Here is great blog post over at DawgsByNature.com that explains how and what concepts are all about for run and pass plays. The blog post also talks about organizing plays as concepts, the snap concept, and creating multiplicity.
The following is an except from the blog post called “Becoming “Multiple”: Passing Concepts and the Snag Concept” that was post by rufio on Jul 30, 2010 4:00 PM EDT in Rufio’s Playbook
Concepts: the “how” and the “what”
Running or Passing Concepts are what what most people usually call “plays”. I like to use the term “concept” in an attempt to refer more to what an offense is trying to do conceptually. To me a “play” is the combination of the running or passing concept, the specific personnel, and the specific formation; a play is the totality of all of the things happening on the field. Defenses have concepts as well.
If personnel is “who” and formation is “where”, concepts are “what” and the “how”. What are the routes being run, and how is the offense trying to get a receiver open? Every passing concept should aim to put the defense in a position where they can’t win by playing zone. To do this, the offense distributes routes to areas of the field in order to stretch or overload defenders. 1 defender can’t cover 2 properly spaced receivers. 2 defenders can’t cover 3, and so on.
Organizing plays as concepts
Much the same way as there are really only two kinds of defenses, I would say there are essentially only about three passing concepts; horizontal stretches, vertical stretches, and routes good against man . These can be further broken down in terms of how or where the stretch will occur, or how or why a particular route is good against man.
I have never seen one of those jumbo laminated cards coaches wield on the sideline, but my guess is some coaches have them broken down and organized into concepts (among other things like “3rd and short”, “goal line”, etc). They might have something like “horizontal stretches that are good against safeties in Cover-2” in one column, “vertical stretches in the middle of the field” in another.
If coaches have plays that stretch certain parts of the field ready to call, they can keep that linebacker or safety at home when defending the run, or they can pick on a particularly weak pass defender.
The “how” part of a passing concept basically describes what area of the field the offense will attack and how they will overload the defense. The “what” part of the concept would be the actual routes being run.
To explain this more clearly, I will make an example of one of my favorite passing concepts; the Snag concept. This concept has been around for a long time, and it has been successful all over. Santonio Holmes’ Super-Bowl-winning, bile-producing, vomit-inducing catch in the corner of the endzone over the Arizona Cardinals’ secondary was part of the Snag concept. Ohio State utilized the concept as a part of a ball-control passing attack in their Rose Bowl victory over Oregon.
To read the full article, please click on the following link – Becoming “Multiple”: Passing Concepts and the Snag Concept
