Playbooks
Quick Reference
In 11 playbooks
Breakdown
Mtn Stick aligns out of Shotgun Y Off Trips with a pre-snap motion man crossing the backfield to the boundary, running an under route that sets up a natural rub against the trips side. To the trips side, the outside receiver runs a corner route stemming vertically before breaking to the sideline, while the inside slot receiver runs a quick out and the tight end at the top works a stick concept, sitting down at five yards and reading the flat defender. On the backside, the isolated X receiver runs a vertical seam to hold the safety and cornerback deep. This is a classic stick concept build that beats zone coverage by flooding the underneath and intermediate levels, with the primary read progressing from the stick (TE) to the flat out route to the corner route based on how the flat defender and curl defender react.
Defensive Reads
Pre-snap, check safety depth and cornerback alignment on the trips side, a single high safety with off man corners signals a good matchup for the corner route and vertical seam. Watch the flat defender immediately after the snap, if he sinks under the stick route the quick out and corner route become the answer, if he jumps the out route the stick sits open underneath him. Key the motion man's defender, if a linebacker or nickel corner mirrors the motion across the formation it confirms man coverage and opens up rub route leverage against the under route. Against zone blitz looks, identify if the curl-flat defender is replaced by a blitzing linebacker, since that creates a natural void for the stick route to settle into against a light box. Cover 3 with a hard-charging strong safety can undercut the corner route, so if the safety cheats toward the trips side pre-snap, expect the corner window to close and lean on the stick-to-out progression instead.
Usage Tips
Use the pre-snap motion to identify man versus zone before the snap, if the defender follows the motion man across the formation you are almost certainly facing man coverage and should hot route the stick route into a slant to beat trailing defenders.
Against zone shells, trust the stick concept progression and read the flat defender first, if he sits on the stick route throw the quick out underneath him, if he widens to the out throw the stick route in the window behind him.
This play thrives on third and short to third and medium since the stick and out routes give the quarterback high percentage completions underneath the sticks.
Pair this call with Mtn Stick N Nod or Deep Stick Out later in a series once the defense starts jumping the underneath stick and out combo, since those variants hold defenders with a fake before breaking deep.
Use PA Mtn Slide or PA Y Flood off the same Y Off Trips look to keep linebackers honest if they start crashing hard on the motion man and jumping the flat route.
