We all love midline triple and getting out to the edge. But what about good old midline with just the double read? Either a sweet give with the FB hitting the hole quicker than you can blink, or the QB pulling the ball and getting vertical in a huge gap that magically appears in the middle of the line. Midline is so simple and hits so fast.
We have seen the many ways we can run midline out of the flexbone. I think FlexboneNation does a wonderful job on their site of laying out all of the base midline options from the Flexbone formation along with some great tag words. In this article I want to give a couple of other ideas to spice up your midline menu.
Idea #1: Run Midline out of a Tight Formation
We are all used to running our midline play out of Flexbone with the wide receivers being split out like this. The receivers end up blocking the corners and the safeties in the red boxes are left pretty free to step up and fill on the run.
But bringing the receivers in tight gives a whole bunch of other blocking options. One of these blocking options is to have these wide receivers go to block the safeties instead of the corners. Safeties are typically better tackles so blocking a safety rather than a corner can be a good change in tactics. Also, it is very hard for a corner to even make a tackle on midline since the fullback and quarterback are getting so vertical on most plays. So the same play above with a Flexbone Tight formation would look like this with the receivers blocking the safeties in those red boxes.
Idea #2: Run Midline with a Tight End
There are many things that bringing a tight end into the game can do for you. In the most simple sense, if your tight end is one of your best 11 players, then you want him in the game. A good blocking tight end can do a lot of blocks on midline to open up big holes. Bringing in a tight end might also force a defense into playing their ‘3’ to the TE side. The defense might also like to widen out their defensive end from a ‘5’ to a ‘6i’ or ‘7’, which can make the QB’s pull/keep hole very large. Let’s see how that can look if the DE widens out to a 7 technique.
So above we had a 4×4 defense that always puts their ‘3’ to the TE side. The blue square is there to show the B gap players who is being read in the midline play. Maybe I decided to put the TE in to the short side since my best tackle is over there and the defense’s best ‘5’ tech / DE is on our left to the field. I have now gotten some of my best players against the defense’s weaker players and we have a better chance of success.
Beyond having the TE block ‘out’ to control ‘D’ gap as in the above image, we could also have him fold back inside under the tackle’s block switching responsibility with the A back. Why would we do that? Well, maybe you are running midline on short yardage / goal line and you want to make sure you get a big body of a TE on a physical inside linebacker. I have played with A backs who are 135 pounds and you have to be careful with who you ask them to block. Here is how that fold block by the TE would look. The tackle blocks out first and then the TE steps behind him and works vertical to the play-side ILB. Have the TE take an angle down the line first and then work vertical, just like your A back would do. The TE does not want the ILB to scrape under his block.
Idea #3: Run out of Unbalanced Formations
Unbalanced formations can cause a defense to shift not enough or too much giving the offense an advantage. Some defenses will only shift their secondary leaving the box the same. When the defense does this they might be rolling their safeties down to cover up the TE or Receiver who is covered up. If one of the safeties is making the play a lot on midline, a formation like this can get him to not be in position to make a tackle when your B Back or QB gets vertical. It might look like this with a 4×3 defense. Notice how the SS, who might be the defenses best tackler, has been removed from the typical running lanes of the B back and QB.
Also running out of an unbalanced formation might cause the defense to adjust their defensive line by 1 whole player by sliding the defensive line. This definitely gets the numbers balanced for the defense, but it can also put defensive players in a position they are not used to playing. A defensive end who almost always lines up in a ‘5’ might now be lined up in a ‘3’. He might not have worked against midline in practice by watching a guard veer release, and he might not squeeze hard enough to take the B back resulting in a big play for the B back. It might look like this…
Idea #4: QB turns opposite way on a predetermined pull Read
Inside linebackers will typically start flowing very hard to wherever the B back is headed. Head to the B back, then onto the QB, then finally pursue to the pitch is what is in a linebacker’s head. So to give them a bit of a counter have your QB open up the opposite way if you know it is going to be a pull read. When I teach midline to my QB/B back, if there is not B gap player and there is an A gap player then we are going to automatically pull the ball and have the QB run up B gap.
I typically would want to run inside veer against this since the B gap is open, but midline is a viable play if you have a physical offense or just want a safe play.
I might see this scenario against a 4×3 defense that is playing 2is in both A gaps very consistently. Maybe it is late in the game and I simply want my QB keeping the ball with no read. Maybe I am at the 1 yard line and just want to pound the ball into the end zone. Just have the QB pull it and follow his B back and two A gaps up into the line.
I might also see this against a 4×4 team that is running a 2i or 1 technique to the weak side. Again, I might simply want my QB to follow everybody up the hole after doing a nice fake to the B back.
I do teach my B back in this scenario of an ‘auto-keep’ to say vertical behind the center. I do not need him to block in B gap. I want him to attract attention right up the middle so B gap opens up better.
So we could surely have our QB open up the ‘normal way’ looking playside and keep the ball. But we could also have our QB open up the opposite way and after the fake to the B back then work behind himself into the B gap. I have taught QBs to either simply turn and drop-step into the line or to do a little spin backwards and turn into the line.
Again, the point here is that the ILBs might start leaning too far because they are watching the QB / B Back combination for indications as to which direction the play is headed.
Thanks for reading!
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