I’m sure everyone knows this play it’s just the most over called play in the league for the last few years where the qb either hands off or keeps the ball depending on what the rush end is doing, if the rush end crashes down on the run the qb keeps the ball, if not then it’s a hand off, not really rocket science. So why dont teams just have the rush end crash down on the running back each time but at the same time blitz your outside linebacker and have him kill/zap the qb right away? Or have the rush end fake like he’s crashing down then change his pursuit lane half way throught the rush?
Probably because if they see you do that a few times, then a quick pass to the slot guy would work with no linebacker there.
You can also have your dbs anticipate that that’s how they’ll counter it and jump the route.
The D.E,s primary concern is Q.B, contain, If he bites on a fake to the RB then the QB can break contain, if try to cover QB with a db, a reciever will be left open.
It’s not a bad idea but if they anticipate inside to cover the slant, the SB will start to play the outside and he’ll have a lot of room out there with a go route or anything deep by the WR.
The Cats D did this many times the past few years. Might have been a Crehan design as I saw it occur for the first time with his D. One problem I can see is, how do you know when the O is going to run that play? Do you prepare for it every time there is a shotgun formation? This puts the D in a bind on play-action and pure passing plays as the OLB must spy for it to work. It’s a killer when it’s called and the O runs that option style play though.
The play is called the zone read.
The reason teams don't do what you're suggesting is: too many variables. Is the other team in shotgun? If so, is it a zone read? If you commit the rush end to the RB and the OLB to the QB, what happens if there's no zone read and it's just the QB hitting his slotback on a slant for a first down because your OLB has vacated the middle of the field? A good QB will pick you apart if you declare that early and that consistently pre-snap. If you wait until after the ball is snapped to commit, you've just wasted precious seconds and half-seconds of time either way: you rush the QB and it's too late, you drop back into coverage and it's too late, you try to hit the running back but he's already hit the hole with speed.
Conversely, it's a bit much to ask your rush end to fake crashing down on the RB and then change his pursuit lane to hit the QB and still expect him to get where he's going quickly.
Players aren't robots and this isn't Madden.
How about just ignore the run and bury the QB every time. See how often the OC's can convince the QB to get killed
Uh, unsportsmanlike conduct? You show consistently clear intent to injure the QB and you’ll get tossed from the game pretty quickly.
Also, this whole scenario presumes your rush end is going to beat his block(s) more often than not.
Um, it assumes that if your rush end beats the block he ignores the RB and takes a direct line to the QB. No unsportsmanlike conduct for hitting the QB while he's in the process of handing off.
But the thing is they never block the rush end on the zone read play, the whole play is designed to read what he is doing.
As for knowing when the play is called, I guess you cant really know unless a team is predictable with it like Berry is calling it 100% of the time on first down.
Truth be told, no rush end is going to get there consistently every time. Maybe once or twice he gets a lick in on the QB … while the RB breaks off a big gain because there’s no contain. Most of the time, though, the RB will already have the ball by the time he gets there, which means he either tackles the ball-carrier – and he’ll have some explaining to do to his DC if he doesn’t – or he goes for the QB who no longer has the ball and gets flagged for a late hit / unsportsmanlike / etc.
The QBs who live off the zone read are usually the more athletic types like Burris. They aren’t going to fold like a house of cards because they take a hit from a DE.
If it were that easy to stop the zone read, don’t you think every D-line in the league would be doing it?