Attacking the Defense with the Thing Series
One thing that can be frustrating for the defense is when the offense is able to give a variety of different plays off essentially the same look. When you combine this with a formation that presents a heavy run threat on one side of the formation with a passing threat on the other side of the formation, the defense is put in a very difficult position.
Attacking the Defense with the Thing Series
We use our Thing Series to highlight our Tight End and Wing and combine them with our strong Jet Runner. The design of the formation looks very simple, but in reality it causes massive headaches for the defense and defensive coordinator. If they overload the passing strength of the field we can run the ball either wide or inside. If they attempt to account for all of the running gaps we can use our two receiver passing game to make them pay outside. The effect is a very balanced offensive attack.
Jet Sweep (with GT Counter Key Breakers)
While we have a series of plays that we run without Jet Motion, which we will talk about in a later article, we will focus on our Jet Series. The start of the series is based around our Jet Sweep play. On this play our slot receiver (normally our fastest and most dynamic player) will be coming in Jet motion across the formation. We will be giving him the ball with Y and H arching past any defenders and becoming the lead blockers in the flat. Meanwhile our offensive line will be blocking our GT Counter play in the opposite direction. The effect is a situation where the line goes in opposite directions. If the Linebackers are reading their keys correctly, they will be brought away from the Jet Sweep.
GT Counter
If the linebackers are making a play on the Jet Sweep, we know that they are not following their keys and we are in a position to run our counter play. On this play our slot receiver will go in motion again but instead of the Quarterback giving him the ball, the QB will fake the handoff and turn and give the ball to the F who is running the GT Counter that the line has been blocking. The best part about this play is that it only changes the assignment for two people, the Quarterback and the H-Back. The only difference for the Quarterback is who he hands the ball off to. The H Back will now block the C Gap player out. This doesn’t need to be a massive block, in reality he can just needs to slow him down enough so that he can’t run down the F from the backside.
Related Content: Maximizing the Power Blocking Scheme
Power
The final play in the series is perfect for dealing with the C Gap Player who is jumping out to stop the Jet Sweep or a Defensive Tackle who is causing problems. Here we will simply run Power to the same side as the Jet Sweep. This allow us to get a double team on the Defensive Tackle which will slow down how he plays the Jet Series. In addition, when the Defensive End is jumping upfield he will be taking himself out of the play and giving H an easy block to make sure the F is able to run Power inside of him.
Related Content: Twins Formation Power, Counter and RPO Bubble
The Thing Series is a great answer when the field starts to get shorter and the defense starts to roll Safeties down. By adding an extra blocker to attack the offense you can out leverage the defense wide and then look to punish them as they flow outside to stop the Jet Sweep.
