How do you spy a running quarterback in 11v11 football?
In 11v11 football you spy a running quarterback by giving one linebacker a single rule: rush lanes are somebody else's job, and he does not move until the quarterback does. The difference from a flag format is that four players are already rushing, so the spy is not your pressure, he is the lid on the escape the rush creates. Without one, every lane that a four-man rush opens is a designed running play waiting to happen.
Your LB ends up here. It is the instinctive place to go and it is the wrong one, which is why this keeps happening to teams who are trying hard.
When rushing is the right call in 11v11
The rush itself is what creates the running lane
Four rushers going upfield make corridors, and a mobile quarterback runs through the one your ends have vacated. In a flag format with one rusher there is no such corridor, so this page is really about a problem your own pressure manufactures rather than about a quarterback who is fast.
A spy costs you a coverage defender out of seven, not out of four
That is a much smaller share than in any flag format, which is why the call is cheap here and expensive there. At this size you can spy on a normal down without the coverage behind it becoming arithmetic you cannot win.
Designed quarterback runs exist, and a spy answers those too
Read option, quarterback power and draw are real plays at this size rather than improvisation. The spy is the defender who does not have to guess which one it is, because his rule is the same whether the quarterback kept it by design or by accident.
One defender whose only job is the quarterback
He ignores every route, every fake and every receiver, and watches one player. It is the simplest assignment on the defense to explain and the hardest to obey, because the ball going somewhere else is exactly when a young player wants to go and help.
A spy is a rusher who waits, and it usually beats one who charges
Both cost you the same defender. The rusher gives up the quick throw and often runs past the problem; the spy concedes nothing until the quarterback commits, and then arrives with the quarterback running toward him rather than away. Against an athlete, waiting is the better version of the same idea.
It is the answer to a specific opponent, not a standing call
You spy because their quarterback is their best runner. Against a team whose quarterback stands and throws, a spy is a defender doing nothing, and you should take the call off rather than leaving it on because it worked last week.
Where he actually has to be
Same 11 defenders, same alignment. One job changes.
- The instinctWrong11v11: the LB takes the instinctive path.
Where a young defender goes when nobody has told him otherwise.
- The jobRight11v11: the LB takes his actual landmark.
Where the job is. Say it out loud before the snap and most of this page stops being a problem.
This is the landmark. Give it a name your players can repeat back to you. A spot with a name gets occupied; a spot described in a sentence does not.
Three ways to account for him, and what each one costs
Spy with a linebacker
Where it excelsCheap, simple, and he is already standing in the space the quarterback wants. One player with one rule, and your rush and your coverage both continue as normal around him.
Exposed · the middle underneathThe middle zone he would otherwise have filled is a man light, and every hook and dig route lives exactly there. A patient passing team throws into it all afternoon.
Rush lanes only, no spy
Where it excelsNothing is given up in coverage and all seven defenders do their normal jobs. Against a quarterback who is not actually a runner, this is correct and a spy would be waste.
Exposed · the flatDiscipline has to be perfect for four rushers every snap, and it will not be. The first lane that collapses is a fifteen-yard scramble with your defensive backs turned away from the ball.
Spy with a defensive end who drops
Where it excelsThe offense has blocked him, so he is a free spy that costs you nothing in coverage at all. Against a read-option team it also gives you an extra defender at the point of the read.
Exposed · deepYour rush is now three, which against a decent line is no rush. A quarterback who was never going to run gets as long as he wants and the deep part of the field is where that ends up.
Spy with a linebacker, but only once he has run
It is cheap enough at this size to call without much thought, which is exactly why coaches leave it on against quarterbacks who never run. Keep your rush lanes honest as the default, and give a linebacker the spy rule the first time the quarterback takes yards. The dropped end is the better answer against a genuine read-option team and the worse one against anybody else.
The numbers behind the decision
They run read option at your spy
Then he has to be told which of the two he owns, because a spy who reads is a spy who guesses. Give him the quarterback and give the back to somebody else by name; the whole value of the call is that one player is not making a decision.
Your spy is getting blocked
He is too close to the line. A spy at four yards is a linebacker who can be reached by a climbing lineman. Back him up a yard so he is looking over the top of the blocking rather than standing in it.
When not to rush
When the spy cannot actually catch him
A spy who is slower than the quarterback is a spectator with a good view. Pick the player who can match him, which is often not the player you can most easily spare, and accept that this call has a real cost in coverage.
When they throw it every down
A defender watching a quarterback who never runs is a defender you are not using. This is the easiest call on the shelf to leave on too long, because nothing bad visibly happens while it quietly costs you a man on every snap.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the free flag football play designer, collect them in the free playbook maker, and print wristband play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw it for your own team
Open the designer at 11v11, put your defenders where this page says, and print it so everybody shows up on Saturday knowing the same thing.
Open the free play designerRelated questions
How do you spy a running quarterback in 11v11 football?
Does a spy have to be a linebacker?
Should you spy on every down?
Related guides
Coach Ray Carroll
Coaches 5v5 flag football from kindergarten through 7th grade in San Mateo and San Carlos, California, and built RC Football to design, teach and print the plays his own teams run.