Continuing with the theme of Flexbone Triple Option offense I will spend the next few entries talking about constraint plays to the Inside Veer, the bread and butter of the Flexbone offense. In my last post I looked at different ways that you can tag the Inside Veer play to take advantage of defensive alignment and other ways that they adjust to your main scheme. You can read that post here.
One of my favorite things about this offense is the if/then nature of play calling. Much like the Wing-T, the Flexbone has a systematic approach and an answer to just about everything that you will see from a defense.
One of my favorite constraint plays off of the Inside Veer play is just straight dive. This play is called when the inside linebacker is scraping over the top to take away the pitch phase of the Inside Veer. This play is only good when that linebacker is vacating his area. Because of this, you need one of two things if you’re running this offense. 1. A good spotter up in the box looking for the defense to be cheating somewhere (when I coached in this offense my only job as a box spotter was to watch what the linebackers were doing) or 2. A well coached offensive line that knows what to look for and understands what you want to do in terms of play calling.
In the diagram above you will see the dive play drawn up against a basic 4-3. Against this look we block the dive almost the exact same way we block our Inside Veer play.
BSA: Orbit Motion and carry out option fake
BST: Scoop
BSG: Scoop
C: Scoop
PSG: Base block
PST: Kick out #1 in our Inside Veer Option count
PSA: Block #2 in our option count (just like a Load Tag)
QB: Give to B-back and carry out triple option fake.
Where this play differs from inside veer is with the PST and the PSA. The playside tackle will kick out #1 instead of veer releasing. In terms of the playside A, what you do with him really depends on what #2 is doing. If he is flowing outside then you can arc release him just like the Load Tag. If he is staying home inside some teams will bring the PSA inside or even send him into a twirl motion to lead him up inside.
As already mentioned, the key to this play being successful is for the inside linebacker to be flowing over the top to take away the pitch phase of Inside Veer. Against the 4-3 we will be looking at the middle linebacker. In the Inside Veer you have two players accounting for him; the center in his scoop, and the tackle on his veer release. If those two come off the field and tell you that neither one of them can get to him (this means he’s scraping over the top) it is time to call the dive.
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