FanPost

The Stafford Offense: PA Z Cross, 3 of 3

For the first part of this series, see The Stafford Offense: PA Z Cross, 1 of 3.
For the second part of this series, see The Stafford Offense: PA Z Cross, 2 of 3.

Expanding the Play Action Portfolio

I read through Brian Billick's book on building an offensive gameplan and call sheet this week, which is a rather slim volume (and therefore a very quick read). It was interesting to see Billick make a point of mentioning "it is important that you use play fakes that are tied to runs." In various situations, not every kind of run play can gain the needed yards (e.g. a HB dive is not a good play to call on 3rd and 8), so any play action pass called in those specific situations must tie into runs that could credibly pick up that yardage in both formation and action. Depending on how closely linked the action is in the tied run and pass plays, it becomes a potential line audible.

Previously, we've looked at a number of run plays around which to base a core rushing attack:

Let's see what we can do with these plays beyond throwing Z Cross variants off Iso and Power action. We'll start at the bottom and action off Split Zone in a targeted way, extending the concept to an Iso action and Crack Toss.

Conflict of Assignment

Remember that in play action passing, we are making a pass look like a run to hopefully induce the defense to put themselves out of position to defend against the pass effectively. This can apply to the coverage scheme of the defense as a whole, or it can be targeted to attack a specific keyed defender. On ESPNU Film Room, one of the favorite phrases is "conflict of assignment," which in a play action context might mean a player has to do one thing if it's a pass but another thing if it's a run - and properly playing one assignment takes you out of position to play the other assignment correctly.

For example, Saturday Down South had a nice example of PoD favorite Alabama LB Reggie Ragland getting caught in a conflict of assignment in run defense:

With this essentially being 6-on-6 football, every role is crucial for the defense to corral the run, and it comes down to the second- and third-level defenders. No. 19 Reggie Ragland, the strong-side inside linebacker, was caught in a conflict of assignment as he had to guard the flat in case QB Greyson Lambert came out the backside with the ball — better known as a zone-read keeper. (There was also a legit threat that Chubb would cut back against the grain.)

The defensive end in front of Ragland, 9 DL Da'Shawn Hand, gets blocked to the outside by the left tackle into the left C gap. That means Ragland may have to switch and fill the left B gap on an inside zone handoff, but the play is zone read option. Ragland also has to be ready to spill wide and back up Hand on the edge if Lambert pulls the ball back and hits the back side. Ragland can't be both inside and outside at the same time. He chooses to stay wide-ish to be able to scrape back to the edge against the QB keeper, killing his momentum and angle to help frontside on the inside zone handoff.

That's the conflict: two assignments that cannot both be carried out by a single player at the same time.

Recall what our base split zone run play looks like:

2014 Tampa Bay, 3Q (3:33). 1st and 10 from the Tampa Bay 49.

Instead of trying to attack down the field behind the linebackers, the Lions run play action off a Split Zone look with 85 TE Eric Ebron coming across the formation as the slice block on the backside. This creates a problem for the end man on the line of scrimmage for the defense, 56 DE Jacquies Smith. Smith is the backside contain on any run play that cuts back - for example, if 9 QB Matthew Stafford decides to keep the ball on a bootleg and run to the right. Even in a "normal" pass situation, Smith is preprogrammed here to rush the passer and try to force a bad throw. To do that, he wants to beat the block by Ebron and get to the quarterback.

There's nobody to the outside in the flat; Smith is the only defender left who could possibly cover Ebron if he leaks outside. The other routes being run are basically the two vertical version of the Z Cross: 81 WR Calvin Johnson clears out the right, 15 WR Golden Tate clears out the left, and 87 TE Brandon Pettigrew releases off his play action block to show the defense a potential crosser.

The Lions have put Smith in a bind and can attack whichever way is more appropriate. If he drops and covers Ebron in the flat, Stafford can tuck the ball and cut it upfield for a decent gain on first down. If Smith rushes Stafford like he actually does here, Ebron is wide open for a high percentage catch and run. It could be regarded as a run-pass option that acknowledges Stafford has wheels. We pick up 11 yards and get a nice Sportscenter highlight at the end of the play:

2015 at Chicago, 2Q (9:16). 1st and 10 on the Chicago 49.

Again, Detroit is near midfield and throws to the flat off Split Zone action. Ebron is the slice block coming back across the grain, but this time 80 TE Bear Pascoe is on the right side of the line next to RT 77 Cornelius Lucas (in for injured RT Ola). Tate is the vertical clearout to the right with Calvin running the cross underneath from the left. The variant here has Pascoe running a stick release to the right, giving Stafford a horizontal stretch. I don't know if I particularly like this setup since it keeps more defenders to the boot/Ebron side, but of course we want to be unpredictable.

99 LB Lamarr Houston attacks upfield to cut off Stafford's rollout, but 53 LB John Timu doesn't get over far enough to take away Ebron in the flat. Timu hesitates, unable to decide whether he needs to stick to Pascoe. You can see him take a step toward Pascoe's inside release before realizing Ebron is blasting out wide in a hurry. This bread and butter horizontal stretch targeting a single defender is the key: does the linebacker take Pascoe or Ebron? Stafford reads Timu and goes to the other guy.

This class of plays is a very nice addition to the play action repertoire. Not only does the action look like a run play to disguise the fact the Lions are actually passing, the pass play itself looks like a deeper play action pass the defense is expecting us to run. Pity the linebackers who are just trying to carry out their (conflicting) assignments.

Other Ways to Attack the Flat

2015 at New Orleans, 2Q (14:18). 1st and Goal at the New Orleans 4.

Instead of running a Split Zone look and attacking the edge guy who thinks he is being blocked by the TE slice block, what if we run an Iso look and attack the guy who thinks he's the targeted isolation man being blocked by 46 FB Michael Burton? Recall on an Iso play, the targeted second level defender is thinking he has to shed the lead block and tackle the ballcarrier.

The Lions come out with everyone tight, Pascoe on the right side as an in-line blocker and a Strong I backfield with 35 HB Joique Bell as the deep back. Every Lions fan is thinking "obvious run is obvious," right? 1st and 4, Bell and a fullback, everyone in to block.

What is really impressive, though, are the little details of the play. Instead of blocking for Bell up the middle, Pascoe chips and releases upfield. His release drags away the guy trying to to fill the right C gap the defense thinks we are running the Iso play into, 32 SS Kenny Vaccaro. Then look what the Lions do to the guy Pascoe chipped, 94 DE Cameron Jordan. Bell comes off the fake handoff and becomes frontside protection for Stafford, cut blocking Jordan.

The last excellent feature of the play is the throwback option. Take a look at where Pascoe is actually releasing to. If Burton is covered frontside and Stafford has to hitch up and go somewhere else with the ball, Pascoe is leaking into the back corner as the rest of the defense scrambles to recover frontside on the play action.

Why is this #2 option so wide open? Calvin starts lined up on the left and runs a crossing route along the back of the end zone left to right. That drags away the cover man over him plus the deep safety, leaving nobody to help Vaccaro (who has a good chance of getting stuck in traffic while trying to keep up with Pascoe).

2015 at St Louis, 3Q (3:04). 3rd and 1 at the Detroit 29.

Sometimes you have a down and distance situation where the defense is really going to sell out against the run, and the throwback is not necessary. On 3rd and short, the defense is probably going to bring everyone inside to stop the run so this is a great opportunity to play action to a high percentage throw like the fullback in the flat.

Notice the same basic features as the touchdown Burton caught against the Saints: tight receiver alignments, offset I formation backfield with Bell as the deep setback, and an inside release/rub to interfere with the ability of the defense to recover from the action and get set in coverage. Burton makes a nice grab on a somewhat high toss by Stafford and turns it into 12 yards.

Maybe Ebron needs to work on making this look less like a blatant pick. How about a different run set? Maybe a Crack Toss look?

2014 at Minnesota, 1Q (15:00). 1st and 10 at the Detroit 20.

Like a WR screen or flat throw to Riddick or Abdullah out of the backfield, running play action off Crack Toss has a tremendous widening effect on the defense. This is especially true with a naked bootleg throw opposite the Crack Toss action. While the faked run play attacks the extreme perimeter on one side of the field, the ball ends up being thrown to the other sideline. It's really not possible to stretch the defense horizontally any more than this.

From behind the defense, play action influence on the linebackers becomes really easy to see. Once Ebron comes off the block on the backside, it's one on one to the perimeter against a second level coverage linebacker who is out of position. No chance: 12 yards later, our first play of the game moves the chains.

Run or Throw?

Almost every week in the game threads, we'd have people complaining about Detroit running the ball. They hate the "conservative" playcalling and want to keep throwing downfield. Unfortunately that is not how the passing game actually works. Nobody just lines up in shotgun every down and expects to convert low percentage vertical shots all the time.

Play action opens up a lot of the vertical game, and for play action to work, you must actually run the ball every so often. If the defense does not believe there is a realistic chance of a run occurring, the coverage players will simply drop into coverage instead of biting on the action. That's the point Brian Billick is making when he points out his 3rd and medium/long callsheet only contains play action passes from draw and trap looks - run plays a defense would believe his offense would actually attempt in such a situation. It can be frustrating to watch one of the worst rushing attacks in the league ram it up inside for a handful of yards instead of chucking the pigskin downfield to Calvin or Tate, but those handoffs are what set up a huge portion of Detroit's explosive pass plays.

Matthew Stafford is an excellent play action quarterback. Even without a dominant run game behind him, he has gotten production from pass plays featuring run fakes. This is not a new development in his quarterbacking; Stafford has pretty much always done well with play action passing. Consequently, a solid package of play action passes ought to be part of the Detroit offense to maximize what Stafford can do. This is why we spent some time figuring out what run style should be successful: a Matthew Stafford offense must run the ball some, and the play action package must tie into that rushing attack.

Remember where we started the season under Lombardi. Here's PFF's Mike Renner back in October (emphasis added):

It’s also done him no favors that the line problems have manifested to an extreme in the running game. The Lions are on pace for 784 rushing yards, which would be the lowest total in a 16-game season. Only one team in the Super Bowl era has had fewer rushing yards through five games. Detroit is abandoning the ground game at a historic rate, and is on pace for the fewest rushing attempts in league history.

When analyzing the Lions’ passing game, there are so many problems that it’s difficult to really touch on all of them in one article. The biggest takeaway though is that offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi has tried to mold the Lions’ talent to his scheme rather than adapting the scheme to the roster’s strengths.

Lombardi came over from the Saints and he brought much of Sean Payton’s system with him. Gone are the days of the slant, quick post and run-pass options to Calvin Johnson that the Lions were known for in the early part of the decade. Their current offense relies on underneath routes, running back screens, and play action to set up deep shots. Even with possibly the best deep threat duo in the game in Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate, the schematic component that hasn’t translated from New Orleans to Detroit is the downfield passing game off play action.

Stafford has developed tendencies within the offense that are so divergent from his career averages that it’s almost like we’re watching a different quarterback. It should surprise no one that he’s on pace for career lows, and by drastic margins, in play-action rate (16 percent), average depth of target (6.4 yards), and deep passing rate (6.2 percent of attempts).

Where did we end up after Jim Bob converted the run blocking mix and actually ran the damn ball?

Next Time: The Quick Passing Game

We're hitting the home stretch on this series of fanposts, and the last batch will focus on opportunistic quick adjustments and throws that Matthew Stafford should be free to check to whenever he sees an opening. From above, PFF's Renner says "Gone are the days of the slant, quick post and run-pass options to Calvin Johnson that the Lions were known for in the early part of the decade."

Perhaps we should bring them back.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride Of Detroit or its writers.