Playbooks
Sprint Stick is a play-action rollout out of Pistol Trips Y Over that gets the quarterback moving on a sprint path to the strong side trips while the Y attacks the flat off the snap fake. The route concept blends stick style flat and hitch reads from the trips side with a boundary route to hold the backside defender, making this a strong man beater against man coverage that gets overloaded by the trips bunch. Because the QB is rolling out on play-action, the primary read progression starts with the underneath flat or stick route in the direction of the roll, then works to the intermediate stick sitting route, and finishes with the backside comeback or dig if the pocket holds up long enough.
Identify if the defense shows man coverage with press corners, since the trips bunch creates natural picks that spring the stick and flat routes open against man to man. Watch for a single high safety rotating late, which signals Cover 3 and means the flat route and stick sit route become your primary targets before the corner can zone off. Key the strong side linebacker at the snap, if he sprints out to match the flat route in man coverage the stick route sitting behind him should come open immediately. Beware of a hard edge blitz off the play side, since the sprint rollout puts the quarterback on that edge and a well timed contain blitz can force an early throwaway or sack. If the defense shows Cover 2 with the corners sitting on the flat, look to the backside comeback or dig as the coverage rotates away from the boundary, exploiting the space vacated by the rollout action.
Use this on early downs after establishing HB Zone or HB Power G so the play-action rollout freezes linebackers who have started keying run fits.
Check the pre-snap safety alignment before the snap, if both safeties are deep at 10 plus yards you are likely facing a two high shell and should target the flat and stick combo underneath before the corners can sink.
Hot route the backside X into a quick out or slant if you see man coverage with no safety help over the top, since the sprint action naturally isolates that defender.
Ideal down and distance is second or third and short to medium, where defenses respect the run fake from Pistol and bite on the play-action.
Pair this call with PA Dagger and PA Stretch from the same set to keep defenders guessing between vertical shots and horizontal flood concepts off similar pre-snap looks.