Film Study: Breaking Down Texas Tech's Offensive Game Plan vs Baylor

With draft season gearing up, I decided to start looking at the crop of quarterbacks in this year's class. I wanted to start with Patrick Mahomes first for a few reasons:

1. I love watching Texas Tech's offense. While still staying true to the classic air raid principles, Kliff Kingsbury further emphasizes getting the ball into his playmaker's hands in advantageous situations. Whether it be a one on one in the open field, or getting a receiver behind the defense. 

2. Mahomes has rare arm talent. He makes throws that few other QB's in this year's class can make

Historically, Tech QBs were knocked for lack of arm strength. Not the case for Mahomes. This is a WOW throw #airraidchat #airraid pic.twitter.com/vyYHAZAFDY

— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) January 19, 2017

Another great "bucket throw". This time vs a quarters look to the field. Better footwork than previous one pic.twitter.com/VmHHhQcbWh

— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) January 19, 2017 

 Texas Tech featured a few concepts that work in conjunction with each other. The next video shows one of their base plays out of the trips formation, the stick concept:

Mahomes has a quick release on quick game concepts. His accuracy is also important for YAC plays like this. pic.twitter.com/KZJ1KN9TJg

— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) January 20, 2017 

Tech calls this play a few times a game, and surely defenses practice it when preparing to play them. This next play is meant to take advantage of a defense keying in on the stick concept. Out of a trips formation, Tech calls the "Levels" concept. They adjust the #3 receiver to run a quick sluggo. The defender on the #3 receiver will trigger on any inside break, allowing the receiver to get outside leverage with the defender leaning forward.

This ends up being a great call against Baylor's Cover zero. The play is diagrammed below, preceding the video clip.

Bad footwork, but Mahomes drops an absolute dime. Good coverage recognition (wide and tight) pic.twitter.com/Wh4UTzK9vL

— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) January 19, 2017

Baylor came into the game with the intention of taking away the outside throws, especially to the boundary. This next video shows Baylor calling cover 2-trap into the boundary on a third and short, with great success.

Great coverage call from Baylor on third and short. Tech loves speed outs into the boundary, so run 2-trap to that side. pic.twitter.com/CmHLlcg1sy

— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) January 21, 2017

Texas Tech takes advantage of Baylor's game plan. Tech attacks the middle of the field, specifically taking advantage of the boundary safety's aggressiveness. The first example shows Tech running "smash split". The diagram shows the "split" route having an option. In this case, the route converts to a post route to split the safeties. The boundary safety is occupied with the smash concept, leaving a giant window for the split route (A detailed breakdown of how Tech teaches this play can be found if you click HERE).

"Smash Split" another great call against split safety coverages pic.twitter.com/g3Bh01BwC0

— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) January 21, 2017

The second example is a "sting" route from the boundary slot receiver. The safety takes the bait, and leaves the middle of the field wide open. The backside combination to the boundary occupies the other safety. With Baylor playing quarters coverage to the boundary, the safety drives on the dig route. This is a neat backside combination that flows nicely into the quarterback's vision if the sting route is taken away. (Kudos to the TV broadcast for the great view of these plays!)

Great "sting" route from Texas Tech here. Great call against a split safety coverage pic.twitter.com/5oysKI6Xlg

— Bobby Peters (@b_peters12) January 21, 2017

To put a bow on this game, Tech's offense had a good game plan and executed at a high level.

Mahomes will be an interesting project for whoever drafts him. They will need to take the good with the bad, and try and break some of his bad habits with his feet. He would be best served to sit a year or so to acclimate to the NFL.

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A Great Four Vertical Adjustment

Since this play seemed to interest the fine folks on twitter, I shall elaborate:

This play is taken from page 41 of my book. Click here to see what it is all about. The play is a version of four verticals with a few twists:

1: The importance of using two TE’s. This encourages the defense to roll a safety down to help defend the extra gaps created in the run game.

2: The option route from the X receiver. This will give the quarterback a quick option against the blitz. The wheel-snag combination will place the flat defender in a bind, and can be especially lethal against a fire zone blitz.

The pass protection component of this play must be carefully considered. Using a 5 man protection with a long developing concept can often spell “S-A-C-K” in many coordinators heads.

There are two ways I would go about accounting for this:

1: Using a man protection scheme, and call out the Mike (defender on #3) as the 5^th rusher. 

2: Half man, half slide. Have the left side of the line in man, and the Center, RG and RT slide to their right gap.

Either of these pass protections will leave the Will unaccounted for (or a third rusher to the left of the center). This third rusher will be accounted for by the option route of the X receiver. When this player blitzes, they will vacate the area that the snag route will settle in. If the corner comes down on the snag, the wheel will have outside leverage on any defender trying to find him.

The rest of the play centers around 4 verticals, and can be adjusted to fit how you teach it. Having #3 curl over the ball at 10 yards, or bend horizontally at 10 yards on a crossing route are both good adjustments against two high safety looks.

My book has many other plays like this diagrammed and broken down. I wanted to give a glimpse of my thought process when I see a play on film. Get your copy here!

A Great Double-Move Concept for the Redzone

I noticed that this will be my fourth post about a play called by Lincoln Riley (unintentionally, of course). His offenses at Oklahoma have shifted from a pure air raid passing attack when he took over, to a run-based attack with heavy play action in 2016. Even with the focus on the run, Baker Mayfield finished the regular season at the top of the NCAA list for yards per attempt (a great stat for measuring efficiency in the passing game) while also finishing first in completion percentage.

With the prevalence of quarters coverage in today’s college football landscape, I like to look for the different ways that offenses try and take advantage of this coverage. In most cover 4 schemes, the safeties play aggressively to “rob”, or takeaway, any intermediate routes. This creates the potential for big plays down the middle of the defense.

Oklahoma used a play that takes advantage of this very idea. The image below shows the play. This play was taken from their game against West Virginia in 2015

The slant release by the slot on the right takes the safeties eyes to the outside receiver. The safety is no longer responsible for the slot once he goes inside. The slot will then run up the middle of the defense after he sells the slant route. The stem of the slant route must also sell the middle linebacker, to keep his hips square to the line of scrimmage.

After a few watches, this defense looks like it could be cover two. The idea of the play stays the same, the safety will still focus on the #1 receiver after #2 goes inside.

The videos below show the play. 

An inside release by the outside receiver on the right can also help draw the safeties eyes off of the slot receiver, as long as the outside receiver drifts back outside.

My new book has a few other double move examples. Click here to see what the book is all about.

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 "The Melting Pot: How to Adapt Old NFL Concepts into your High School or College Offense" is a thorough analysis of the Mike Martz Offense, with an interesting twist. Each Play that is diagrammed will have a modified version (or multiple versions) of the play, which will make them more effective at the lower levels of football. The Greatest Show on Turf has many unique characteristics that a lot of coaches haven't had the chance to study. with many coaches spenidng their time studying spread concepts,many of these ideas get thrown to the wayside. With an entire chapter dedicated to the "H Post" concept and its many variations and constraints, the book focuses on these rarely discussed plays. Taking a modern approach to the design of each play can give coaches a few new wrinkles to add to their existing offense.

Below is a link to my first book!

https://www.amazon.com/Melting-Pot-Acclimate-Concepts-CollegeOffense/dp/1535543590/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481052691&sr=8-1&keywords=the+melting+pot+robert+peters

How the Patriots Capitalize in the Red Zone

As a play caller, one of the most important things is to be prepared to score touchdowns in the red zone. This is often an area that can be overlooked, as all coordinators are working to conjure up the “big play” (myself included...).

Josh McDaniels of the New England Patriots, as one of the best coordinators in the NFL, has his team prepared in the red zone. This specific example shows how he takes an idea that the Patriots use regularly, to set up a constraint in a high leverage situation.

The Patriots use the dig route quite often, in both the middle of the field, and red zone. This play in fact uses multiple dig routes on the other side of the field. McDaniels uses the route below to take advantage of that tendency.

Julian Edelman runs this route to perfection. At the top of the route, he leans inside to get his defender to lean towards the dig route. The timing from Brady is impeccable. The video link is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdfseGuBxsY

In the NFL, that split second difference in timing is the difference between a touchdown and a 4^th and goal field goal attempt.

As a coordinator, it is important to have counter punches for your main plays. In the red zone, these counter punches can become knockout punches. 

This route is very similar to the "Spin" route in the Mike Martz offense. If you want to learn more about this route, and how to use it at the high school or college level, take a look at my new book:

 https://www.amazon.com/Melting-Pot-Acclimate-Concepts-CollegeOffense/dp/1535543590/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480793690&sr=8-1&keywords=the+melting+pot+robert