Coach Paul Alexander, the voice of “Thursday Night Fever,” compares football strategies with basketball in this week’s “Coach A’s Clinic.”
Coach says one good turn deserves another.
You might be surprised at how many offensive and defensive principles football shares with basketball. We’re going to show you one that is money on the gridiron.
It’s called the quick turn principle. And here’s how it works. Just like in basketball, you try to get a 3-on-2. So we set three receivers to one side of the formation, usually in this configuration.
Now, let’s show you the play, using our always coachable Friday Night Fever crew.
First, we take the outside receiver and just run him on a streak route. The cornerback has to go with him, or it’s an easy touchdown.
He doesn’t want to get yelled at, so he’s outta here. That vacates this area. So we now have two receivers matched up against this lone defender. He is now in a world of hurt. We take this receiver and send him on a simple short shoot route, about four yards deep.
We then take the inside receiver, usually a tight end or at least a big-body wideout. He just takes about four steps and turns around to the outside. He then posts up like a basketball center or power forward. So we now have a 2 on 1 advantage.
Anything this defender does is wrong. If he flies to the flat, which he is probably coached to do, it’s just a simple pitch and catch right here with about a 95 percent completion rate. When the defender gets tired of getting beat on that route, he might start to just hang on the hash.
Oh, now we’ve really got him!
Because if he leaves the shoot route open in the flat, there’s nobody home. And remember, we still have a blocker out in front. That ought to be a touchdown.
And by the way … if the defense finally brings a third pass defender out here?
We’ll just run the ball down their throat.
It’s called the quick turn. It’s really a basketball play.
And to extend the basketball analogy, it’s a slam dunk!
