Brandt’s Corner
A couple weeks ago, I wrote a scathing column in response to ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Jr., and his words attacking the two-high safety defense. While that saw some great success online, some people might not understand the defensive alignments that I discussed, so that column meant nothing to them.
So, this week and next, I will explain — to the best of my ability using just words and no pictures — offensive and defensive formations and what they’re trying to accomplish. I won’t get to every single one, but I will do my best to at least cover the basics. Please bear with me, though, as this is a tough task without being able to illustrate.
This week, I’m going to discuss offensive formations first, since defensive formations are reactionary to the formations and packages that offenses take to the field.
Before I can do that, though, I have to tell you a couple rules. I ask that you understand that the rules differ from the NFL, NCAA and the high school level, so some of these rules might not apply to your chosen games.
The first rule is that the offense must have at least seven players on the line of scrimmage. You don’t necessarily have to have a ‘traditional’ offensive line with a center, two guards and two tackles, but it is by far the most common. With this comes the second rule. Only the last players on the line of scrimmage are eligible to receive a pass. You will see the wide-out (the furthest-out wide receiver) check with the line judge on nearly every play to ensure he is ‘covering’ the rest of the line — if not, the team will be penalized.
“But, there are more than two wide receivers that catch the ball!” Yes there are, and I will explain them here shortly.
The first formation I’ll explain is the easiest to run and the easiest to explain in my opinion. It’s called the I-Formation, because it looks like a capital I, in a way. I think it looks closer to a T, personally. It’s very simple, especially in today’s world that glorifies the passing game.
In the I-Formation, your offensive line looks like this: T G C G T, and there is a quarterback, full back, and running back all in a straight line behind it. That makes a total of eight players, meaning we have three unaccounted for. These can be any combination of tight end and receiver. You could, for example, have a set-up that looks like this: TE T G C G T TE, in a dual-tight end package, and just have a wing-back or slot off one of them as your 11th player. Or, you could drop a tight end on either side, put a receiver on the line of scrimmage, and have a slot back to that side. The main thing we’re concerned with here is the backfield formation; the other players are just a package of the I-Formation, not a new formation itself. Union runs out of a variation of either this or Single-back most of the time, and they’re not afraid to run it out of the Wildcat (where anyone but the quarterback takes the snap), either.
The strength of this offense is running the ball. You will see this a lot in the red zone or goal line situations, where the more blockers a running back has, the better. You could have a variation of this, such as the wishbone or shotgun I-Formation, but they are all derived from having the full back and running back in the backfield. You can pass out this formation as well, and teams often do — play action (where you fake a hand-off to the running back) works well here, or having either one or both of the backs stay in as extra blockers can be beneficial.
The next formation is the Single-back, which just as the name says — involves having one back in the backfield instead of two. You can substitute the fullback for an extra tight end or wide receiver, but this is still primarily a running offense, but instead of inside runs ‘up the gut’ between the two tackles, or via pitches with lead blockers, the Single-back utilizes outside sprints, screens, or rushes where the back can bounce it outside. Speedy running backs thrive in this offense.
Wing-T is the last running formation that I’ll explain, and I saved it for last because it is the most fun to watch. This is another one that is derived out of the I, but is now a formation itself. Take the fullback and move him to the right or left of the running back and put a wing back just offset from the tight end, but still in the backfield. Throw a wide-out on the other side and you have your 11 players. You can obviously modify this how you see fit as long it still meets the requirements.
This is a very run-heavy offense, but it does so with a bit of trickery. A lot of pre-snap motions and misdirections, plus giving the ball to as many ball carriers as possible, makes this offense work. For a great example of how this all works, check out the Harrells Crusaders this season. Even if you just look at their stat box, you’ll see how many people rush the ball for them.
When it comes to pass-heavy offenses, they typically don’t have many formations, but instead just variations or packages of others. For example, the air raid offense that Hobbton runs is a shotgun Single-back, and they just change into trips (three receivers on one side) or dual receivers on both sides. The spread and West Coast offenses, which are predominantly used in the passing game, just use base offenses and change some players around. Midway utilizes shotgun formations, which are used to pass mostly, to effectively run the ball. Clinton does as well, but both teams don’t necessarily shy away from the run-heavy I-Formation or similar under-center options when needed. Lakewood is the third area team that sees success in both the passing and running game out of the shotgun.
A team, when they go to the passing game, is looking to get a lot of yards through the air. How they do this depends on their offensive style. Hobbton’s air raid, for example, looks to create separation between the receivers and defenders and get the ball to them in the open field. They thrive the best when the defense sits in a deeper zone or man-to-man coverage (both of which I will cover next week). If a defense sinks back into a deep zone, they will run every single shallow crossing route possible and dink-and-dunk their way down the field with short passes. If the defense gives them man coverage, they’ll run deeper crosses and use their receivers’ abilities to get open to get them a mismatch.
All of these formations determine what formations the defense will be in, which I will cover in next week’s column. I hope I served the purpose of explaining these as best I could, with examples of area teams, and without artwork to accompany my words.