Playbooks
Mtn PA Verticals is a play-action shot play out of Shotgun 11 personnel designed to attack the deep middle and outside thirds of the field off a run fake. The play-action freezes linebackers with the mountain run fake, then sends multiple receivers on vertical stems to stretch the coverage deep, making this a man beater against single high looks and a big play zone beater versus busted or over aggressive zone drops. The primary read progression starts outside with the boundary vertical against isolated man coverage, then works to the deep middle route as the safety commits, with the backside vertical as a last resort if the play holds up long enough.
Read the free safety at the snap: if he stays high and does not bite on the run fake, the deep middle window closes and you should climb to your checkdown or throw the boundary vertical on a back shoulder placement. Watch the corners' press versus off alignment, since press man with no safety help over the top is the green light to trust the vertical route matchup and let it rip. Identify Cover 3 versus Cover 1 post snap by tracking the flow of the strong side linebacker, because a hard flow to run action combined with a single deep defender means the seams and verticals will split the zone. Diagnose blitz packages by watching for a walked up nickel or extra rusher crashing the play-action fake, which signals you need to get the ball out on the quicker vertical stem before the protection breaks down. This play struggles against a true two high shell like Cover 2 or Cover 4 where both safeties stay deep, since the verticals get squeezed with no easy throwing lane, so scheme this away from teams sitting in split safety looks.
Call this on early downs, ideally first or second and short to medium, so the run fake actually holds linebackers and safeties for that extra beat.
Check the safety alignment before the snap: a single high safety pinched to the middle tells you the shot is live, while two deep safeties means you should be ready to check into a shorter concept.
Use hot routes to convert the underneath outlet into a quick option if you diagnose a hard blitz, since the vertical routes need time to develop and you cannot always sit in a collapsing pocket.
Pair this with Mtn Inside Zone and Mtn RPO Alert Power earlier in a series so the defense keys run action, then hit them with this shot play once linebackers start flowing downhill on tendency.
Avoid calling this against defenses that have shown two high shells all game, since the verticals will run into help and you are better off working Mtn RPO Read Y Flat underneath.