Big Green Right West V motion Explode to Viking Left RB Fly 97 Waco Y Whip

I am back again with another cool play. This one reminded my a lot of my old days as we abused shifts and motions almost to a fault. It became super hard to balance using trickery and making it difficult to actually identify the defense. I wanted to bring this play up for multiple reasons as it utilizes some unique shifts and motions but also that it resembles a 2pt play instead of a true 1st and goal play. By this I mean I believe they actually pulled this off their call sheet from the 2pt play sheet not just their goal line call sheet area. This is important because teams often go into games with only 2 unique 2pt conversion plays that they believe are near automatics to score. When people talk about stats on who teams should go for 2 more I believe these “automatics” screw up the numbers because you don’t have 50 of these plays per week, so the more you run the worse you will be at it. Would love to go through some discussion about this in the comments.

Also I changed up the formatting a little bit and it took me a little bit longer. Let me know if you like this better or not. Just want to make best possible content I can for you guys.

EDIT Thanks to user /u/skepticismissurvival he informed me that this was another layer on top of a previously used goal line play. Against the Browns they handed off the fly sweep and the Y does go all the way to the other side. This adds to the panic of the MIKE and SAM because they think they have seen this before. Thanks again for helping me out fellas. Here is the GIF of the play:

Vikings TD vs Browns Similar shift and motion

TL;DR

• Big People personnel and show traditional goal line formation
• Motion out and find its man coverage
• Shift to confuse LBs and defense on who to cover and follow
• Fly Sweep with RB to bring eyes and flow of the play away from primary target
• Zig motion and fake block by Y for easy touchdown

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Thanks to /u/Booshea for pointing this out to me

EDIT 2 PAT SHURMUR AT IT AGAIN!! Week 11 we saw the third iteration of what will now just call “Explode” package (get your jokes in while you can). This time it was not used on the GL but instead in a SY situation. Also from my viewing I do not believe anyone was fooled on defense. I think having the FB motion out was confusing in the previous times it was run. The best advantage you got from the play was that the Line was able to run “Wedge” style where everyone just blocks their inside gap. Most often seen on QB sneaks. The Fly sweep held the backside edge defender well enough to where you weren’t wasting a blocker outside. IDK if this would even have an affect on the play but its a nice thought. No LBS flowed with RB and no one was faked out by the pirouette of the Y. THIS IS ACTUALLY GOOD NEWS for Vikings fans. Your coordinator has proven capable of making schematic advantages for the offense, that’s good. But in the playoffs the game is often just won by the players making plays, you can only hurt your team in a lot of ways. We saw both OC’s in the superbowl call terrible second halves but players on the NE side were able to make some big plays when needed.

This play may seem insignificant but your OL won this battle in Week 11 1st quarter…but against Aaron Donald. This should give confidence in not just your ability to scheme up a good play but also know Pat Elflein and the boys in the middle can win when called upon. Anyways heres the play:

Explode to Viking Left FB Dive

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TL;DR

-Big People personnel and show traditional goal line formation

-Motion out and find its man coverage

-Shift to confuse LBs and defense on who to cover and follow

-Fly Sweep with RB to bring eyes and flow of the play away from primary target

-Zig motion and fake block by Y for easy touchdown

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TV Copy with Sound

Full Breakdown Vid

Like I will try to do each week we will start off with the TV copy to see what the play looked like in real time. Its 1st and goal from the 1 and the clock is rolling. Vikings have all 3 timeouts but they choose not to use it. They rush up to the ball and run a play that is more like 2pt conversion than a normal goal line play. 2 motions and a shift all involved just to run a play that is installed in the playbook week 1. 2pt plays are often very specific types of trick plays to confuse the defense like this.

It is this combination of 2pt type play, and overall creativity presnap that made me want to break down this play.

First Motion

First motion David Morgan TD Lets dive deeper into how we come up with the name of the play and overall responsibilities.

Big (forgot on picture)= Closed backside by TE Green=FB behind QB with RB behind him Right=Y go to the Right West=V in west position off ball

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V motion=Motion outside Explode to Viking = Y Zig motion, RB to Right Slot, FB to Left West

Explode is the word used to describe tons of people moving around in different directions. you can do different things to get to the final position and that’s why its “TO” something. Another big difference between a motion and a shift is a shift you always ending up in another formation

Viking is the name i gave the unique formation they used on this play. It could be something like Empty Big West Left Slot but they probably never use this formation again. Better off just giving it a random one word name as this is probably a non repeater.

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RB Fly=Fly sweep motion, run through the mesh point 97 Waco=Fake outside zone left bootleg out right

FINALLY we get to the play. And its one of the most basic ones. It swaps out the fake to the RB from the 9 position (basic line up under center spot, where he starts in the clip) and uses fly sweep action to get the similar eye candy for LBs.

The first motion is a basic tell. Often teams will motion the V (third TE) out and get 1 on 1 to run a fade. here we have the corner go out with him. Sometimes this is the match up you want with Kyle “Big Country” Rudolph out there vs a smaller Josh Norman but that can be used later, we gotta do more window dressing.

Explode to Viking Left

Here is the explode shift. Y acts like hes shifting across the formation but he “Zigs” back to his original location. With high stakes of end of half, rushing the ball, and it being on the one people are scatter brained on defense. They are trying to keep track of who they have man and they lose track.

At the start the MIKE has the RB but when he motions out he knows the SAM is supposed to take him. The SAM gets caught up in the Y zig and then his eyes are taken to the F going into West Left. MIKE yells at SAM and is pointing to the Y screaming “WHO’s HERE , WHO’s HERE!?!?!” . But like all jobs MIKE needs to do his and he stays concentrated on the RB going into the slot. That has his guy originally and he can’t get yelled at if he does “his job”… Also its better to cover the rb then the 3rd TE…

What needs to happen here is communicate better. MIKE needs to physically grab SAM as he is trying to come across the formation. Dude is clearly lost and needs help. Who cares what it looks like just get everyone right.

Fly Sweep into Touchdown

Final wrinkle is the fly motion. Lots of teams have been utilizing this on the 1 yard line/goal line situations and it draws everyone’s eyes. Teams are looking not at just their opponents games but games across the league as well. Vikings know this and use it to their advantage. So many players from the Redskins are out of position.
Y does a good job still selling the block before he Whips out to the flat. QB has to just beat 1 man and get the ball over Kerrigans the DE hands.

This play was over right at the explode to shift. It got the main LBS confused and they were running around with their heads cut off. My big takeaway here is that teammates need to hold each other accountable and make it a big deal to be in the right spots. It’s not enough to just point it out, you have to get everyone right.

So TL;DR

-Big People personnel and show traditional goal line formation

-Motion out and find its man coverage

-Shift to confuse LBs and defense on who to cover and follow

-Fly Sweep with RB to bring eyes and flow of the play away from primary target

-Zig motion and fake block by Y for easy touchdown