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Quick Reference
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Breakdown
Drag Double Spot is a spot-concept passing play out of Shotgun Empty Base that combines a drag route with a double spot combo to attack underneath zones and man leverage simultaneously. The drag crosses the field low to occupy linebackers while the two spot routes sit down in the intermediate hooks, creating natural picks and rubs against man coverage and clean windows against zone drops. This is a zone beater at its core, especially against Cover 3 and Cover 2, and the primary read progression starts with the drag underneath, then works to the near spot route, and finally to the backside spot as a late-window checkdown.
Defensive Reads
Key the middle linebacker or the flat defender first, since their drop angle tells you whether the drag or the near spot route will be open. Against Cover 3, the underneath defenders have to cover a lot of horizontal ground, so watch for late reactions to the drag crossing the field as your first green light. Against Cover 2, the flat defenders sitting on the spot routes can bait quarterbacks into throws that get jumped by a user controlled defender lurking in the shallow zone. Watch for a robber or lurk defender sitting in the middle of the field, since this play has a natural vulnerability to a user spy dropping into the drag and spot crossing lanes. Man coverage with an underneath blitz is the biggest threat to this concept, since the drag receiver has no natural blocker help and the quarterback has to get the ball out before the interior pressure arrives.
Usage Tips
Pre-snap, identify whether the defense is showing a single high safety or two high shell, since the drag opens up big against single high Cover 3 when linebackers are forced to widen their drops.
Use the drag as your first read on quick game downs like third and short, letting the underneath defender declare before working to the spot routes sitting in the hook zones.
Hot route the drag into a speed out or the spot into a deeper curl if you diagnose a hard flat defender jumping the underneath routes, since this adjusts the spacing against aggressive zone drops.
Pair this play with Y Cross or Stick from the same set to keep the defense guessing between horizontal stretch concepts and vertical crossing routes, forcing linebackers to hesitate on their drops.
Against man coverage, use the drag as a rub route to spring the near spot receiver open, and be ready to user the drag receiver on manual controls to draw extra separation off the natural traffic.
