Oregon State Football vs. Colorado State: Breaking down the film

Oregon State’s offensive scheme

The Beavers’ offense consists of many sets: three receivers, they use tight ends, two backs, etc. The star is running back Ryan Nall and they run an almost Tecmo Super Bowl like series scheme where each play has its counter and play-action.

Check out the inside zone read from a formation with an H-Back type. The H-Back kicks the outside linebacker in case the quarterback pulls. This will open up an alley for the quarterback to run inside.

Next you have a fake jet sweep, the H-Back to the left of the formation will split flow and run into the flat. The quarterback only has to avoid the defensive end long enough to dump it off to him.

Why do coaches use series schemes? It masks the play that you’re running and gives you great compliments. If you want to run zone read, you can get the linebackers’ eyes off your tailback and quarterback by using jet motion and faking jet. This will open up the jet sweep but also its play-action counterpart.

For example, see the the diagram below of the jet sweep. It looks eerily similar to the jet play-action. That’s so that the linebackers have less to key on. As an inside linebacker (M and W in the diagram) I’m keying on the cross back (the running back across from me). The Mike Linebacker will be looking at the H-Back and as he runs split flow his guard then tells him it’s a zone scheme. What he doesn’t see is the slot (A) get the sweep.

On the jet play-action (below), the Mike linebacker is again watching the cross back (H-Back). He gets split flow again and the guard gives him a zone read again, so he thinks it’s a run. Little does he know it’ll be a fake jet. As the quarterback boots right he’s looking to dump the ball to the H-Back in the flat, where the Sam linebacker vacates when the slot (A) motions and the mike linebacker won’t help because he’s expecting run.

Oregon State’s defensive scheme

Oregon State employs the stand up defensive ends in an even front that I hate. But a lot of defensive coordinators are using it to be able to drop them into coverage or rush them. It enables them to have them up against zone read for better vision of the ball.