IF YOU WANT to succeed at something, make it important and emphasize it. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the season, we go into the red zone and run four plays with the best offense going against the best defense, We follow this segment by putting the ball on the goal line and running four goal-line running plays. These sessions are exciting for both the coaches and the players. Everyone wildly cheers and encourages their squad — with half the team rooting for the offense and the other half cheering on the defense.
Over the years, my teams have been extremely successful on the goal line. We think we can attribute this success to both the emphasis we place on executing in the red zone and on the formation we use. We call our formation “bone,” but it’s unlike the wishbone formation.
DIAGRAM 1: “Bone” Red-Zone Formation. The upback is directly behind the quarterback and us up close. We want him to have a good kick-out angle to either side and he needs to be a good blocker. The halfbacks are 6-yards back and directly behind the guards. Our line is tight and we use two tight ends.
DIAGRAM 2: Double-Team Power Off-Tackle Run (A). Our base play is a double-team power off-tackle run with a lead block made by the off back.
DIAGRAM 3: Double-Team Power Off-Tackle Run (B). The advantage of the play is the angle of the kick-out block and the lead of the off HB. When teams start stopping the play by wrong-arming the kick-out block, we’ll have a great QB keep or pass play wide open.
DIAGRAM 4: QB Keep And Pass. This play looks exactly like the run. The QB keeps and tries to break containment. If the corner contains, the QB passes to the TE or HB coming through the line. A third option is the naked bootleg.
