How do you defend the quarterback run in 11v11 football?
In 11v11 football you defend the quarterback run by assigning him to somebody on every snap, because at this size the runs are designed rather than improvised. Read option, quarterback power and draw are plays with blockers, so the answer is a structural one: one defender has the quarterback, one has the back, and neither guesses. The scramble is the smaller half of this problem and it is solved by the same rule.
Your DE 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.
Why the sweep keeps working in 11v11
These are plays, not panics
A 5v5 quarterback runs because nothing opened. An 11v11 quarterback runs because his coach drew it, with linemen blocking for it and a back faking to hold your linebackers. That means the answer has to be an assignment made before the snap rather than a reaction after it.
Your own rush creates the lane he runs through
Four rushers going upfield make corridors, and a designed keep is aimed at one of them. In a format where only one defender rushes there is no such corridor, which is why this problem is structural here and incidental elsewhere.
The read option asks one defender to be wrong whatever he does
The quarterback reads your end: if he crashes on the back, the quarterback keeps. That is the play working as designed, and no amount of effort from that defender fixes it. It is fixed by adding a second player so the read has no correct answer.
Nobody is assigned to him, so he is free by default
Every other offensive player has a defender attached. The quarterback usually does not, because your defense was built to cover receivers, so the moment he decides to run he is the only player on the field nobody is accounting for. It is the most common way a youth defense gives up yards.
He will not try it early, and he will not stop once he has
A young quarterback runs the first time nothing is open and he panics. It works, because nobody was there, and from that point it becomes the first thing he does rather than the last. That is why this problem always appears in the second half.
Chasing him is the wrong shape of answer
A defender who turns and runs after a quarterback is behind him and staying behind him. What ends this is somebody standing in front of him before he starts, which costs the same body and asks far less of the player doing it.
Where he actually has to be
Same 11 defenders, same alignment. One job changes.
- The instinctWrong11v11: the DE takes the instinctive path.
Where a young defender goes when nobody has told him otherwise.
- The jobRight11v11: the DE 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
Assign the end to the quarterback, the linebacker to the back
Where it excelsThe read now has no right answer, because both options are covered by somebody who is not reading anything. It is the standard answer and it requires no athleticism at all, only clarity.
Exposed · the middle underneathThe linebacker who took the back is not in his hook zone, so play action off that same look throws behind him into space he has vacated by rule rather than by mistake.
Spy him with a linebacker and rush normally
Where it excelsCheap and flexible. Nothing about the front changes, and the spy handles both the designed keep and the improvised scramble with the same instruction.
Exposed · the flatOne fewer underneath defender, and against a designed run with blockers a spy arriving alone is a spy getting blocked. It answers the scramble well and the design poorly.
Squeeze with the end and scrape a linebacker over the top
Where it excelsThe end takes the back, the linebacker replaces him outside, and the quarterback keeps into a defender he did not expect. It is the most aggressive version and it makes the read look right until it is not.
Exposed · deepTwo defenders have committed to one side of the formation, and any play that starts that way and finishes the other way is a long gain with your secondary already leaning.
Assign the end to the quarterback and the linebacker to the back
Make the read wrong by removing the read. At youth level the clarity is worth more than the aggression, because a defender who has been told exactly one thing will do it, and the scrape exchange asks two players to execute together at speed. Pay for it by accepting that play action off that look will find your linebacker's zone.
What a good offense does about it
They run it away from your best player
They will, so both ends need the assignment rather than just the one you trust. A rule that only exists on the strong side is a rule the offense runs away from on the second snap.
Play action off the same look
This is the bill for the rule and it is worth paying, but not silently. Tell the linebacker who has the back that his job ends the moment the ball is thrown, and practise the recovery, so the play action costs you eight yards rather than forty.
When this is the wrong fix
When he is only running because you are covering well
A quarterback who runs after three seconds because nobody uncovered is a compliment. Do not change a coverage that is working to solve a problem it created, unless he is genuinely gaining yards rather than just moving.
When accounting for him leaves a receiver alone
The defender you assign to the quarterback is a defender who was covering somebody. If that somebody is their best receiver, you have traded a five-yard run for a chance at a longer play.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the flag football play creator, collect them in the football playbook maker, and print football 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 defend the quarterback run in 11v11 football?
How do you stop the read option at youth level?
What is a scrape exchange?
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.