The Lead Draw – Fox 2/3 Draw and an overview of the Draw Package

In any passing offense, you must have the ability to negate any strongpass rush. There are three solid ways to do that: a strong running game,screens, and draws. And the purpose of this article is to explain how touse the draw play to negate the pass rush, but also to give added valueand a threat with the passing game.

The idea behind the Lead Draw is very simple: pull up the defensivelinemen in their pass rushes and use their aggressiveness against themso that you can slip the draw play to a back. We want to take the defensiveends up field and kick them out, and push the defensive tackles to oneside. This will allow us to use our fullback to isolate a inside linebacker,and possibly break a play. In the process, we want to cut off the pursuitof the rest of the linebackers. Depending on the front, by pushing thedefensive tackles in the 43 defense to one side, or the nose tackle in the34 defense, we create a cavity for the fullback to have room to push theinside linebacker to one side or the other. The ball carrier will read thisas his key block on where to go with the ball from here.

As we draw up the blocking schemes versus the different fronts, you willsee a great similarity between the way we block the 34 defense and the 43Under defense. The rules are almost identical due to the proximity of the defensive tackle and the weak side outside linebacker.

In our system “Fox Two” is directed at our right side, while “Fox Three”is directed at the left side. This is consistent with our even numbers beingon the right side of the formation, and the odd numbered holes on the leftside of the formation.

This is Fox Three against a slightly over shifted defensive front that we used to see often. We direct the play right up in between the defensive tackles. You will see in the cases against “Over”defenses, that the blocking will possibly flip over to take advantageof the alignment.

Draw Package – Additional plays in the Tigers draw package.

We wanted to perfect at least three different draw plays a year. We wanted to try to have all of them available to us. But, it became quicklyimpossible to perfect all of them. So we wanted to see what talent wasavailable for us to utilize.

The Single Back draw is one that is limited in scope, and was usedin its simplicity to attack the reduced amount of defenders due to theformation being spread out. The ability to hit this play quickly made itan attractive play to try to perfect year in and year out.

The Draw Trap is another play that we would run very sparingly. This playis one we copied from Lavell Edwards staff at Brigham Young University. Idon’t think we ran this play five times in five years, but when we did, it broughtabout results. The play required size at the half back position that we didn’talways have. It also required a quick pull from the guard, which we didn’t always have either. The idea here is to kick out the end man on the line ofscrimmage, run the draw inside of him. Angle blocking the play helps totake away the advantage of gap defenses.

“Hound two” as we call it, is basically the sprint draw. Many teamsstill use this draw, as well as the accompanying play action. This playcan start out to the call side guard, and actually go anywhere. A runningback with vision can take advantage of a defense as it begins to spreadout a little and make small creases. We derived the “Hound 2/3” termi-nology from Sam Wyche and Brian Billick’s system.

The accompanying play action is like most play actions, in thatyou can run a three, four, or five man route. Or you can use themaximum protection scheme in the event of some suspected pressurefrom the defense.

The Lag draw is used by very few teams in this day and age, but wefound over the years that it causes a lot of hesitation on the weak sidelinebacker. Its still a viable threat today, even if this formation isn’t thecatalyst for today’s offenses. The play action on this draw play, causesconcerns for the containment as well as the weak side linebacker. Ourfullback caught a number of passes off this play action into the openflat.

Blocking for the Lead Draw –

We found out from watching film of the 49ers, and ironically, someold Baltimore Colts film that this play really hasn’t changed too muchover the years.

We start with the “Zero” or the “One” technique. We want to scoopthat technique and move him to the backside away from the play to createthe alley for our fullback to isolate the play side inside linebacker. Thisbegins the creation of a tandem or “co-op” assignment to scoop the defensive tackle and scrape off to the backside linebacker.

We do not want to allow the 0/1 technique to be left without a doubleteam until the last possible moment. By using the “co-op” technique,known by many other names, we can control the 0/1 technique until thevery second that the backside linebacker commits to which side or theother. If the 0/1 technique drives for the weak side “A” gap, then theguard will peel off and cut off the linebackers pursuit. If the 0/1 tech-nique drives into the strong side “A” gap, then the guard will finish thescoop, and the center will scrape off and cut off the pursuit of the line-backer. This is done by “feel” as to how the defensive tackle appliespressure.

But, we drill this tandem to only commit at the last possible momentso that they don’t disengage too early from the defensive tackle.

The backside guard and tackle are given the assignment to “area”block the two online defenders in the 34 and 43 Under defensivealignments. When the defense tries to execute a stunt against thisplay, it becomes harder to execute. We had times where the outsidelinebacker executed a stunt underneath, and made the tackle for a minimal gain. This was because the backside guard was either slowto recognize the stunt, or never saw it. We do our best to teach theguard to recognize the stunt from the outside linebacker and thathe must work together with the tackle to impede the progress ofthe stunt to ensure the success of the play.

The fullback makes a move to the outside, as we are trying to sell thedefense that we are showing our best running play, the power over endplay. So by selling this action, or selling pass, we can place the fullbackin a more favorable position to block the linebacker. If the linebackerreads the draw and plugs the hole effectively, we are in trouble.

The fullback is instructed to meet the linebacker as deep as possible,keeping in mind that the linebacker is taught to read the play and meetthe fullback at the line of scrimmage and plug the hole. The linebackeris also taught to not give a side. This simply means to meet the fullbackin the hole and play off the block and cause hesitation for the runningback. So the fullback must make contact as far downfield as he can,and turn the linebacker one way or the other. The ball carrier is taughtto read this block.

The play action off of Fox 2/3 is very important in the offensivestructure, due to the fact that it pairs well with our draw packageand helps to constitute a run threat that slows the linebackers read

as to run/pass. Off this play action, we can hit several pass patternseffectively. Like “X and Y Hook”, the “Double square out”, or the“Double Fly” Routes. Most of the 24 pass patterns can be run fromthe Fox 2/3 play action.

The blocking for the play action is very much the same as inthe draw. But, we give the halfback a duel role in this pass blockingresponsibilities. We want him to check for a pass rusher both inside,and outside the offensive tackle with a priority to any pass rushercoming from the gap between the fullback and the offensive tackle.

Many West Coast Offense teams enjoy the success of the Fox 2/3play action scheme because it gives them a full flow play action toone side, and puts a lot of receivers into the pass pattern. This isespecially beneficial if you have a game breaker in your lineup. Ipersonally liked running “Fox 2 – Bingo”. This sent the flankeron a post route over top of the tight end running a hook at 12 yards.One great thing about formation and motion variation is that youreally can concentrate on running few plays and give it a lot of different looks. For example, you can run passing plays and drawplays from the very same formation. This helps destroy any tendencies you may have that may lean one way or the other in thearea of run/pass.

In conclusion, I have given you a number of different ideasin which to help out your offensive line in an effort to helpneutralize a pressing pass rush. I hope that I have also let youwith ways to compliment your passing game with a numberof different types of draw plays to aid in your overall package.