Playbooks
Quick Reference
In 2 playbooks
Breakdown
Double Slant is a quick-hitting man beater out of the Strong I Slot formation with 21 personnel. The slot receiver and the outside receiver on the left both run slant routes that cross into the middle of the field, while the outside receiver on the right runs a wheel route up the sideline to clear out and hold the deep defender. The primary read progression starts with the inside slant, works to the outside slant if the underneath defender jumps the shorter route, and only goes to the wheel if the defense rotates coverage hard to the slant side.
Defensive Reads
Pre-snap, check safety depth and corner alignment on the slant side. Soft corners or two-high shells invite an easy completion on the inside slant. Post-snap, watch for a user-controlled linebacker sitting in the short middle zone, since that defender can undercut both slants if he reads the quarterback's eyes early. Cover 3 with a hard-sitting Mike linebacker in the shallow zone is the toughest shell to beat, since it clogs the crossing lanes for both slants. If the defense runs man coverage with no safety help over the top, the wheel route can become a big-play outlet against a linebacker or slower defender in man. Watch for blitz packages that bring extra pressure off the slant side edge, since the quick slant timing is designed to beat pressure before it arrives, but a delayed blitz can still disrupt the throwing lane.
Usage Tips
Fire the inside slant quickly against man coverage since the crossing angle creates natural separation from press corners.
Use the wheel route as a coverage-shell indicator: if a safety or corner follows it deep, that confirms man coverage and tells you to trust the slants underneath.
Hot route the outside slant into a quick out if you see hard inside leverage from the corner, since that keeps the route away from a jumping linebacker.
This play works best on second and short or third and short since the slants convert quickly and do not require a deep window.
Pair Double Slant with Curl Flat or China Special from the same set to keep the defense guessing between quick slant concepts and deeper curl-flat reads, forcing linebackers to hesitate on their zone drops.
