Here is another packaged play that we ran last week vs Utah State then again vs Arkansas State.
We are lined up in a trey formation with our tight end (Wolf) and 2 receivers (North and Pearson) to the right of Worley with a single receiver (Pig) on the backside. Our running back (Hurd), is on the strong side.
The first option on the play is a swing screen for Hurd to the right. Both North and Pearson block the defender in front of them while Wolf is going to get wide then block the defensive end. Hurd runs a swing route and can catch the ball behind his 3 lead blockers.
The second option for Worley is to throw the ball to Pig. He is running an option route on the backside of the play. He will either run a hitch or a fade depending on what the cornerback does. If the corner is playing tight press, then Pig reads that and runs a fade. If the corner bails and plays off coverage, then Pig converts it to a quick hitch. (Pic 1)
Now to explain why this is an effective play. In football, there are 3 basic forms of defensive coverage. Teams will play coverage with either 2 deep safeties, 1 deep safety, or no deep safety. In this example the defense is aligned with 2 deep safeties pre-snap. However, often teams will line up that way but rotate one safety down to the box as soon as the ball is snapped and play a 1 high coverage.
What Worley is going to do on this play is read the strong safety. If the Red Wolves rotate their coverage from having 2 deep safeties to having 1, then the strong safety will come down into the box and the free safety will drop to the deep middle. If that happens, then the defense now has 4 defenders wide to the right side to the offense's 3 blockers. But, with the FS dropping to the deep middle, Pig is now one on one with the corner backside.
On the flip side, if both safeties stay deep, then the free safety now can help the corner defend the fade route to the sideline. But with the strong safety deep, the offense now has enough blockers to block all the ASU defenders on the right.
Cliff notes version of that: If the strong safety runs down to cover Hurd, then Worley will throw to Pig. If the strong safety drops deep, then Worley will throw to Hurd.
Right here, it appears the defense is playing cover 3 (zone coverage. 3 defenders deep, 4 short). Both corners bail and drop into deep coverage, while the free safety drops to the deep middle and the strong safety comes down into the box. Worley sees the strong safety coming down and makes the throw to Pig, who is running a hitch because the corner is dropping deep. (Pic 2)
Pig catches the ball and is able to make the corner miss and ends up gaining 9 yards before he was tackled to set up a 3rd and short. Overall, this is a pretty effective packaged play because it puts the defense in a difficult situation to defend both options.
