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Breakdown
PA Curls out of Strong I Close (21 personnel) opens with a play-action fake to sell the run before the QB works his progression. The diagram shows a three-level curl concept to the left: the outermost receiver runs a deep curl breaking back toward the sideline, the middle receiver sits down on a shorter curl, and the third route bends underneath and out to the flat. On the right side, the single receiver runs a deep vertical seam up the numbers. Blocking backs stay in to sell the run fake, making this a play-action zone beater designed to hold linebackers and safeties for a beat while the curls settle into soft spots against zone drops, with the vertical seam serving as a big-play answer if the safety bites on the play fake.
Defensive Reads
Pre-snap, identify if the defense is showing two-high safeties or a single-high shell. Two-high alignments make the vertical seam route riskier but open up the curl window against soft zone. Watch for linebackers cheating up into run fits before the snap. Overaggressive run keys mean the curls will sit down right in the vacated zone. Post-snap, track any user-controlled lurk defender sitting in the shallow zone, since he can jump the flat route or shallow curl if the QB stares it down. This concept struggles against man coverage with a deep safety over the top, since the vertical seam gets taken away and the curls have less natural separation against tight man technique. Look for Cover 3 or Cover 4 zone shells with linebackers dropping late, since the curl routes are built to exploit the soft spot between the underneath zone and the deep zone defenders.
Usage Tips
Use this on early downs like 1st or 2nd and medium when the defense expects run out of Strong I personnel, since the play-action fake carries more weight against run-heavy fronts.
Check the safety depth before the snap. If both safeties creep down expecting run, take the shot on the vertical seam route immediately off the play-action fake.
Against zone coverage, work the curl progression from deep to shallow: read the deepest curl first, then work down to the flat route underneath if the deep curls are covered.
Hot route the flat route into a quick out or speed out against man coverage teams that like to squat underneath, since the natural curl breaks can get jumped by aggressive corners.
Pair this with HB Dive or HB Off Tackle earlier in a series to sell the run fake harder, then hit PA Curls once the defense starts keying on run action from Strong I Close.
