Looking at the Davie County Offense

PHOTO BY MARK DOLEJS

We have a quick look at some of the different looks the Hornet defense may see tomorrow in the 4A State Championship game against Davie County. Check back as we'll hopefully put a few more plays up for folks to look through...enjoy.

The War Eagles of Davie County have run a spread attack throughout the year that has typically put the quarterback in the shot-gun alongside a single running back set.

A play that you'll see them run out of various sets is a traditional speed option or lead option type play.  In the play diagrammed in Figure 1, Davie has loaded to the play side with a bunch type look with multiple receivers.  They block down along the line of scrimmage leaving the EMLOS (DE), unblocked for the QB to read and pitch off of, while two of the wide receivers use their advantage in angles to block down on the linebackers and I would imagine depending on safety depth the safety as well.  The corner is picked up by the third wide receiver or H-back type for a stalk block on the edge.  In one of the plays I've seen the safety playing at 8-10 yard depth is left unblocked leading to a one-on-one for the pitch back and safety - tough play for a safety to make in space.

FIGURE 1: Speed/lead option to bunched set

For the Hornet defense, assignment football becomes a must in defending the option.  Starting from outside-in, the corner, sensing the down block has to see based on alignment, film work and backfield action that the option is coming their way.  Keeping outside contain they have to pick up the lead block with their inside shoulder and take away any possibility of the pitch back getting to his outside shoulder.  If he can, upon engaging the H-Back he should ideally compress the alley between the EMLOS and his position while keeping his outside free for the chance that the pitch back tries to go outside.  This is a great example of where a player defensively can 'make a play' without actually making a tackle and it speaks to how important it is on defense especially to play your assignment and trust the man next to you.  If the corner can play it as described they will have negated the ball going down the sideline and created a smaller window for the pitch back to go through, thus helping flow from his linebackers and fill from the safety.  Moreover, while this is happening, one would expect that both the corner and safety are communicating with the linebackers that crack blocks are coming from the outside receivers.  

Next inside is the safety that should fill the the lane inside the corner and be ready to engage a possible crack block from the most outside receiver or simply come up to breakdown and make a play on the pitch back.  The EMLOS (DE), being unblocked should close down the C-Gap and then attack the QB forcing pitch, although I'll hesitate here a bit and say depending on how you want to scheme it, you could do a few other things if you want to force the QB to keep the ball and to be honest after watching them on film a bit, that is something one might want to do.  But in this straight-up look, the DE takes out the QB without hesitation.  Again, he is keeping to his assignment and relying on others to do so as well.  If the QB keeps the ball, he makes the tackle.  If he pitches it - then he potentially forces a tough pitch if the QB has reacted slowly or at the very least he reminds the QB that we're playing football - if you get my point!

The next two important players are the play side linebacker and Mike backer.  They'll have to read backfield movement and based on the crack calls be ready to engage the wide receivers attempting to down block them.  They want to flow from inside-out, but be careful not to over pursue.  Again, trusting their corner and safety, they know the two outside most lanes are filled and they will fill the next two inside lanes.  If the outside has done its job then the pitch back which is already moving hard to the outside will have to slow and attempt to cut back to a more inside lane, allowing a bit more time for flow from the inside to fill and make a tackle.

FIGURE 2: Zone Read out of double tights

You'll see zone read out of the gun a good bit from the War Eagles.  In the situation shown in Figure 2, Davie is in a two tight end set with a single back and run the zone read.  The quarterback reads the defensive end and has the option to keep if the DE crashes down the line of scrimmage or give to the running back if the defensive end maintains backside contain.  Across the LOS, the offensive line zone blocks the gap to their left and it is the job of the running back after getting the ball to find a crease and hit it.  Ideally the offensive line will progress to the linebackers and in this even alignment the offense has a hat on a hat with the exception of either the safety or corner to the play side depending on blocking scheme by the wide receiver.

Defensively the Hornets have to play sound gap football against the high number of zone blocking type plays they'll see in the game.  A zone team and zone runners have field days off of teams that don't fill their gaps and wait for the offense to engage them instead of dictating things.  As an aside, Davie likes play action out of a number of sets and in a double tight set like this it becomes imperative for the DE's to engage the TE's aggressively to disrupt the timing of the play action and in some cases completely take options out of the mix.

Occasionally, Davie has shown their own version of a 'Wildcat' package where they've placed a more athletic player in the direct snap position and then attacked the defense up the middle and along the edges. In Figure 3, the War Eagles are lined up in a three receiver look with a fullback or H-back type player lined up at half depth between the OL and direct snap player. In this particular play, pre-snap motion is initiated with the split receiver and a fake sweep to the edge is completed while a traditional inside isolation play on the line backer is completed by the H-back/fullback into the B gap. Depending on alignment of the defense, the sweep action will assist in holding the safety help to the outside as well as potentially influencing the OLB that will be isolated on, setting up a natural blocking surface for the H-Back. 

FIGURE 3: Isolation out of Wildcat Package

For the Hornets and their 4-3 look - in this particular alignment, playing straight up should result in the following. The quick side defensive end will keep contain while leveraging the PST on his outside and reducing the B Gap. This allows the DE to be able to work contain on the possible sweep while also hindering the path of the H-Back and ball carrier through the B Gap. The safety to the play side has to be cognizant of possible play action from the X over top as well as working to take away the possible sweep by filling his lane outside of the DE. Film work as well as OL reads on the snap will work to help the safety identify and react to possible play action. The play side OLB has to read the down block of PSG and near back (H-Back) and attack hard after his read step to fill the B-Gap. If he fills this gap with certainty and proper leverage (knowing that the sweep should be taken care of by the DE, safety and corner then with a combination of reduction in the B Gap through solid DE play and a hard fill, there should be limited room for the ball carrier to navigate. Inherent in this response by the defense is similarly strong play by the shade on the PSG, sensing a down block, working to hold ground and then reduce the B-Gap. Additionally, the MLB upon taking his read step will look to scrape to fill the B-Gap and be prepared to make the tackle assuming that there is a slow reaction from the play side OLB that results in a successful isolation.