Playbooks
HB Dive out of Singleback Deuce Close Tilt is a straight downhill run play that sends the HB directly through the interior of the offensive line with the fullback and inline TE both stepping in to seal the gaps. The blocking scheme is a base man scheme up front designed to create a vertical crease at the point of attack rather than a stretch or zone bounce, making it a north-south gap run rather than a zone beater in the traditional sense. Your primary read is the frontside gap between the center and guard, but the true progression is a bounce read: if the interior gap is clogged, look to press outside off the FB kickout before committing to the hole.
Identify the box count before the snap, six defenders or fewer in the box means this play has a clean lane and should be an automatic call. Watch the Mike linebacker depth, if he is sitting shallow and square he is reading run fits and will likely fill fast, so plan to bounce outside off the FB lead block. Beware defenses that show a 4-3 under front or 46 look with extra defenders crashing downhill, since these run blitz shells are designed specifically to stop interior dive concepts like this one. Man coverage on the backend with linebackers playing run first usually leaves this play vulnerable to fast flow and gap penetration, so only run it if you see the linebackers respecting play-action from earlier calls in the set. Zone coverage shells with deep safeties do not directly affect this run, but if the defense shows a single high safety cheating down into the box pre-snap, expect an extra run defender and consider audibling to a play-action shot instead.
Run this play against light boxes with six or fewer defenders in the tackle box to guarantee a numbers advantage at the point of attack.
Check the pre-snap alignment of the Mike linebacker, if he is stacked directly over the center expect a quick fill and consider hot routing the FB to adjust his block angle.
Use HB Dive on early downs, especially 1st and 10 or 2nd and short, to keep the defense honest and set up your play-action shots later in the drive.
Pair this play with Mtn PA Jet Sweep or Mtn Zone Fake Jet from the same set so the defense has to respect both the dive action and the jet motion, opening up explosive plays off the same formation look.
Avoid calling this into stacked eight man fronts or heavy blitz packages that show run blitz pre-snap, since the interior lanes will be sold out and there is no built in RPO or bail out route to punish the blitz.