for a TD, but the rusher contains the edge and the QB throws to the TE instead:

The Plays: X Post

The Medium Square In Read - Not what we have!

Sometimes in NCAA, we need to take the plays that are given to us by the designers and use them in unconventional ways because the programmers put them in the game incorrectly.  Consider the X Post standard pass play out of the I Formation.  What we have looks like it is supposed to be what is known as a Square In read - you look at the safety and linebacker on the strong side to read which of the two In routes is open for the throw.  If the interior defender breaks with the TE making the first cut, you throw to the outside guy.  If the interior defender stays in the lane to the wideout, you would throw it to the TE inside.

Take a look at the Square In play shown on Smart Football's bit on Bill Walsh's passing notes. It is almost identical to what we see on the X Post play in NCAA 12, except the two In routes are deeper than drawn on the X Post play.  The writeup from Walsh's notes say:

- Prefer to throw square in to the RIGHT.
- QB 5 BIG STEPS - HITCH and throw on time. WR does NOT keep running. Catch ball no more than 3 steps inside original position. (keep ball in middle)
-WR catches ball and runs straight upfield.

The idea here is to use the Square In as a stop move like a hitch, getting separation as the assigned defender realizes the receiver is no longer running with them and has to react and catch up.  That's why the receiver is not intended to take a lot of steps to the inside before catching it.  That foot plant (the "Dig") is just for a change of direction like on a slant route.  Start at about 3:55 in the following video linked by Smart Football:



Although it looks very similar diagrammatically, it does not function the same way because the timing and distances are all messed up.  Instead, we need to play this route combination like a quick hitter.

The Levels Concept

Smart Football had a great post about the Levels concept, which Chris calls "Peyton's favorite pass play."  The play takes the conventional deep to short read progression and turns it completely on its head:

Both Peyton and Tom Moore have both stated that their favorite pass route is one known in many coaching circles as "levels." (The Colts have their own unique lingo, but "levels" gives you the gist.) Most other pro teams use it too, including the Patriots, but no one does it as well or as often as the Colts. At the college level, Oklahoma State (Mike Gundy and Gunter Brewer) and Arkansas (Bobby Petrino) both use this concept with some regularity. And June Jones has used a three-man version of levels for some years at Hawai'i and now SMU.

The concept is simple: the outside receiver runs a five-yard in route, and the slot receiver or tight-end runs a ten-to-twelve yard square-in (with a slight outside release). On the backside, the Colts have the outside guy run a take-off (or sometimes a comeback at eighteen yards) and the backside slot or tight-end runs a "divide" or seam-read.

When you look at the play the NCAA 12 programmers have given us in X Post, you see basically the same elements: a 5 yard square-in on the inside run by the TE, a longer square-in with an inside release by the frontside wideout, and a deep seam hitting post route by the backside WR.  What we have is merely a slight horizontal flip of the same play being described, so we can use it almost the same way.

Unlike most pass concepts which are read deep to short, this play is read short-to-deep. (Though with Peyton Manning -- who likely has an excellent idea of where he's going with the ball on every play -- the difference between "coverage reads" and "progression reads" is blurry.) But the philosophy of the play is to throw the five-yard in route whenever it comes open; they want to treat it like stealing yards and to get the ball into a playmaker. Traditionally this was Marvin Harrison, but more recently you'll see Reggie Wayne run this route play after play.

Broadly, if the defense comes up for the quick in route, the quarterback looks for the square-in behind him. In other words, this is a two-man high-low or vertical stretch concept, which puts the underneath defenders in a bind with a guy in front of and behind them.

That's what this play is looking to do - you steal 5 yards on a super high percentage throw to the TE on the 5 yard In route.  This is an excellent play to pair with an offense using Quick Slants because the appropriate way to shut down the slant route is to float the linebackers back into the side alleys and drop the MLB into a deep underneath zone like standard Cover 2.  When that happens, you have a TE who releases upfield and then cuts to the inside right in front of the linebackers for a quick lob pass for easy yards.

The Built In Hot Read

The extra bonus to this play is that it has protections against blitzes already built into the routes being run.  Again, a post from Smart Football talks about this in depth, this time in a breakdown of Bobby Petrino's shallow cross concept:

The above “hots” are important because they are not full-blown “sight adjustments” where the receiver, reading blitz, runs an entirely new route. In each case — the wheel to flat, or the shallow to settling in the open area or looking sooner — the receiver simply runs his normal path and then looks for the ball earlier than they would have. This way, if the receiver has made the wrong read or the ball isn’t thrown quickly to him hot, he simply continues on his earlier route. This is the only kind of “hot” route that I think consistently works. If the man over you or in your path blitzes, look back for the ball; if you don’t get the ball, keep running your route.

The shallow cross is something we will get to in the next pass play, the Cross In out of the I Formation, but for now let's stick to this X Post "Levels" read.  As pointed out in that excellent Smart Football post, "Ryan Mallett explained it all to Jon Gruden recently. Jump to the 2:05 mark. (My favorite part of this is when Mallett begins discussing the hot reads and Gruden’s eyes light up.)"  This is where Mallett is talking about how the existing route in the pass pattern can be broken off at any point:


"Now if I have blitz on this side, what Joe will do is he would stop and catch the ball right there, or if there was a middle blitz, there's what I call hot middle, and I would just throw right there on the middle, so that was my two hots."  What Mallett is talking about there with the crossing route run by the wingback can be done in X Post by the TE, and in fact NCAA 12 receivers are programmed to behave in exactly this manner.   In fact with this play, like with any good quarterback, you want to be blitzed.  The reason is that the TE's upfield release and foot plant acts like a 3-5 yard quick hitch pattern if you need to dump the ball very fast.  When you have this quick release, the blitz does not have time to get to you and the ball is being thrown into the very spot the blitzing linebackers just vacated: "When will the league catch on that Peyton Manning wants to be blitzed? The hitch action enabled Manning to release the ball very quickly, before any blitz could reach him."  The same blitz reads that Mallett is talking about on the strong side and middle are the best possible places to be blitzed from.

Against regular zone coverage or man coverage, you can just wait for your TE to make his break and run past the defender (out of his zone or away from the man defender), or if you have no pressure you can look upfield at the deeper square-in route for a bigger gain.

Throwing the TE Route

Here's Hawaii at Auburn on Heisman difficulty, running the TE route as a broken off, short route.  As the TE releases, we look to see if there's anyone home.  If not, it's an easy immediate throw that will beat any pass rush.  Start with the formation, showing a stacked linebacker in front of the tight end in the second play of the video below:



The linebacker blitzes, leaving a hole for the TE to run into.  When the TE releases into that hole, the read is immediate and the throw comes very quick, almost off the back foot:



By the time the back side pass rusher can get to the quarterback, it's too late.  First down.







Throwing the Deeper Square-In

Here is a video showing X Post run multiple times against #17 Maryland as Hawaii at home on Heisman difficulty.  First play, they blitz both of the linebackers that Mallett talked about, leaving a gaping hole in the underneath coverage for our TE to sneak into.  It goes for a big gain.  The next few passes show Maryland dropping into zone coverage, rotating the defense over to the strong side.  The TE cut to the inside gets separation for quick completions. 



Then you notice on the fourth play, the weakside zone defender comes over and smacks the TE right after catching the ball.  They start taking away the short square-in, and sure enough on the fifth play you see them completely take it away by bracketing him high-low with two guys.  That's when we look to the other deeper square-in - and Billy Ray Stutzmann is open on what is basically a medium range hitch route.



As the TE makes his cut, there is a linebacker right on him and another one waiting in the zone he's about to run into.  The defense has completely taken away the quick route, and waiting for the TE run all the way across the field is risky, so we glance up at the wide square-in pattern.  The receiver is running man for man up the field and the inside defender is clearing to the outside.  Anticipating the open passing lane, we can time the throw to the receiver to arrive right after he makes his stop for separation.



That's the WR throttling down to stop.  It's what Plaxico Burress is doing on this ten yard stop route run for ESPN Sport Science starting around the 1:36 mark:



Here is the same read as New Mexico against Nevada on All-American difficulty.  Again, we are watching the TE release and want to see if the defense has the linebackers staying at home to take away the shallow throw.  If those linebackers are all the way up near the front defending the quick square-in, it means there is nobody in a wide space between them and the deep safeties.  That's where the medium square-in route is being run.  So, when you see the TE covered by LB, you know you have a good shot at the deeper throw.



That's basically triple coverage on the TE!  Now let's look at this from the other angle, to see it from where the WR is.  This gives a good idea on the kind of timing you want on when you're starting the throw and where you expect the WR to be.  Notice that when the WR is making his break, the ball is already in the air.  Like the slant route, the QB needs to anticipate the WR running to where the ball is going to be - running into the open space to go get the ball. 



As I mentioned above, this play is a great complement to the Quick Slants play because it takes advantage of cases where the defense drops back into deep and wide coverage against the slant, leaving the center exposed.  It can be used as a blitz beater, and works well with a rushing game because it is so high percentage; this will rarely get you zero yards.  But that doesn't mean it's completely risk free, as the third play in the video below demonstrates - it can be covered by a good team in man.