Clay Mathews on how to stop read option: "Hit the QB"

[Rockport]

True however RGIII big hits he took happened because he went for the extra yardage instead of getting out of bounds or sliding feet first and we all know you can't hit the QB if he gets out of bounds or gives himself up on the play by sliding. Now if RGIII wants to be RB tough then your right he will not last long

Trust me, defenses saw the success with the RO, pistol or whatever you want to call the option play and had all offseason to figure out how the counteract it. It's going to be an intersting year.

 

[Doomsday101]

The QB has to read the unblocked defender before he decides what he's going to do. That takes time. So while the QB figures out what he will do, he's a runner and fair game to get hit. If the QB pitches the ball well before the defender arrives, then it's no longer the RO, but a simple pitch, and the QB can't be hit. But it's a READ option because the QB has to READ what the defender will do. That takes time. And that puts the QB at risk and the defense has to take advantage of that by hitting him.

He is making the pitch of keeping it off 1st movement of the outside lineman or LB one that outside man moves off the snap the QB will be able to determine to pitch or keep or then again drop back and pass since he is not getting pressure from that outside defensive lineman. The whole thing with the pistol is the fact that pitch is made very quickly at the snap that is why NFL head coaches will run this opposed to running the old option. These NFL HC and OC are not stupid and they know the pistol will allow the option from the QB with little risk

 

[big dog cowboy]

Clay Mathews on how to stop read option: "Hit the QB"

Isn't that true for any offense system?

 

[khiladi]

Trust me, defenses saw the success with the RO, pistol or whatever you want to call the option play and had all offseason to figure out how the counteract it. It's going to be an intersting year.

Seattle already did...

 

[Doomsday101]

Trust me, defenses saw the success with the RO, pistol or whatever you want to call the option play and had all offseason to figure out how the counteract it. It's going to be an intersting year.

Not saying it will not be interesting but the pistol is not old time option that QB is not allowing the defender to get on him before he pitches it is pitched well ahead of time and again that is why NFL HC will run it vs running the old option, no coach in his right mind would run the old time option with a multi million dollar QB what they are running is not the same.

 

[FiveRings]

Yep, hit the QB and you either take him down for a short to no gain, or you force a pitch/hand-off, and that too works the play back even further.

 

[Doomsday101]

Seattle already did...

Not really since Washington was not running the pistol that day with RGIII already hurt from an injury that took place while scrambling in the back field on a pass play and Cousin is not running out of the pistol formation.

 

[Everlastingxxx]

Pretty lame that the only solution is to hurt their QB. How about come up with a scheme to counter it? That is what makes football fun. The masterminds behind the schemes. When run with the right personnel, the RO looks unstoppable. Hopefully our 125 year old d-coordinator has one more scheme up his butt.

 

[Rockport]

Not saying it will not be interesting but the pistol is not old time option that QB is not allowing the defender to get on him before he pitches it is pitched well ahead of time and again that is why NFL HC will run it vs running the old option, no coach in his right mind would run the old time option with a multi million dollar QB what they are running is not the same.

You're right that it's not the same. But I feel that defensive coordinators around the league have done some serious homework on this and will be able to defeat it this year. This happens all the time with these gimmick offenses.

 

[Direwolf63]

Pretty lame that the only solution is to hurt their QB. How about come up with a scheme to counter it? That is what makes football fun. The masterminds behind the schemes. When run with the right personnel, the RO looks unstoppable. Hopefully our 125 year old d-coordinator has one more scheme up his butt.

Well he certainly couldn't stop it at USC when he faced Oregan.

 

[Doomsday101]

The QB has to read the unblocked defender before he decides what he's going to do. That takes time. So while the QB figures out what he will do, he's a runner and fair game to get hit. If the QB pitches the ball well before the defender arrives, then it's no longer the RO, but a simple pitch, and the QB can't be hit. But it's a READ option because the QB has to READ what the defender will do. That takes time. And that puts the QB at risk and the defense has to take advantage of that by hitting him.

This is not about taking a "free shot" at the QB. It's about hitting him when he is a runner.

And thus the Pistol is not taking the QB outside that pitch is made well before that time. That is why NFL coaches run it. You guys are talking like this is old time option it isn't it is not close to the same thing. where one defender has the QB and the other the pitch man.

 

[Hoofbite]

Must suck to be a QB because your genetically predisposed to not be able to take hits

 

[Doomsday101]

You're right that it's not the same. But I feel that defensive coordinators around the league have done some serious homework on this and will be able to defeat it this year. This happens all the time with these gimmick offenses.

1st off I don't see it as a gimmic offense at all but I do agree that any offense can be stopped but normally the keys are the same be it pistol, west coast or any other offense.

 

[Doomsday101]

I will say that vs washington it is not RGIII or the pistol that concerns me is it the zone blocking and using cut back lanes that Shannhan has ran for years with success in places like Denver. You get defense over pursuing leaving cut back lanes and that is where Morris got most of his yards.

 

[khiladi]

Not really since Washington was not running the pistol that day with RGIII already hurt from an injury that took place while scrambling in the back field on a pass play and Cousin is not running out of the pistol formation.

I'd dispute that, i.e. Seattle just just him down after they switched to man, even though the beginning lead wasn't a domination as some like believe. But that is an argument that would take some time.

 

[Teague31]

On The Ticket a couple of weeks ago, Goose said that the Ravens showed the formula on how to beat the read option. They have a player on D whose only responsibility is hit the QB every time he runs with the ball. Don't go for the fakes, ball pitches, and the like. Just go as hard as you can and destroy the QB every single time. Goose said that the other teams in the league took note.

Bruce Carter

 

[Doomsday101]

I'd dispute that, i.e. Seattle just just him down after they switched to man. But that is an argument that would take some time.

You could dispute it if you want but fact is RGIII was already injured and Washington was not running much out of the pistol and when Cousins comes in he is not running it. Washington and Shannahan will run the same offense he did in Denver which is a lot of zone blocking and RB hitting the backside cut back lanes. Seattle did a very good job of penatrating the back field but then they did that vs a lot of teams. It is easy to say this is the key and another thing getting it done.

 

[khiladi]

The Commanders scored 14 points, so to say RG3 was injured which prevented them from running their offense is anecdotal. Plus, Seattle spotted the Commanders really good field position on the second drive. After those two drives by the Commanders, RG3 was shut down, one of them, he threw a horrible INT that the safety read from the get go.

I agree though, that was a simplified offense that Shanny was running. He is probably going in the direction of Denver.

 

[Doomsday101]

The Commanders scored 14 points, so to say RG3 was injured which prevented them from running their offense is anecdotal. Plus, Seattle spotted the Commanders really good field position on the second drive. After those two drives by the Commanders, RG3 was shut down, one of them, he threw a horrible INT that the safety read from the get go.

RGIII was hurt, he was hurt during the Dallas game as well. Stopping the skins that day had nothing to do with the pistol formation because Washington did not run much out of the pistol as they had before because RGIII was hurt.
Seahawks played a very good game no disputing that but not what the thread was really about which was stopping the pistol

 

[xwalker]

In the read-option, the QB "reads" the DE (OLB in 3-4). If the DE takes a step outside to contain the QB, then the QB hands off. If the DE takes a step inside to contain the RB, then the QB keeps the ball and moves to the outside with the option to run or pass.

In theory, the DE is always wrong because he made his move before the hand-off or lack of hand-off.

There have been many articles about how college defenses handle the RO. My understanding is that the most successful college defenses had a pre-snap call that determined how the DE would handle the play. If the other 10 defenders know ahead of time that the DE will be following the QB, then they basically know that the RB will get the ball and vice-versa.

If the DE always follows the QB, then the RB will continually get the ball against a defense that basically has 1 man less (the DE) than they would against a normal running play. The reason for the pre-snap defensive call is to keep the offensive from knowing which action the DE will take.

Another thing that the successful college defenses do is to have the DE fake his action. The DE could fake his 1st step to the inside and immediately move back outside to chase the QB. At this point, it can become a timing game between the DE and the QB. If the QB makes his "read" to early, then the DE's fake could be more successful.

In the NFL, they have announced that once the QB keeps the ball in the read-option, he is then considered a RB not a QB and is no longer operating under QB protection rules.