Playbooks
Quick Reference
In 2 playbooks
Breakdown
SFT Outside Zone runs out of the Bunch Spread Nasty set with a receiver motioning across the formation before the snap to adjust the box count and confirm man versus zone coverage. The offensive line executes a zone blocking scheme, sliding as a unit toward the play side to seal running lanes while the HB reads the flow and picks his gap based on the leverage created up front. This is a pure zone run play designed to attack the edge, with the primary read being the playside tackle and TE combo block, and if that lane closes the HB bends the run back inside off the double team at guard and center.
Defensive Reads
Watch for linebacker depth before the snap, since linebackers sitting shallow at five yards or closer are likely to fill fast and blow up the zone run at the mesh point. Identify one high safety shells versus two high safety shells, because a single high safety look often means the extra defender is in the box, making this run harder to hit outside. Key the play side defensive end and outside linebacker, since if they crash hard down the line on the snap the HB should bend the run back inside off the double team. Look for a user-controlled defender flowing hard to the play side motion, which signals man coverage or a run blitz and should trigger a cutback read immediately. This play struggles against gap and stack fronts with disciplined linebackers who stay square and read their keys, so avoid calling it into heavy run blitz packages or overload fronts on the play side.
Usage Tips
Use the pre-snap motion to bait linebackers into showing their run fits, since a linebacker crashing hard on the motion man tips zone coverage and opens the backside cutback lane.
Call this play on early downs like first and ten or second and short to stay ahead of the chains and keep the defense honest against your play-action shots later in the set.
If the defense stacks the box with eight or more defenders pre-snap, check to a quick game or screen from this same set like HB Slip Screen or Cheat HB Slip Screen instead of forcing the run.
Pair SFT Outside Zone with PA Post or Speed Dig Out on subsequent snaps so the defense has to respect the run fake, which opens up explosive shots down the field.
Manually control the play side blocker at the snap to seal off any user-controlled defender who is crashing down early, since AI blocking sometimes whiffs on aggressive edge defenders.
