Playbooks
At a Glance
In 1 playbook
Overview
Pistol Open Flex takes the standard Pistol depth (quarterback four yards deep, back stacked three yards behind him) and spreads it out with 11 personnel: one running back, one tight end, and three receivers. What separates Open Flex from the tighter Pistol sets is the flexed tight end. Instead of attaching him to the tackle as an extra run fitter, Open Flex splits him out into the slot or wide, which forces the defense to declare coverage on him before the snap. If a linebacker walks out over the flexed tight end, you have your matchup. If a safety rotates down instead, you just gutted the run fit and the Read Option and Counter F become live.
The set is tagged Gadget for a reason: the Pistol alignment hides run direction until the mesh point, so HB Zone Wk, Inside Zone Split, and Read Option all present the same backfield picture. Because the back is directly behind the quarterback rather than offset, defenders cannot key the run to the strong or weak side off alignment alone, which makes the counter and split zone concepts significantly harder to fit than they are out of Singleback or Gun offset looks. Read Option in particular punishes any user who overcommits an edge defender.
The pass game leans heavily on play action, and that is where Open Flex separates itself from the rest of the Pistol tree. PA Boot, PA Boot Rt, and PA Double Post all sell the same downhill run action before moving the pocket or attacking the deep middle. Slants and Verticals give you the quick game and vertical stretch to keep coverage honest. With three receivers plus a flexed tight end, you can isolate your slot mismatch against a linebacker on any Slants or option route hot route while the outside receivers clear the boundary.
Strengths
- Read Option out of Pistol is a genuine conflict play because the depth and alignment give the quarterback a real read window, and users who crash the edge defender give up chunk yardage on the keep every time.
- PA Boot and PA Boot Rt move the pocket away from interior pressure, which neutralizes A gap nano blitz looks that would otherwise get home instantly against a standard dropback.
- PA Double Post is a Cover 2 and Cover 4 killer: the two post stems bracket the deep safety and one of them always comes open in the seam window if you hold the read a beat longer than the linebacker drop.
- Slants is a clean man beater when you have a speed mismatch in the slot, and hot routing the flexed tight end to a drag or slant underneath the concept creates a natural rub against man coverage defenders.
- The flexed tight end forces a pre-snap coverage declaration. Linebacker over him means throw it, safety over him means run Counter F or Inside Zone Split into the vacated box.
Weaknesses
- Only one back and one tight end means limited pass protection help, so overload blitzes off the edge get home fast unless you slide the line or block the running back manually.
- The play action volume is a tendency opponents will read. Once a user knows PA Boot and PA Double Post are coming, they can sit a user-controlled defender in the boot flat or the deep middle and take away the primary read.
- Verticals stalls against Cover 3 and Cover 4 shells with a user in the deep middle, and the Pistol depth gives you less time to work through the progression than a Gun set would.
- Read Option gets shut down by disciplined edge users who slow play the mesh point, and any blitz off the read side turns the play into a negative rep.
- No fullback or second tight end means short yardage and goal line power runs are inefficient here. Counter F and the zone plays need space, not stacked box situations.
Usage Tips
Read the defender aligned over the flexed tight end before anything else. Linebacker or safety in the box means attack with Slants or a hot routed option route. Nickel or corner means the box is light, so hand off on HB Zone Wk or Inside Zone Split.
Use PA Boot and PA Boot Rt on second and medium after establishing the zone run game. The play action freeze plus the moving pocket beats interior pressure and gets your quarterback outside the rush lane.
Save PA Double Post for third down against two high shells. Confirm the safeties stay deep post snap, then work the post opposite the safety rotation.
Hot route the flexed tight end to a drag or in route when you diagnose man coverage, and let the outside Slants clear the coverage above him for the natural rub.
Mix in Read Option when your opponent starts user controlling the edge or committing a defender to the back. The keep punishes overcommitment and forces them to play honest for the rest of the series.
