Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Crack Toss out of Singleback Bunch is a perimeter run play that tosses the ball to the HB heading toward the strength of the bunch alignment. The bunch receivers crack down inside on second level defenders while the offensive line reach blocks to seal the edge, creating a lead alley for the HB to bounce outside. This is a run play designed to attack overplayed inside runs and beat light boxes, with the primary read being the crack block from the bunch receiver and then the HB pressing the alley before deciding to bounce or cut upfield based on the edge defender flow.
Defensive Reads
Watch for the play side OLB or SAM linebacker crashing down inside the bunch presnap, if he widens out he can blow up the crack block and force a cutback. Identify if the defense is running a scrape exchange technique, which replaces the crashing linebacker with a secondary defender flowing outside to cancel the crack toss. Look for a hard edge set from the defensive end, since a strong edge with contain discipline can string the play out and limit yards. User controlled safeties flying downhill from depth can be the difference maker against this play, if the safety shell is stacked at 8-10 yards deep they can rally fast and cut off the bounce lane. Overloaded fronts with extra defenders stacked to the play side strength of the bunch can outnumber the crack blockers and stop this play behind the line of scrimmage.
Usage Tips
Call this against defenses showing a light box or when the CPU/user has widened out to cover the bunch set with man coverage since the crack blocks remove second level defenders before they can flow.
Check the alignment of the play side OLB or SAM presnap, if he is crashing hard down inside the crack toss hits for a bigger gain to the edge.
Use motion or a hard count to bait aggressive edge defenders into overcommitting, then snap and let the crack blocks seal the alley.
Pair this with HB Slash and HB Slam from the same set to keep defenders guessing between inside zone runs and the outside toss, since the bunch look disguises run direction well.
Best called on early downs (1st and 10 or 2nd and short) when defenses are still respecting balanced run/pass looks and havent sold out to stop outside runs.
