Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Bench Z-Dig out of Singleback Deuce Close (12 personnel) shows a five man pass concept built to attack the middle of the field. The backside X runs a deep corner route from the outside while the two receivers to that side clear out with a bench (deep out) route stacked over a shallow drag underneath, and the Z receiver on the strong side runs the dig, working across the field on an intermediate crossing route into the vacated middle. The HB releases out of the backfield on a check release swing to the flat, giving you a five man route distribution with the RB as a late outlet against blitz. This is a man beater and zone beater hybrid, but the dig route is designed to sit in soft spots against zone coverage while the deep corner and bench routes stress cornerbacks in man. Primary read progression starts with the Z dig working from strong side to weak, then works down to the drag/flat combo, with the HB as the checkdown against pressure.
Defensive Reads
Identify single high safety shells before the snap, since Cover 1 and Cover 3 leave the intermediate middle exposed for the dig route to settle in Watch for a linebacker spying or sitting in the shallow hook zone, as a disciplined zone drop underneath the dig can bait a risky throw Check cornerback depth on the backside, a soft corner over the bench route signals zone coverage and tells you to prioritize the dig read Recognize Cover 2 or Cover 4 shells with two deep safeties, which can squeeze the corner route and force you to rely on the dig or drag underneath instead Look for a blitz off the edge or a nano blitz package pre-snap, which forces a quick decision to the HB check release before the protection breaks down
Usage Tips
Use pre-snap motion or a hard count to bait linebackers into showing blitz or zone drop before the snap, since the dig route needs the middle of the field to be clean to hit
This play excels on second and long or third and medium because the dig route sits at an intermediate depth that consistently gets first down yardage against off coverage
Hot route the HB to a stay-in block if you are facing a heavy blitz look, since the check release swing loses value when there is no time to throw
Pair Bench Z-Dig with PA Deep Cross or PA X Post Cross from the same set to keep defenses guessing between play-action shots and the quick strong side breaking concepts
Against man coverage, key the dig route defender before the snap since a linebacker in man on the Z receiver almost always loses on the crossing route
