Playbooks
Quick Reference
In 1 playbook
Breakdown
HB Sweep out of the Full House Tight set puts the HB in the backfield with two additional backs flanking him, giving the offensive line and lead blockers a numbers advantage to one side. The diagram shows the offensive line down blocking and sealing across the formation while the running back takes a lateral path outside the tackle box toward the edge, following his lead blocker's track. This is a pure run play designed to attack the perimeter with outside contain leverage, and the primary read is patience: let the sweep develop, press the hole created by the pulling blockers, and cut upfield once the edge defender is sealed or overcommits inside.
Defensive Reads
Key the edge defender first, if he crashes inside on the snap the sweep has a clean lane outside, if he sits and reads he can string it out for a loss. Watch linebacker depth and flow, aggressive downhill linebackers who overpursue the play side create cutback lanes for the ball carrier. Identify one high safety shells versus two high, since one high alignments often mean an extra run defender in the box that can beat sweep with numbers. Look for user controlled defenders flying to the edge pre-snap, this signals a defender keying run and jumping the sweep, which can be countered by setting up cutback or switching to Counter Lead. Blitz packages that bring extra defenders off the edge or overload one side of the formation are the most dangerous defensive answer to this play, since sweep needs time to develop width before turning upfield.
Usage Tips
Run this out of Full House Tight when you see light boxes or defenses that crash hard inside against Power O or Counter Lead, since the sweep hits the edge those plays sell as inside gap runs.
Check the flow of linebackers pre-snap, if they are stacked tight to the formation or showing blitz off the edge, the sweep can get cut back against overpursuit.
Use the sweep on early downs in normal distance situations to keep defenses honest and set up PA Power O and PA Ctr Waggle later in the series off the same look.
Avoid calling this into stacked fronts with extra defenders outside the tackles, since sweep needs numbers on the perimeter to work.
Hot route the fullback or extra backs to adjust blocking angles if the defense shows an overload blitz to the play side before the snap.
