Playbooks
Bench out of Singleback Doubles South is a classic ladder concept designed to attack zone coverage horizontally while giving you a built in high low read against man. The outside receiver runs a corner or bench route to clear the flat while the underneath receiver sits on a flat or curl, stacking the sideline from top to bottom. Your primary read starts with the flat defender: if he sinks with the corner route, throw underneath to the flat man, if he stays low, work the bench route over the top for a bigger chunk gain.
Identify two high safety shells before the snap, Cover 2 and Cover 4 will bracket the corner route so be ready to check down to the flat instead of forcing the deep ball Watch the flat defender's first two steps after the snap, if he widens with the flat route the window opens up top for the bench route, if he sits the underneath throw is there Beware of a user controlled defender sitting in the flat trying to jump the shorter route, if you see a defender staying home in that zone on consecutive snaps switch to the opposite hot route or check into a different concept Cover 3 with a hard sink from the corner will squeeze the throwing window on the bench route, in that case take the underneath option quickly before the flat defender can undercut it Man coverage with an overaggressive underneath defender jumping routes can be beaten by double moves, so if you see linebackers biting hard on short routes look to exploit the space behind them on the corner route
Use Bench on second and medium to second and long when you expect zone drops from Cover 3 or Cover 4 shells since the ladder concept stresses the flat to deep quarter defender every time
Check the cornerback depth pre snap, if he is playing off at seven or more yards you have room to sit the underneath route and let the route develop before working vertical
Hot route your running back into a check release or flat route on the opposite side to give yourself an outlet if the primary read side gets jumped by a robber or lurk defender
Pair this play with HB Draw or Stick Spacing in your play calling sequence, running Bench off early down zone drops sets up defenders to overplay the flat and opens the corner route on a hard count later in the series
Against man coverage look immediately to the corner route winning off the break, if your receiver stacks the corner in man you should throw with anticipation before the safety can rotate over