The Smash Concept

The Smash Concept The “Smash Concept” is a common passing

game concept at all levels of football from the NFL to high school. It is often thought

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of as a “cover 2 beater” but with a few route adjustments can be effective against

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almost any coverage. The Smash Concept

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involves an outside receiver running a Stop

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route (a.k.a. Hitch) with an inside receiver F

running a Corner route (a.k.a. Smash or

The Smash Concept

Flag). The stop involves three big, driving, hard up-field steps as if you are go ing deep followed by two short steps as you sink your hips to stop the route. The fifth step sticks the o utside foot in the ground and the Wr t urns inside toward the ball showing his numbers to the Qb. The primary purpose of this routes is to hold the Db, t he corner, low so we can throw the Smash and then to work lateral to stay open or get open. The Smash route involves a 12 yard stem up the seam and an inside foot plant breaking FS

the route to the corner (on an angle to go out of bounds at about 25 yards from the M

line of scrimmage). This route combination E

creates a vertical stretch of the Corner in

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the outside third.

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Sandbox

Sandbox Rule

We teach “Concept Passing.” This means

that we teach our receivers and our quarterbacks to understand the spacing of the routes and how they stress the defense. This allows us to r un many variations and for our athletes to play multiple Wr positions, as long as they know the concept being run.

We teach “Sandbox Rules.” In any concept we

have two or three areas where we expect/need a Wr to be for proper spacing to create a vertical or horizontal stretch of the defense. In the Smash Concept we have a low Sandbox 5 to 6 yards deep at

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the numbers. We have a deep Sandbox at about 20 to 25 yards at the numbers. We

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need a Wr in each of these Sandboxes at the end of their routes. Understanding the concept of the sandboxes allows us to r un variations such as “Switch” where the

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Switch - Sandbox Rule

inside and outside Wr’s switch routes. The

outside Wr running a Smash must them

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inside (burst release) to 5 yards, t hen up the seam before breaking to the corner (and finding the sandbox). In order to get

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to his sandbox, the inside Wr must r un a

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Zip (Speed Out) instead of a Stop since the

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Stop route would not put him in his F

sandbox.

Route Adjustment vs. 2 High Safeties

Route Adjustments Both the Smash and the Stop routes will adjust slightly based upon the defensive coverage. -Versus 2 high safeties (Cover 2 or Cover 4) the Smash route will adjust its stem. The Smash receiver will FS

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stem to 10 yards and then stick his

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outside foot breaking to the post for 2 steps. On the second step he will M E

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stick his inside foot and break to the E

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Corner. The Qb may throw the

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Smash Wr open by delivering the

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ball a little short and outside to

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Cover 4 (4 Deep)

throw the ball away from the hash safety. Cover 4 will not allow the Qb

to deliver the ball to the Smash Wr because of the drop of the corner. Cover 2 will hold the corner in the flats allowing the Smash to be open. -Versus a Cover 2 corner the Stop route will adjust. A Cover 2 corner will play outside leverage anywhere from press to 5 yards FS

deep. The corner will attempt to jam the Wr

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and then play the flats. He will be in our sand box, on our back. The Wr will execute a Stop

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route but he will shorten the stem and run a delayed slant after hitching up, running away from the coverage behind the OLB toward

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the hash looking for a window for the Qb to deliver the ball through.

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Route Adjustment vs. Cover 2

-Versus man coverage both Wr’s will adjust their routes. The Smash Wr will work a move to get quick, clean outside

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release. He will stack the ILB/Db covering him and shorten his stem to 8-9 yards M

sticking his inside foot and giving a good head/shoulder fake when breaking to

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the post. As with Cover 2, the Qb may

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throw him open by throwing a little short

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and outside. The Stop Wr will change his

Route Adjustment vs. Man-1

route entirely. A Stop will not get open against man coverage so we will run a route that will hold the cor ner low, out of the Smash route, while also allowing the Stop Wr to g et open giving the Qb an option to throw the ball to one of 2 Wr’s on that side. The FS

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Stop Wr a “man -slant.” Instead of

taking the usual 3 step stem, which won’t get us open versus man, the

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Wr will square his feet and work an

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outside fake as he works his hands

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and feet to get an inside release and

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cross the corners face. Look for the

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Route Adjustment vs. Man-2

ball as soon as you cross the corners face and continue slanting toward

the hash running away from the coverage of the corner. Another good option versus man that may be tagged by the coach is the Pivot route. For the Pivot route the Wr will start with the man-Slant to 5 yards and then pivot back outside to his original sandbox.

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Front-Side/Backside vs. Mirror M

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were mirrored. Both sides run the Smash

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Concept and get to their sandboxes. We also run the concept as Front-side/Backside plays. To the call side we will run t he Smash

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Pivot tag vs. Man

Concept exactly as described above including all of the route adjustments. To the backside we run a complimentary route that will take advantage of the defense when t hey over-play the Smash to the play-side. We can tag any number of route combinations to the backside but our automatic is a Seam-read (a.k.a. Tube route) and a Dig route.

The inside Wr runs the Seam-read. He will run up the hash to a depth of 10 yards. If the hash is open (there is no safety on the hash) he will continue up the hash. If the FS

hash is closed (there is a safety on the hash) he will stick his outside foot and M

break to the post. Out of trips, the third Wr will execute the Seam-read from the play-

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side.

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The outside Wr will inside release to 5

Play-side/Backside

yards then climb to a depth of 13-15 yards,

sink his hips and plant his outside foot to level off and flatte n out across the field.

Qb Thought Process The Qb will take a 5-step drop (3 from gun) and read the throwing lane. If no defender compresses the

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throwing lane from underneath (the M E

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corner) nor from the inside (the

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safety), he will deliver the ball to

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the smash. Versus a hash safety he

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will throw the Smash open throwing

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the ball a little short and outside to make it harder for the safety to play

the ball. If the corner drops deep under the Smash the Qb will hitch up and find the Hitch Wr who is working to get open versus various coverage techniques described above. If the safety compresses t he throwing lane from the inside and overplays the Smash, the Qb will hitch up and throw the Seam-read/Dig combinations. If the play-side safety overplays the Smash, we have the backside

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safety in a 2 on 1 situation. M

Roll-Out E

When we roll out to this concept we alter

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the Stop route to improve timing. We will F

have the Stop Wr run a Check route (a.k.a. Comeback route) or the Pivot route described above. The backside inside Wr will also change his ro ute to a Drag. Sometimes we will tag the Check route as a “Dupe” telling both outside Wr’s in trips to run a Check. The Check route is run just like

a fade to a depth of 15 yards and which point the Wr t hrows up his outside hand as if the ball is coming and then sinks his hips and sticks his inside foot to open to the outside and comeback toward the ball to about 1312 yards. The Qb will deliver the ball short and outside forcing the Wr to

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come to the ball so that the Db can’t make the play.

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Roll-Out, Check

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Roll-Out, Pivot Tag

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Roll-Out, Dupe Tag

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