Playbooks
Breakdown
Spacing out of Pistol Bunch spreads five receivers into a horizontal stretch with staggered depths, giving the quarterback a levels-based zone beater against Cover 3 and Cover 4 shells. The bunch releases into a flat route, a deep out breaking to the sideline, an intermediate curl sitting down in the void, and a shallow drag crossing underneath, while the backside X runs a short hitch outside the numbers. The primary read progression works flat to curl to drag, letting the quarterback throw off the underneath defender's leverage since there is no play-action or blocking scheme, this is a pure quick-game passing concept.
Defensive Reads
Read the middle linebacker's drop depth immediately after the snap, if he sinks too deep the flat route is wide open underneath him. Watch for a robber or lurk defender sitting in the shallow middle zone, since the drag and curl routes cross through that exact window and get jumped by aggressive user play. Check corner alignment before the snap, tight press corners with no safety over the top get beaten badly by the deep out route breaking outside. Cover 3 with a hard-flowing strong safety takes away the flat but opens the curl sit route directly behind the vacated zone. Man coverage with underneath help, like Cover 1 with a spy, clogs the drag and curl lanes and forces the quarterback to hold the ball longer, creating pressure opportunities for the pass rush.
Usage Tips
Use this on third and short to medium since the sit routes settle in soft zones underneath linebacker drops.
Pre-snap, check for two deep safeties which signals Cover 4 or Cover 2, and target the curl route sitting between the flat and the deep out since zone defenders will struggle to cover both.
If you see man coverage with no deep safety help, hot route the drag into a shallow crosser or slide the curl into a corner route to attack the man defender's hips.
Pair this with Slant Spacing in the same set to keep defenders guessing between the curl-flat combo here and the quicker slant window, forcing linebackers to hesitate on their drops.
Against aggressive user blitzers coming off the edge, get the ball out fast to the flat or drag since there is no protection help built into this quick-game design.
