Playbooks
Breakdown
Frisco is a play-action flood concept out of Shotgun Tight 11 personnel that stresses one side of the field with three levels while giving the quarterback a wheel route as an outlet. The backside receiver runs a go route straight up the boundary, the play side receiver runs a deep out breaking to the sideline, and the running back releases out of the backfield on a wheel route to the flat then up the numbers, while the inline TE runs a drag underneath and a slot receiver runs a short crossing route to occupy underneath defenders. The play action fake up front sells the run to hold linebackers before the QB works the flood side high to low, reading the deep out first, then the wheel, then settling for the drag as a checkdown against zone coverage.
Defensive Reads
Identify the safety shell before the snap, a two high shell with corners playing outside leverage tells you the deep out and wheel will have room to work against zone drops. Watch the play side corner's depth at the snap, if he sinks with the out route and the flat defender jumps the wheel, the drag route underneath becomes the answer against that zone rotation. Versus man coverage, look for a linebacker or nickel defender trying to match up on the running back, that leverage disadvantage on the wheel route is the primary man beater trigger. Cover 3 shells with a single high safety are vulnerable to this concept because the flood overloads the curl to flat defender, forcing him to choose between the out and the wheel. Beware of a blitz off the edge on the flood side, since that defender can disrupt both the play-action fake and the quarterback's launch point before he can climb through his first read.
Usage Tips
Use Frisco on early downs when you have already established the run game so the play-action freeze actually holds linebackers and safeties.
Check the flood side pre-snap: if the corner is playing off or shaded inside, the deep out will sit down in the window for an easy completion.
Against man coverage, key on the running back matchup on the wheel route, if a linebacker is covering the back you almost always have a mismatch on the vertical break.
Hot route the backside go into a hitch or comeback versus single high safety looks where the corner is playing tight man, this gives you a quicker answer if the flood side is jumped.
Pair Frisco with Bench or Bench Swirl-Return in your play-calling sequence, since both use similar backfield action and route distribution, forcing the defense to respect the flood every time before you hit them with a shorter answer underneath.
