Playbooks

HB Zone Toss

Shotgun·Y Off Trips·11
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Quick Reference

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Breakdown

HB Zone Toss is a run play out of Shotgun Y Off Trips that tosses the ball to the halfback while the offensive line executes a zone blocking scheme flowing toward the play side. This is a run play designed to beat overloaded fronts and light boxes, using zone blocking to create cutback lanes rather than a designated hole. The primary read progression starts with the play side double team and flows to the backside cutback lane if the frontside gets clogged, letting the ball carrier press the hole and read blocks in real time rather than committing to a pre-determined gap.

Defensive Reads

Watch linebacker depth pre-snap, if they are sitting at five yards or closer they can crash down fast on the zone flow and blow up the toss before it develops. Identify whether the defense is in a 4-3 or 3-4 front, odd fronts with a nose tackle over center tend to clog cutback lanes better against zone toss concepts. Look for edge defenders crashing hard upfield off the snap, which opens the cutback lane behind them if your zone blockers seal correctly. User controlled defenders flowing hard to the play side flash a bite on the toss action, so be ready to cut the run back against the grain if you see this. Cover 1 and Cover 3 looks with safeties rotating down into the box can outnumber the zone blocking scheme, so avoid forcing this run when you see a safety creep into the alley pre-snap.

Usage Tips

Check the box count pre-snap and only run this into light boxes of six defenders or fewer since the trips formation pulls extra defenders away from the core but overloaded fronts can still win with numbers.

Use the toss action to get outside quicker than inside zone runs, which makes this ideal against defenses that are sitting on interior gap runs like Inside Zone or Duo from this same set.

Motion the trips receivers or use a hard play fake with your right stick to freeze linebackers before the snap, then trust your zone read and stay patient behind the line instead of forcing it to one side.

Pair this with HB Draw and PA Zone Shot in your play-calling sequence so the defense cannot sit on run fits, since the play action off zone action punishes linebackers who crash down on the toss look.

Best used on early downs in run and pass balanced situations such as first and ten or second and short, and avoid calling it in obvious passing situations where defenses stack the box with extra DBs sitting in run support.

Other Plays in Y Off Trips