Playbooks

Mtn Spacing Dig

Shotgun·Empty Bunch Wide·11

Quick Reference

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Breakdown

Mtn Spacing Dig is a zone beater out of Shotgun Empty Bunch Wide that isolates a lone receiver to the backside while working a spacing concept with a deep dig from the bunch side. The bunch alignment creates natural picks against man coverage and floods the underneath zones with staggered spacing routes at three levels, while the dig sits down in the intermediate window between the linebackers and safeties. Your primary read starts with the backside isolation route against single coverage, then progresses into the bunch spacing routes underneath, and finally to the dig as your window against zone coverage sitting behind the shallow spacing routes.

Defensive Reads

Watch linebacker depth at the snap, if they sink too fast into intermediate zones the dig will get taken away, but that opens up the shallow spacing routes underneath for an easy completion Key the safety rotation post snap, single high safety rolling to the dig side signals Cover 3 or Cover 1 and you should work the backside isolation route immediately against man coverage User controlled defenders sitting in the intermediate hook zone are the biggest threat to this concept, if you see a defender sitting on the dig route abort to the spacing routes or checkdown Cover 2 shells with corners jumping the underneath spacing routes will bait a throw, look off the initial spacing read and let the dig sit down in the void behind the corner and in front of the safety Blitz packages that bring extra rushers off the edge shorten the quarterback's clock, so recognize pre-snap blitz alignment and be ready to work the spacing routes as a quick answer instead of holding for the dig

Usage Tips

Check the backside cornerback pre-snap, if he is playing off man or soft zone with no safety help, take the isolation route immediately for a quick throw before the bunch routes even develop

Identify two high safety shells versus one high, against two high the dig has more room to sit down between zones since the deep half defenders are further from the intermediate throwing lane

Motion out of the bunch to confirm man versus zone, if a defender follows across the formation you know its man and can prioritize the spacing routes for natural rubs off the bunch traffic

Use this on second and medium to third and medium situations where the dig route distance matches the sticks and the underneath spacing routes give you checkdown value against a soft zone drop

Pair this with Mtn Orbit Swing Screen or RPO Q Screen Draw in the same set to keep linebackers honest on run fits, then come back to Mtn Spacing Dig once they start flowing hard to the screen action

Other Plays in Empty Bunch Wide