8 replies to this topic

[rushbuster70]

crossing routers/slants will always move the ball and get you yardage...be creative.

[Orange]

I would say that in general your plays have to go very quickly. There is very little time from the snap until you have to make something happen. When you say your plays are developing too slowly, do you mean pass plays? Is the rusher getting to the QB before he can throw it? I would say that's a very common situation in flag football.

I wonder how you practice. I liked to place a live rusher over my QB even when he was doing passing drills. I wanted him to understand the time he had and also for me to see what plays had enough time. Plus the receivers can get an understanding of how quickly they need to be ready. We had one kid who was a cross country AAU runner. He was our rusher anyhow but in practice I could rush him over and over and he wouldn't tire out too quickly. If you don't have someone like that, do it by committee. There would be two lines, a rusher line and a receiver line. You'd move from one to the other when you finished. Kept everyone relatively fresh. For the rushers, tell them to come fast but understand you're not trying to flake the QB (hit his arm) or rough him up. Just tag him on the waist. And the QB is not looking to evade the rusher. He's trying to learn how to get the ball off before he gets there.

Kind of trick. Rub the rusher. You can use the center or the slot receiver to run a route in the path/ direction of the rusher. It causes the rusher to slow or change directions which in turn gets you more time. Be careful because purposely picking the rusher is a penalty.

And finally, use misdirection. There is nothing that slows the defense down as much as when you do a well executed fake in one direction and then go in the opposite one.

I created a good timing play against the 2-1-2 middle rusher. The ref would place a bean bag 7 yards off the los right in the middle of the field. The rusher has to be behind it and would typically line up right on it. I had my QB under center and a slot receiver run directly at the bean bag. The QB would throw a pass at the bean bag. It almost always worked, was a good 7 yards + play. The theory was simple. The rusher had to go 7 yards to get to the QB. The slot receiver had to go 7 yards to get to the bean bag. I figured they'd reach their destinations about the same time. All the QB had to do was throw the ball with some lob to clear the rusher and give the slot receiver time to run under it. Plus the bean bag made a nice target for the QB and receiver to zero in on.

[Coach Rob]

My offense plays are developing to slow and defense are eating us up.

More details would help. Is the defense stopping the run at the los? Is the rusher getting in the backfield too quickly and disrupting the play?

Orange already addressed it, but executing the plays quicker and using misdirection. Teach your kids to be good actors on fakes. Shorter, quick hitting passes would probably help some.

[Orange]

I'm probably in the minority but I'm a strong believer in having the QB under center. I figure shotgun places your QB 2-3 yards further back which buys you an extra fraction of a second. I suppose it also gives your QB more room to make a move or escape the rusher (but I think you need to execute most plays before that). On the downside you have bad snaps that lose big yard. Also, your QB has that much further to throw to his receivers.

I will say that at a 10-12 age level shotgun begins to make more sense. The older the players, the more I like shotgun. At 10-12 I could go either way. But I really think you have to create a sense of urgency in your QB. Practice with a live rusher, a lot! Your plays are most likely taking too long to develop and the QB does not have a good feel for the timing.

[Coach Rob]

The main problem seems to be the defense (usually a 1 man blitz) is in the backfield so fast.

I'd make them pay for the rush. If they're playing a 2-3 defense and sending the middle rusher everytime, have two WR's one far left and one far right. Maybe have another slot receiver off to the right a bit. In theory, the DBacks have to cover the WR's, so the center should be able to head towards the bean bag like Orange mentioned in a previous post. Dumping to the slot should also help if you send your WR's on long patterns.

I've used shotgun for a long time with no problems. The trick to using shotgun is making sure you have solid snappers. I trained my son from an early age, so he is my go-to guy on the long snap.

Work on play action with good fakes. Teach your kids to be good actors, the rusher will actually follow the fake on an end around for a few steps which is all you need a lot of times. Your QB should be on the move if they are passing, standing in one spot won't cut it with a good rusher. We tell our QBs to roll one way or the other depending upon the pass play.

Like your idea of having someone right next to the QB for the hand off, that player can then fake a run and throw or just take off when the rusher is near.

[patandsu]

Roll your QB out, with a fake handoff the other way, this will buy you time. Our QB rolls on most plays, but not always to one side. In addition to buying time, it can create better passing angles for you QB.

[LemonThrower]

Roll your QB out, with a fake handoff the other way, this will buy you time. Our QB rolls on most plays, but not always to one side. In addition to buying time, it can create better passing angles for you QB.

i like to roll the QB out too. in addition to buying time, it shortens the width of the field for the QB. I'll spread 3 receivers out at medium depth, and try to sneak the other 2 deep. because the throws have less east-west component to them, the QBs can throw a little deeper, and this usually surprises the defense some.