For this X’s O’s Football play breakdown, we take a look at another passing concept that many team’s run. The Snag passing concept is design to attack zone coverage. Some team’s may refer to it as the triangle. What we like about it is it’s a simple high/low read for the quarterback to make. The idea of the Snag passing concept is to horizontal stretch the defense by creating three on two isolation.
I-Form Pro – Z Spot:
The play we use to show the Snag passing concept is the I-Form Pro – X Spot. This play has the Z receiver running the snag pass route. The tight end (Y) runs an 8 yard corner. The fullback runs a flat route to the right. The X receiver runs an 8 yard post. The halfback stays into pass block.
In the image above, you can see the pass routes that are being ran. Notice the Z receiver is sent in motion before snap.
The reason the Snag passing concept get’s the “Triangle” associated to it is because of the high/low between the two pass reads.
Before snap, the quarterback is taught to read the safeties. In this case, there is one high safety, meaning the defense is playing some type 1 coverage family. It’s either Cover 1 or Cover 3.
In the image above, we show what the play looks like once the Z receiver has been sent in motion.
Once the ball is snapped, the quarterback reads to see if the free safety drops back over the middle. Which he does.
His first read he makes is to look at the fullback in the flat. In this case the strong safety covers that area, so the fullback is not an option to throw the ball to.
Note: in some cases, the strong safety may go inside to cover the Z receiver, who runs the snag route. If this happens, the fullback would be open. For those that play Madden, don’t count on this happening, as he always will cover the fullback in the flat.
Next, the quarterback looks towards the Y (tight end), the left outside linebacker drops back in a hook zone and takes that option away.
With the tight end covered, the quarterback looks to throw the Z receiver, who is running snag/spot route underneath the zone coverage.
One thing the quarterback needs to be aware of is he may come up to cover the Z receiver. If this happens, then the quarterback would look to throw to the tight end.
In the image above, notice the triangle that has been created between the three pass routes. Also take note there has been a 3 on 2 isolation created that allows one those receivers to get open.
In this case, it’s the Z receiver. That’s who the quarterback throws the ball towards.
The Z receiver makes the catch and will have some running room to possibly get into the end zone.
Final Thoughts:
The Snag passing concept is an excellent zone beater because it’s creates a high/low read for the quarterback. If the high read is not open, he looks to throw to low read. If the low read is not there, he looks to throw to the high read.
