Playbooks

RZ PA Crossers

Singleback·Wing Pair·13

Quick Reference

FormationSingleback

In 2 playbooks

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Breakdown

RZ PA Crossers is a play-action pass out of Singleback Wing Pair designed specifically for compressed red zone throwing windows. The play-fake holds linebackers and safeties for a beat while crossing routes work opposite directions over the middle, creating natural rub action against man coverage and stretching zone defenders horizontally in a shrunken field. Your primary read starts with the near crosser working underneath, then progresses to the far crosser breaking into the vacated space, with the play-action mesh point buying just enough time to hit the second window if the first is jumped.

Defensive Reads

Man coverage with tight red zone spacing gets exposed hardest here because the crossing routes create natural traffic that separates receivers from their defenders. Watch the play side linebacker at the snap, if he steps up hard on the fake he cannot recover to wall off the underneath crosser. Cover 3 or Cover 1 with a deep middle robber can sit on the crossing routes and jump the throw, so be ready to check down to the play-action fake's leak route if the middle is clogged. Blitz packages that bring extra rushers off the edge will beat this play before the crossers develop, so identify pre-snap blitz tells like walked up safeties or overloaded fronts and get rid of the ball on the first available window. If the user controls a linebacker and sinks into the shallow crosser's lane immediately after the snap, abandon that route and climb the progression to the far side crosser instead.

Usage Tips

Call this play inside the 15 yard line where the shortened field turns crossing routes into layered picks rather than simple in-cuts.

Check for man coverage indicators like tight press alignment or a linebacker cheating toward the play-action fake, since the crossing action naturally loses man defenders in traffic.

If you see two deep safeties sitting still at the snap, that is a zone shell, so work the underneath crosser immediately before the shrunken field lets the shell close the window.

Pair this with PA X Burst Cross or PA TE Seam earlier in a series so defenders start jumping the play-action fake, then hit RZ PA Crossers when the defense sells out on run support.

Use manual motion or a hot route on the backside crosser to adjust spacing against Cover 2 if the flat defender is sitting too shallow.

Save this for third and short or first and goal situations where the defense is more likely to bring linebackers into the box for run support.

Other Plays in Wing Pair