Short yardage is such an important situation to convert. 3rd and 1, 4th and Inches, 4th and Goal at the 1 – These are all situations where we typically see the biggest and most physical players brought onto the field to create a crease for the ball carrier to get those crucial yards.
I have coached for a long time in an offensive system with a very physical fullback lined up 3-4 yards behind the quarterback. This typically makes for very good conversions in these situations. Simply block the front line, get a piece of the playside linebackers and let the fullback do the rest. Sometimes we even get lucky and the fullback will pop through and run for a touchdown since the line has been packed with defenders in these situations.
The reason I bring this up about hitting the hole hard and quick is an example I saw in a 2020 Troy vs Georgia Southern game where this lack of timing cost Georgia Southern a turnover on downs. Take a look.
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Bummer. I hate to see an unsuccessful short yardage conversion. I looked up Georgia Southern’s 4th down conversion percentage here for 2020 and they were 90th in FBS going 8 for 17 for a 0.471 percentage. Getting this one would have put them over 0.5 for the year!
There is a very simple reason why this play failed. The tailback hit the hole Hard, but did not hit the hole Quick. The formation being used is a power eye formation set to the right with double tight ends. The offense does not have to run to the right on this, but typically on very short yardage you just keep it simple and run downhill.
The blocking is simple and is done very well by the Georgia Southern offense. The right side of the line blocks down towards the center and forms a wall there. The two fullbacks then block anybody out to the right. This should form a crease in the D gap and produce a first down. The line does their job perfectly. The fullbacks take a path that is too wide, but they do get the needed kickout block. But if the blocking is really good how does the offense not pick up 1 yard?
The reason is because the tailback delays at the snap. If this was an I-back ISO play, then a little delay is ok by the tailback, but this is a blast type play. In this blast play the tailback should stay on the inside hip of the left fullback and not look to bounce or do any cutbacks. With inside zone and outside zone, cutbacks and looking for creases is what we want a running back to do. With zone running we might tell the tailback to ‘Press’ the hole and then ‘Accelerate’ through it. But this is not zone running. This is a blast play where the running back must accelerate immediately and attack the crease between the offensive line’s downblocks and the fullback kickout blocks.
Because who makes the play? The back-side linebacker #2. A back-side linebacker should never have the time to get to the running back on a blast play for a zero yard gain. Pause the play at 16 seconds into the video. The running back at this point should be 1 yard behind his kick-out block with only the safety who can make the tackle, but instead he is almost 4 yards behind his blockers. At 16 seconds #2 is trying to scrape over the top, but he should be too late. If the running back were in the right positions would make that play-side safety miss, this play might go for a touchdown.
Now for a great example of the timing of how this play should work if the running back hits the hole Hard and Quick.
I coached at Litchfield, Minnesota for 10 years and I love how one of our area high school teams Albany would run this play to perfection.
I am sorry that I cannot embed this as it is not a YouTube video, but please go to this link. It is the New London Spicer vs Albany game, which is quite a rivalry in Minnesota. Then forward to 19:15 and pause it. Albany is in white and has just scored so they are going for 2. They come out in an unbalanced formation right, but they have the same power-eye set to the right like Georgia Southern did. Now watch the tail back explode at the snap and stay tight to his fullbacks. He hits the hole Quick and gets to the end zone untouched. His left fullback actually blocks the wrong way as his eyes should be looking to kick out, but the right fullback does such a good job on his kickout block that it is an easy 2 point conversion. Watching Albany run this on film is a lot of fun. Watching them use it when you are the opponent is not fun. 🙂
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