Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Sprintout Flood rolls the quarterback out to the strong side behind a three-level flood concept designed to stretch the defense horizontally and vertically at once. The outside receiver on the flood side runs a deep corner route, the tight end or slot underneath breaks to a shallow flat, and the backside receiver runs a dig style route across the middle that settles in the void. This is a zone beater built to attack Cover 3 by isolating the flat defender and deep third defender with three routes stacked on top of each other, and the sprintout action also lets the quarterback throw on the run or tuck it and scramble if the flood is covered.
Defensive Reads
Pre-snap identify single high versus two high safety looks, a single high shell with Cover 3 tendencies is what this concept is designed to punish. Watch the flat defender at the snap, if he sinks with the corner route he opens the underneath flat throw, if he jumps the flat route he opens the corner throw behind him. Man coverage with no help over the top on the flood side is the biggest kill shot for this play since the sprintout naturally isolates the corner route receiver on a defender running full speed backward. Cover 2 or Cover 4 shells with a hard flat defender and deep half safety can take away both the flat and corner reads, forcing the quarterback to check down to the backside dig. Blitz packages that send pressure away from the sprintout side rarely affect this play, but pressure that spills contain toward the flood side collapses the pocket and eliminates the rollout throwing lanes.
Usage Tips
Call this on third and medium to long when you expect zone coverage, especially Cover 3 or Cover 4 shells with static safeties. Check the flat defender before the snap, if he sits deep or widens with the corner route the underneath flat throw is wide open immediately off the sprintout. Use the sprintout rollout to buy time against exotic pressure since the quarterback naturally escapes the pocket toward the flood side away from backside rushers. Pair this with PA Flood and Levels in the same play calling sequence so the defense cannot key on formation tendencies, alternating between the drop back flood look and the sprintout action keeps linebackers and safeties guessing. If the cornerback jumps the flat route hot route the backside dig into a deeper crossing route to counter aggressive underneath jumps.
