Playbooks

Same Side Zone

Shotgun·Y Trips Wk·11

Quick Reference

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Breakdown

Same Side Zone is an outside zone run concept out of the Shotgun Y Trips Wk set that sends the offensive line and RB flowing to the same side as the trips receiver bunch, hence the name. The line executes zone steps with combo blocks at the point of attack while the RB reads the frontside blocks before deciding to bounce it outside, bend it to the crease, or stick it up inside. The primary read progression starts with the frontside double teams at the point of attack, then flows to the backside cutback lane if the defense overpursues to the trips side.

Defensive Reads

Watch the defensive line alignment pre-snap to see if they are shaded toward the trips bunch, which tells you whether the frontside double team combo blocks will have a numbers advantage. Key the play side linebacker depth, since linebackers sitting shallow and square are reading run fits fast and will crash the same side lane before the RB can bounce outside. Look for user-controlled defenders flowing hard downhill at the mesh point, because that aggression opens the backside cutback lane if your blocking sustains long enough. This run gets stopped cold by gap-sound 4-3 or 3-4 fronts with disciplined backside contain, so avoid forcing it against defenses that consistently show backside pursuit discipline on tape. Check for a heavy blitz package or extra man in the box pre-snap, since Same Side Zone struggles against numbers disadvantages up front and you should audible to a quick pass concept instead.

Usage Tips

Check the defensive front pre-snap and identify if the linebackers are stacked to the trips side, since that overload can clog your primary bounce lane and force a cutback read instead.

Use this play on early downs like first and ten or second and short when defenses are more likely to sit in base fronts rather than sub packages built to stop the run.

If you see the defense shift into a heavy front to the play side, consider hot routing the trips receivers into quick screens or checking to a play like RPO Zone Peek to punish an overcommitted box.

Pair Same Side Zone with HB Counter and HB Mid Zone in your play-calling sequence so defenders keying zone steps get gashed by the misdirection once they start flowing hard to one side.

Take the cutback lane the moment you see backside pursuit flow too fast, since one missed backside linebacker fit turns this into a home run cutback for big yardage.

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