Why I like…
Unbalanced Sets
(Photo by Coach Eien @bruceeien)
If there is one thing that Dinosaur Offensive coaches love
to talk about, besides running the ball, it would have to be Unbalanced
Sets. Old school Wing-T and Single Wing
guys will hang their hat on being able to cause conflict with the defense by
using Unbalanced. However, it isn’t only
old school coaches using it; many Spread coaches are seeking ways to use Unbalanced
in their offenses.
Unbalanced Wing-T
For my part I am most familiar with the Wing-T’s use of
Unbalanced formations. One common way to
go unbalanced in the Wing-T is to simply go X-Over (See diagram below).
In the normal Wing-T formation the X is split off to the
weak side of the formation, but in the X-Over we simply align him split to the
Strong side/TE side. One downside to
this formation is that due to the alignment of the X, the TE becomes ineligible
in the passing game which may limit you.
How do we fix this? Well, you
could go with an Unbalanced Tackle Over formation where you switch the Weak
Tackle and TE (See diagram below) in this formation you get the clear Strength
to the Unbalanced side while still keeping the TE eligible in the passing game.
Unbalanced Single
Wing
The Single Wing offense is basically built for Unbalanced,
for more information see
Unbalanced Spread
Two of my most popular blog posts so far have both been
written about Unbalanced formations from a Spread Offense
Coach Singleton's X Over Formation:
Coach Eien's Stupid Sweep: https://obsessedwithoffense.blogspot.com/2017/12/unconventional-formation-2-bruce-eiens.html
(Photo of Coach Singleton's X Over Formation from Spread @slade248)
In my honest opinion, if you run a Trips set you are
basically in Unbalanced. I love Trips
with a TB aligned to the trips side with the threat of a push
motion/route. If I were to run a Spread
and I had a Trips formation like the one above, I would put my biggest
receiving threat on the weak side by himself and see how the defense handles
it. If I get 1 on 1 I’m going to test
that all night. If they give your receiver
a cushion, I will send out Quick screens or 3 step Hitch routes for free
yardage and hope he is athletic enough to gain a few yards or break it for big
yards. If my Dude is enough of a threat
that they need to double cover him that would make my Trips side more effective
and more difficult to defend. See, us
dinosaur coaches aren’t Spread illiterate.
Choices, choices,
choices…
When the offense comes out in an Unbalanced set it forces
the defense to make a choice: do we move over to match the unbalanced or do we
stay where we are? This sometimes can be
a difficult choice for a DC because if you stay where you are you are
essentially outflanked on the boundary and will die by Sweeps and attacks on
the C Gap. But then, I you attempt to match
the unbalance you may expose your defense to weak side attacks like Counters
and PA Passes. If you choose to defend
the boundary you tend to leave your middle exposed to Dives or Wedges or Traps. Basically, choose your poison coach.
Trades and Shifts
If you really want to give some DC nightmares start adding
simple Trades and Shifts into your offense.
Each defense must decide on how to align to the offense; usually it’s
going to be either they are going to align to the offensive run strength or they
will use a field side/boundary side alignment.
If the defense aligns to strength, then lining up in one formation then
quickly trading into another and running a play will mess with them something
horrible. Many times, you can catch the
DL still scrambling to match the strength which gives you a huge advantage up
front. Imagine you are a DC facing a
Wing-T team breaking the huddle, lining up in Strong Left then trading into an
Unbalanced Right formation, then running toss to the weak side. I know that I would hate facing that
possibility every snap.
Conclusion
If you run Unbalanced sets I want to talk to you because I
am considering ways of incorporating different unbalanced concepts into
offenses. Either follow me on Twitter
and hit me up or comment down below.
Stay Obsessed.
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