Playbooks
HB Sweep out of the I Form Wing Over set is a perimeter run play that pulls the frontside guard and gets the fullback out in front to seal the edge for the halfback. The design stretches the defense horizontally, forcing edge defenders and linebackers to fight through blockers in space before the back can turn upfield. The primary read is the frontside edge: key the pulling guard and fullback lead blocks, and decide between bouncing outside if the edge is sealed or cutting inside off the fullback if the alley is clogged.
Watch for stacked box fronts with eight or more defenders, since this shuts down the sweep by outnumbering the pulling blockers before they reach the edge. Read linebacker depth pre-snap: linebackers sitting shallow and square to the line signal quick run fits that can beat the sweep to the edge. Identify scrape exchange linebackers who stay home on the backside instead of flowing hard, since they can cut off the cutback lane. Watch cornerback and safety alignment on the play side, since aggressive run support corners crashing down early will blow up the edge before the fullback gets a clean kick block. Look for user-controlled defenders flying downhill from depth, since a spy or lurking safety reading backfield flow can beat the pulling guard to the point of attack and stack the sweep for a loss.
Attack light boxes with six or fewer defenders in the box since the sweep depends on numbers advantage at the point of attack.
Check for overaggressive edge defenders crashing down on run fits pre-snap, since a wide 9 or crashing DE gets sealed easily by the fullback lead.
Use motion with the wing back or fullback shift to identify if the defense is running with the motion, which tips man coverage or a scrape exchange on the backside.
Pair this with PA Waggle and PA Boot Flow from the same set so defenders keying run fits get punished on the next snap when you fake the sweep look.
Best called on early downs (first and ten or second and short) when defenses are more likely to sit in base run fits rather than nickel or dime sub packages.
User the fullback to manually seal the first threat off the edge if the CPU blocker whiffs, since AI lead blocks can miss assignments against fast-flowing linebackers.