Stick Part 2 of 2: In-Game Reads

From the Ace Y-Trips formation, the Stick play is the go-to audible if you need to get medium yardage.  It is a reliable play for picking up 4 to 6 yards with the possibility of hitting a 10 to 15 yard slant on the backside.  The process for using the play in our offense is:

1. If you see two high safeties and corners up, pre-snap read is Cover 2 of some kind.  If you have a bad play against Cover 2 called, check out.
2. If the TE has a man playing directly over him appearing to match up in man coverage, read the coverage on the TE in case it is in fact man to man.  
3. If the linebacker or safety nearest the TE backs away from him rapidly in any direction and nobody is flying in to pick him up, post-snap read is zone and wait for the TE to settle in the hole.  Anticipate the TE turning for the ball and throw as he plants to change speed.
4. If the TE is covered tightly by an assigned man coverage defender, see if the TE breaks to the outside and gets a lead on a slow linebacker.  If so, you can throw the out since the edge defender further outside ought to be concentrating on the slot receiver running a predesigned out route to hold him.
5. If the TE is covered tightly by an assigned man coverage defender and cannot get separation, go to the backside slant.  Watch your receiver to see when he gets a release because he should break almost immediately on the slant if he is not stumbling.  The throw should be started as soon as it looks like the receiver is aware, steady, and able to break into his route - the quarterback will anticipate the slant route's comeback toward the middle of the field and lead the receiver.

The TE Read: Zone

The most important element of reading the play is knowing which defender we are picking on. When you watch the cut ups of Stick audibles above against Central Florida, pay attention to the linebacker to the inside (left) of the TE.  The nearest linebacker retreating deeper into the middle of the defense is a dead giveaway that we have zone coverage - they are all dropping into assigned underneath zones.

At that point, the only issue is the defensive back over the slot receiver, but the route combination on the trips side is designed to drag the coverage away from the Stick.  The slot man is pulling the zone defender between the right hash and right numbers to the outside and the WR to the far right of the formation is pulling the furthest outside zone defender with him deep.  That leaves the TE working against only the zone defender to his inside, which is why his option route is to plant and cut to the outside away from that defender.

For an example of this, see the first play in the video below:



In most cases, you should see the TE settle in a huge hole with nobody around him with a basketball post up move (The second and last plays in the video).  That's when we need to hit him for free yardage.  This is a great option on first or second down because against any zone scheme this almost guarantees you will face a third and 4 or 5 yards to go type situation at worst.

The TE Read: Man

When the TE breaks to the outside, it's possible he will be open even if there is man coverage assigned to him.  Since he draws linebacker coverage, it depends on how bad that linebacker's cover skills are.  The second play in the video below shows an instance of when the cut to the outside gets the TE open:




The only reason this works is the linebacker starts in awful position to the inside, is slower than the TE, and most likely has bad cover skills/recognition:

Patience on the Backside Slant

Faced with man coverage on the TE, it is almost always better to simply abandon the stick option and throw the slant since it is designed to beat man schemes.  Most of the defense is on the trips side and the conditions for the audible to Stick means there are two high safeties: this leaves little help inside or underneath for the backside cornerback.  If the wide receiver has enough time to work, he will get open.

If held up at the line by good press coverage, it is not immediately clear how the wide receiver will release. He might get an outside release and do a stutter step to get back inside as above, or he might get a swim release to the outside and cut to the inside behind the cornerback. The outside release is more common:



It is possible the receiver will get an inside release, sometimes because he gets shoved and thrown off balance by the corner.  Since there is nobody in the middle of the field underneath, the shove actually gets the receiver open if the quarterback is able to wait long enough for him to recover his balance and look for the ball (see the second play below):