What GT Does - RPO (somewhat rehash)

[ilovetheoption]

So, we've sort of covered this one in a past edition of ILTOs WGTD, so this is going to be a quickie (the standard ILTO advance warning. :/ ). We're just going to do real basics.

The basic concept here is that when you hear "RPO" what you're REALLY hearing is "there are a whole suite if plays and concepts that are lumped together loosely" because announcers are announcers.

The first thing to clarify is that the word "Option" is probably good enough for 99% of fanbases, but for GT it's going to be a little bit deceptive, because you guys have a very specific understanding of what "option" means in the context of football, and RPO's SOMETIMES mean something like that, but other teams don't really.

SOME RPO's are "Option Plays" in the way that you think about them, which is that the play starts, and the QB evaluates where people are moving and covering, and makes snap decisions to distribute the ball to the person who is uncovered by the defense. It's not EXACTLY the way you guys think about it, but it's close enough for government work.

These all work because a few years ago, the rules changed to allow offensive linemen to be downfield when the ball is thrown. It's a stupid rule, and I hate it, and it's part of the never-ending march to make it impossible to play.

(I'll die on this hill, and not being able to crush WR's over the middle (not to the head, but their ribs should be fair targets. Don't want to get hit in a defenseless position? Defend yourself, gloryboy)

That said, the rules were, in fact made, and offensive coaches take advantage.

 

[ilovetheoption]

The most common of these (and one that I've seen you guys do) involves the "Glance" route. (you want to call it a slant? Fine. You wanna call it a skinny post? Fine. You want to say "wE rUn A sTiCk RoUtE, tEcHniCAlly", fiiiiiiiine. This is a quickie, I'm not looking to deal with all the billion little intricacies of what teams do, or how they label stuff. The basic concept, though, is that a shotgun qb meshes with the back (you guys know that one), and who he's reading is the linebacker (or DB, depending on how the defense is aligned) at the point of attack.

In this example, the base play is Spli tZone out of the2021 standard College offense (11 personnel with a sniffer H) against a standard 425, with the receivers trying to run off coverage. (I'm not drawing up all the doubles, you guys figure it out)

(forgive the color scheme. I'm colorblind, so I have a color filter on my computer that lets me see stuff, but when I do an image capture, it makes them all weird)

The player of interest right here is Sam (S). What we WANT is for him to run off in coverage with Z so that we can run into a 6 man box with our 6 blockers (AND maybe a QB if we want to get funky) and cram it down their throats, 6 yards at a time.

 

[ilovetheoption]

But maybe Sam doesn't cooperate. Maybe he says "I've got a safety behind me if he goes deep, I'm going to charge this play and screw their math up:

 

[ilovetheoption]

So, this is where the Glance Route comes in.


Basically, the LB has vacated his pass responsibility here:

 

[ilovetheoption]

I'm sure you can guess where this is going:

 

[ilovetheoption]

Because we're running split zone, we're not reading the backside end, H his blocking him. Instead, the QB is reading Sam. If Sam steps up hard to stop the run, the QB pulls and throws the little glance route. If Sam respects the pass, and stays back, the QB just hands the ball off and we like our numbers in the run game.

What's important to remember is that this is not really an option play to anybody but the QB (maybe the RB). To Z, this is just a pass play. He's going to run his route, and see if the ball gets passed to him. He's not looking to block, he's justlooking to run to a spot 1 yard behind the edge defender (Sam in this instance) and look for the ball.

To the OL, this is just a running play. They're going to block it as if it's the running play either way, and if the ball gets thrown, well fine, but that's not their problem. They're blocking for the back. Only the QB is reading that guy and pulling and passing if he makes a clear window. If the QB isn't sure, it's a give read, because the running play might work anyhow. You give unless you have an OBVIOUS window, and then you quickly hit a shifty slot receiver in stride and let him wreak havoc in the secondary.

As this is called "what GT does" and not "some random schemes", enjoy the following.




This ends up being a handoff read, but this is the play. You see #18 run his route, and not turn to block until he sees the handoff has been made.

 

[ilovetheoption]

(ignore the sound, it's weird)
Here sims chooses to pull, get a good picture up top and delivers.



Touchdown (after a brief scramble)





Here's sims reading pull, but the safety charges down into the passing lane and scares him off of it

 

[ilovetheoption]

Now, not every time does it have to be a Glance route, and not every time does it have to be on zone, and whatever, but that's probably the one most common nationally, and frankly, the one you guys probalby do most (although, honestly, it's not a HUGE part of your offense. It's more of a changeup to Zone read to screw with the defense and give them a different play off the same look with very little "install overhead" for the coaching staff).

 

[ilovetheoption]

So, that's the RPO. There is another category of plays that are often called RPO's that in my mind are not really RPO's. They're what I call "Packaged Plays". Announcers will call these RPO's, but no reading happens after the snap. What happens is there is a pass play run by the WR's and a run play run by the running backs and offensive line. The Quarterback (pre-snap) looks at the defense and how they are aligned, and chooses one or the other. If the defense is aligned to stop the pass properly, he'll hand the ball off. If the defense is misaligned to stop the pass play, he'll just ignore the running back and throw the pass.


Here's a common version (that you guys really like):

So the RB/OL is running zone left, and the WR's are running bubble right. If the defense aligns like this, they've got 3 guys on the perimeter to defend the 3 offensive players, which means that they've only got 6 in the box to deal with 6 blockers, an RB, and the POTENTIAL of the QB as a runner if you wanted to run QB power.

As an offense, you're TICKLED PINK to run into that box, and you ought be picking up 6 or 7 yards a crack, and a defense will FEEL that.

 

[ilovetheoption]

What will often happen is guys will start to cheat in (like sam for example, or dollar) and you start to get a look more like this:

 

[ilovetheoption]

In this instance, the QB will just ignore the run play and throw the bubble screen to H, because that's a REALLY challenging play for dollar, and honestly Sam shouldn't be able to make that play. If he does, your guys should be scolded

 

[ilovetheoption]

Here GT is lined up in Trips left. You'll see the inside receiver run his bubble, but sims liked the run call better. (I think this was a bad read on his part. I think he should have thrown the bubble)



Here Sims likes the bubble to the top of the screen (I'm not sure what the exact rule is here, but the fact that the 2 defenders do the inside are BOTH at least 5 yards off the ball makes that bubble VERY inviting, especially when the #3 defender bails at the snap)

 

[ilovetheoption]

That said, the presnap packaged play read doesn't HAVE to be out of Trips to a bubble screen. You can package any number of things, if you see a coverage or a matchup you like against a packaged route you have for a certain play. If, for example, you have a dominant WR (you guys can probably think of a guy, LOL), and he's lined up against press coverage against a tiny WR, you can just have that be an auto-fade that the QB can thow to take shots at 6.



Here Sims sees off coverage on the outside to the left. Knowing he's got a comeback called (looks like all comebacks), he ignores the handoff (after picking up the snap, lol) and immediately throw. Notice how the OL are run zone blocking, here.



Similar here. Yates has a matchup he likes up top, everybody else runs zone left, he and the WR run back shoulder hitch.

Anyway, this was a topic we already sort of covered, but I thought I'd draw it up to demonstrate in case anybody missed it (it was kind of buried in another thread on a separate topic)

 

[Techfan02]

I'm sure you can guess where this is going:
View attachment 11491

Ehat about F He can play that route if he is near the box

 

[MidtownJacket]

Love these film break downs - thanks for doing them.

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

Thanks for that breakdown ILTO. Sure seems simple when it's drawn up like this, but much harder to execute when you have guys in your grill and you have mere moments to make the right read.

 

[ilovetheoption]

Ehat about F He can play that route if he is near the box

Well, if my opponent starts walking F into the box to defend trips, he's putting himself in a VERY risky position. Yeah he'll stop this play, but the INSTANT I see a DC doing that, I've got 6 in my eyes.

 

[Golden Tornadoes]

(ignore the sound, it's weird)
Here sims chooses to pull, get a good picture up top and delivers.



Touchdown (after a brief scramble)





Here's sims reading pull, but the safety charges down into the passing lane and scares him off of it

The sack here just baffles me so much the more I look at it. He makes the right call pulling it, but why are you holding onto the ball when all you have to do is lead the receiver and put a little air under it? Yes the D-line is in his grill, but this just seems like it could have (should have) been a big play that he got scared out of making.

EDIT: Also seems like Gibbs tripped which blew his chance of slowing down the D-lineman.

 

[kittysniper101]

Thanks as always for these.

 

[GTG768B]

Great posts! I appreciate all of the effort it takes to put these together.