Playbooks

Trail Shake

Shotgun·Trey Open·11

Trail Pass Play

Play diagram for Trail Shake from Shotgun Trey Open in Madden 27

Quick Reference

FormationShotgun

SetTrey Open

Personnel

111 RB · 1 TE · 3 WR

In 5 playbooks

Franchise College Pro OffenseOffense Run N Gun OffenseOffense Superstar QB Gunslinger Superstar WR Deep Threat Superstar WR RAC

Breakdown

Trail Shake is a play-action style pass out of Shotgun Trey Open with three receivers to the trips side and a lone X to the backside. The trips receivers run a shake concept: the outside receiver and the middle receiver both break underneath toward the sideline while the innermost trips receiver runs a shallow drag that snaps back opposite the flow, creating natural rub traffic and picks against man coverage. The backside X and the outside trips receiver both push vertical up the sideline as clearout routes to hold the deep defenders, making the shallow drag and shake routes the primary read against man leverage and the underneath crossers the answer versus soft zone drops.

Defensive Reads

Pre-snap, check corner alignment on the trips side, tight press man invites the rub concept to work while soft corners signal zone drops underneath Watch the middle linebacker depth, if he sits shallow and flat footed he is likely spying the drag route and will jump the shake concept Post-snap, user the underneath defender closest to the shake action since AI defenders often get picked off by the natural rub between the two trips routes Against zone blitzes, the shallow drag becomes the outlet since it settles into the vacated area left by a blitzing linebacker Cover 3 with a hard flat defender can undercut the shake route, so be ready to climb the ladder to the intermediate crosser if the flat is sat on

Usage Tips

Use this on early downs or third and short since the primary answers live underneath and need yards after catch to be effective

Pre-snap, identify if the defense is showing two deep safeties or single high, because the two vertical clearout routes are designed to hold that safety help away from the shake action

Against man coverage, key the shallow drag crossing back underneath, the natural rub from the two outside trips routes will create separation for an easy pitch and catch

Against zone, look to the two verticals on the outside to see if a corner or safety bites on the underneath traffic, then throw the seam behind them

Pair this with Curls or Double Ins from the same Trey Open set to keep the defense guessing between deep clearouts and quick underneath breaks off identical alignment