I FIRST BEGAN coaching an American football team in 2010 and, while Madden and years of watching the NFL had given me some idea of what type of coach I wanted to be, I generally bluffed my way through the first few training sessions.
I was, however, an avid reader of the game and scoured websites and forums looking for something that would differentiate Tullamore Phoenix from everyone else.
After some experimenting, along with the head coach, we eventually decided on a proto-triple option offence with the quarterback in the pistol position. On run plays any one of three things could happen. The full back could receive the football, one of the two running backs would take the hand-off or the QB could keep the ball and run himself.
This wasn’t close to being new, innovative or ground breaking, the option has been around for about 40 years, but it allowed me coach a team who had grown up playing rugby to focus on their core strength which was running the football.
That year we won the Irish American Football League’s second tier national championship with over 80% of our touchdowns coming on run plays.
A key part of that offence was coaching our QB to key in on particular defensive players and decide what to do based on their movements. A lot of our plays involved making it look as if one thing was happening before, as late as possible, changing the play after the snap.
Explosion
The option, specifically the read option has never really taken off in the NFL, despite the likes of Michael Vick having some success with it. The risk of injuring marquee players was generally seen as the reason why pro-coaches would run an offence that had been successful in the college game since the 70s.
Then, in 2011, the NFL and its players agreed a new collective bargaining agreement meaning teams would have to spend less on quarterbacks and, suddenly, 2012 saw a virtual explosion in option quarterbacks.
The likes of Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III ran rings around NFL defences who just couldn’t react in time to something they hadn’t seen since college.
This offseason, we’ve seen even more teams try to run it and it’s a measure of it’s effectiveness than even the Raiders looked like a real NFL team when Terrelle Pryor was running the option sub package in recent preseason games.
So what is the read option
Well, as already explained above, the option bit is who carries the football. It can be the quarterback, a full back or the running back. So far, so traditional NFL run offence.
The bit that makes the read option so difficult to defend against though is the read. When a quarterback takes the snap, he reads the actions of either a free defensive end or outside linebacker to see what the defensive player will do.
If that defender makes a play at the running back, the quarterback keeps the ball and runs himself. If the defender blitzes the QB, he hands the ball off and the RB has a natural gap through which to make a big gain.
And how do you defend it
Finer football minds than me have put their collective knowledge to work in trying to figure out how to defend the read option but nobody has come up with a magic bullet just yet.
One potential solution is for the defence to change up their responsibilities with the defensive end – typically assigned to going after the quarterback – instead trying to tackle the running back and some other player trying to sack the quarterback.
Another option for teams is try and hit the quarterback as hard as they can. RGIII proved last year that quarterbacks, despite getting bigger and stronger, will always be smaller than defensive players and, therefore, more likely to come out worse in any collision.
What does that mean for 2013?
Football has always been red in tooth and claw, the read option is just the latest stage in its continuing evolution. However, I don’t think one offseason is enough to come to terms with it and I fully expect the likes of the 49ers and Seahawks to be in the running come next February.
Even if they do, focusing so much on the run game leaves defences open to attack through the air and I think this year will see an increase in the amount of read option quarterbacks looking to score with their arm rather than their legs and so NFL defences will have to change and adapt once more.
The NFL, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.
