Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Redzone Scissors lines up in Shotgun Doubles Y Off with 11 personnel, showing two receivers stacked to the closed side and a slot plus outside receiver to the open side. The namesake scissors concept comes from the two closed side receivers, the outside man runs a corner route while the inside receiver crosses underneath him on a shallow out, creating a natural rub that slices through man coverage. The backside receivers run a deep comeback and a shallow out on a horizontal stretch, giving the quarterback a zone beating flat read if the scissors gets jumped. Primary progression starts with the scissors combo (corner to shallow cross) then works backside to the comeback if the coverage rolls away.
Defensive Reads
Watch the cornerback aligned over the outside receiver in the scissors combo, if he is playing tight man with no safety help over the top, the corner route wins immediately. Key the flow of the underneath linebackers and nickel defender, if they widen with the shallow out crosser they open a throwing lane for the corner route behind them. Identify press man coverage pre-snap on the closed side, this play is designed to exploit exactly that look by rubbing the defenders off each other at the top of the route stem. Cover 2 and Cover 4 shells with two deep safeties are the primary defenses this play is built to beat, since the corner route threatens the seam between the flat defender and deep safety. If you see a robber or lurking linebacker sitting in the shallow zone reading quarterback eyes, expect him to jump the crossing route, so be ready to climb the ladder to the deep comeback on the backside instead.
Usage Tips
Call this near the goal line or inside the 10 yard line where the compressed field width makes the corner route in the scissors combo nearly unguardable against man coverage.
Pre-snap, check for a single high safety or Cover 2 shell, if you see two deep safeties rolled to the closed side, work the backside comeback and shallow out combo instead since the scissors rub loses value against zone with extra help.
Hot route the backside shallow out into a quick flat if you diagnose a blitz, it becomes an immediate answer since it clears out fast.
Sequence this play after running Slants or Curl Combo from the same set so linebackers and corners start biting on shorter breaking routes, then hit the corner route for a chunk gain or score once they overplay the quick game.
Use motion or a hard count to bait the defense into showing man coverage before the snap, since the scissors action is designed specifically to defeat man to man leverage in tight spaces.
