Go back to the concept of pairing coverage beaters and look at the other side of the field. Similar to the Stick play with its backside slant to beat man coverage, we have a route specifically placed on the weak side of the field designed to beat man coverage that reduces the effectiveness of the frontside Smash Divide. From Shakin the Southland:
We will start with a simple route and a simple coverage, the 10 yard dig route against a man defense. A dig is commonly referred to as a "square in". Notice it is a SQUARE in, not a rounded in. For this particular pattern, the receiver will run 10 yards, turn and run laterally towards the middle of the field. What the receiver will want to do is get off the ball quickly and drive towards the defender’s outside or bounty-side shoulder. The receiver essentially has 10 yards to sell the defender that he will be going vertically down the sideline, hence the importance of getting off the LOS quickly with explosion to get to shorten the corner‘s cushion as quickly as possible. The receiver will push the corner as hard as he can for 8-9 yards, hopefully getting the defensive back to open his hips as though he were defending a fade route. It is important to remember that the key to placing the defender in a bad position is to get the defender to open his hips in the opposite direction of the route’s design. If the defender is this far out of position, the receiver should be open every time, particularly against man coverage. Note, the receiver may wish to utilize a technique called stemming where the receiver will run his route slightly towards the boundary to make the defender believe that he is indeed trying to get to the outside, thus opening the defender‘s hips towards the opposite direction of the actual route.
At 8-9 yards the receiver will wish to breakdown (breaking down is a common term for chopping one’s feet rapidly to slow down) so that he can make his cut (or break) at 10 yards. When the receiver breaks down, he will need to maintain complete control of his body. Hence, the receiver will want to lower his center of gravity as he approaches the cut. You will notice when watching good receivers run routes, they almost look like they are squatting down as they approach their break. At exactly 10 yards--or the exact route designed depth, the receiver should be completely under control and have the ability to plant his outside foot. He will use this foot to completely change his direction and cross the field PARALLEL to the hash marks. Since the receiver has maintained a low center of gravity, is completely under control, and has securely planted his outside foot, he should be able to accelerate out of this break free of the cornerback who is playing man defense against him.
This "10 yard dig" is what we have on the backside of Smash in Ace Y-Trips, actually breaking at about 12 yards rather than 10:
Reading the underneath linebacker in front of the tight end gives away the coverage. If we have someone locked up on the TE as he pushes down the field, the place to look is the backside Dig.
The Isolation Play
As in the Smash play, we take advantage of the fact that putting the slot receiver on the right side leaves the lone wideout on the left side by himself. That is why the man beater is so effective on the backside: unless the defense wants to give us a numbers advantage on our overloaded strong side, the weak side is an isolation situation with our WR one on one with the CB. Smash is not designed to go to the isolation play, but it is there when we need it.
Here are three examples of throwing the backside Dig route against man coverage. The three plays shown are against Cover 0, Cover 1, and 2 Man Under:
As with the Curls play, the sudden stop of the receiver is what gets the separation. The Dig route has a higher chance of springing a big play as the receiver is already moving as he catches the ball, but takes a little longer to develop and is vulnerable to certain blitzes that Curls is not; you may get sacked if the weak side is way overloaded before the quarterback can get rid of the ball. Although it is rare, it can happen even if your offensive line is excellent; sometimes changing the play against such blitzes is a better idea than trying for the big play.
The action we're looking for in the one on one matchup is this:
Notice how the quarterback reaches the end of his five step drop at the same time the wide receiver is about to go into his break. The timing of the route and the drop are lined up so the throw is delivered exactly on time by watching the receiver and throwing based on his move to the inside.
Previously, I said that one reason to want our best receiver in the slot from Ace Y-Trips is so we get a potential mismatch on the post route in Curls. That mismatch could allow an attack down the middle of the field against a two shell. Now that we have a better play to attack a two shell and a way to audible away from Curls when we see the two high safety look, it is a much better idea to put the number one on the far left side of the formation.
Most of the pass plays we are running from this formation are attacking the strong side with three receivers to scheme someone open against zone coverage. When the defense is likely in man coverage, the check to the weak side in every one of these plays is a backside man beater: the Curl on an island in Curls, a quick Slant in Stick, and now an intermediate Dig in Smash.
This makes putting the best receiver out there using personnel groupings from the playcall screen a good move. In NCAA, this is the WR Switch package substitution:
In Madden 25 using the Detroit Lions offense, the package substitution is called Strong Solo:
This puts your #1 wide receiver as the isolation matchup on the left side and your second and third receivers on the right side. Remember that the quality of the WR on the right side in Curls is not that important since most of the catches he has to make will be uncontested. This will also be true when we throw to him in Smash (getting to that part in the next post).
Why is it better to put your best guy out there by himself? Because winning this matchup against a blitz could mean a touchdown from anywhere on the field:
The action we're looking for in the one on one matchup is this:
Notice how the quarterback reaches the end of his five step drop at the same time the wide receiver is about to go into his break. The timing of the route and the drop are lined up so the throw is delivered exactly on time by watching the receiver and throwing based on his move to the inside.
A Note About Personnel
Previously, I said that one reason to want our best receiver in the slot from Ace Y-Trips is so we get a potential mismatch on the post route in Curls. That mismatch could allow an attack down the middle of the field against a two shell. Now that we have a better play to attack a two shell and a way to audible away from Curls when we see the two high safety look, it is a much better idea to put the number one on the far left side of the formation.
Most of the pass plays we are running from this formation are attacking the strong side with three receivers to scheme someone open against zone coverage. When the defense is likely in man coverage, the check to the weak side in every one of these plays is a backside man beater: the Curl on an island in Curls, a quick Slant in Stick, and now an intermediate Dig in Smash.
This makes putting the best receiver out there using personnel groupings from the playcall screen a good move. In NCAA, this is the WR Switch package substitution:
In Madden 25 using the Detroit Lions offense, the package substitution is called Strong Solo:
This puts your #1 wide receiver as the isolation matchup on the left side and your second and third receivers on the right side. Remember that the quality of the WR on the right side in Curls is not that important since most of the catches he has to make will be uncontested. This will also be true when we throw to him in Smash (getting to that part in the next post).
Why is it better to put your best guy out there by himself? Because winning this matchup against a blitz could mean a touchdown from anywhere on the field:
