Using Various Companion Plays To Keep Opposing Defenses Guessing

MANY TIMES IN our offense we’ll run a certain play to set up other plays for later in the game or for later on in the season.

The following is a demonstration of how we used the base play “White Right, 0-2-6” to develop companion plays to take advantage of our opponents defensive adjustments.

Early in the season, we had a lot of success throwing to the tailback when we ran White Right 0-2-6.

DIAGRAM 1: White Right 0-2-6.

For whatever reason during the first three games, the defensive end would rush the passer and the playside linebacker would guard against the short inside passing routes. This left the tailback wide open in the left flat.

Defensive Adjustments
In game four, defenses began to pick up the tailback with the defensive end or an outside or inside linebacker.

This adjustment proved to be effective in shutting down the swing pass to the tailback.

DIAGRAM 2: Defensive Adjustment To White Right 0-2-6.

Adjusting To The Adjustments
To combat the defensive adjustment, we developed two extremely effective companion plays called “White

Right Shuttle and “White Right Fake Shuttle.

DIAGRAM 3: White Right Shuttle.

DIAGRAM 4: White Right Fake Shuttle.

White right shuttle took advantage of the defense by having the fullback taking an inside pitch and running to the area that the defensive end vacated when he covered the tailback flair.
Coaching Points

    The offensive guards should be coached to delay the pull if there is no blitz.
    When the play-side linebacker started picking up the fullback, we would run the fake shuttle.
    The quarterback was coached to read the play-side LB and the free safety. If the play-side LB blitzed, the QB was to look for the tight end in the area vacated by the LB.
    If the free safety picked up the tight end, the QB must look for the split end who is running a shallow-post route.