How do you defend the quick passing game in 11v11 football?
In 11v11 football you defend the quick passing game by taking away the throw before it is decided, which means pressing the receivers who run the short routes and keeping your underneath defenders at the depth the concept is aimed at. Unlike the flag formats, rushing is not the problem here, because you are rushing four regardless. The question is what the other seven are doing, and against a slant-flat or a stick concept the answer is leverage rather than depth.
Nobody is standing here. Your CB is the closest defender to this spot and he is 4 yards away from it when the ball arrives. That is not a beaten defender, it is an empty one, and no amount of effort closes that gap after the throw.
Why the sweep keeps working in 11v11
Rushing is not a variable, so the trade is different
Every flag page on this shelf is about whether to spend a defender on the quarterback. Here four are going regardless, so the quick game cannot be answered by declining to rush. It has to be answered by where the seven cover defenders stand, which is a genuinely different problem.
Leverage decides a quick throw more than depth does
A slant is beaten by a defender with inside position, not by one standing closer. At this size the concepts have defined breaking points, so the answer is being on the correct side of the receiver rather than being nearer to him, and that is a coaching point no flag format needs.
The run threat is what makes it work
In 11v11 the quick game is usually paired with a running game that holds your linebackers, which is why the windows appear. Defending it therefore starts with a front that stops the run without your underneath coverage having to help, and that is a front question rather than a coverage one.
The ball is out before any pressure can matter
A throw to somebody standing three yards away is gone in about a second and a quarter. No rusher covers the ground in that time from any legal starting point, so every defender you send at the quarterback against this is a defender removed from the only part of the field being used.
Rushing harder makes it better for them, not worse
This is the counter-intuitive part and it is worth saying plainly to a coach who is frustrated. Each extra rusher is one fewer body in the three-to-five yard band where the ball is going, so the harder you chase the easier the completion becomes.
You stop it by making the catch cost something
You are not going to prevent a three-yard completion. What you can do is make sure it stays a three-yard completion, by having a defender arrive as the ball does rather than five yards later. A quick game that gains three a play is a quick game that punts.
The same concept, covered
Same offense, same alignment, same defenders. One man's landmark is the whole difference.
- What happenedOpen11v11: the defense plays it wrong and the receiver is uncovered.
Your CB goes where the play tells him to go rather than where the ball is going. By the time he reads it the throw is already gone.
- The fixCovered11v11: the same defender takes the receiver's landing spot instead.
He takes the spot the concept is throwing to, and gets there before the ball. Nothing about his speed changed.
Cover the spot, not the man. At this age a defender who chases a receiver arrives behind him every time. A defender who stands on the spot the play is throwing to makes the quarterback find somewhere else, which is usually nowhere.
Three ways to answer it, and what each one costs
Press the outside receivers
Where it excelsA slant that cannot be started on time is a slant that is not thrown. Jamming the release breaks the timing the whole concept rests on, and it is the most direct answer available.
Exposed · deepA corner who presses and loses is a corner with nobody in front of the receiver, and the double move off a quick-game look is the play every decent offense keeps for it.
Play inside leverage underneath with help over the top
Where it excelsTakes away the in-breaking throw without risking the release. Your corners can be beaten outside all afternoon and the concept still does not work, because outside is not where it goes.
Exposed · the flatYou have conceded everything to the sideline, and the quick out and the bubble live there. A patient team takes five yards outside every snap and never has to throw the slant at all.
Drop a defensive lineman into the throwing lane
Where it excelsA player the offense has blocked, standing in a window the quarterback has already decided is empty. It costs nothing in coverage and it produces interceptions rather than incompletions.
Exposed · the middle underneathYour rush is three, which against a competent line is no rush at all. If they hold the ball rather than throwing quick, you have dropped a lineman into a zone he cannot cover.
Inside leverage with help over the top
Take away the in-breaking throw the concept is built on and make them win going outside, where the yards are smaller and the sideline helps you. Press only when you have a corner who genuinely wins at the line, because a lost press against a quick-game look is the longest play the offense has. Keep the dropped lineman as an occasional change-up on an obvious down.
What a good offense does about it
They pair it with the run and your linebackers step up
That is the concept working as designed, and the fix is in front of your linebackers rather than behind them. If your front cannot handle the run without help, no underneath coverage will hold, and you are solving the wrong problem.
They throw the bubble because you took away the slant
Good, that is the trade you chose. Make sure somebody is assigned to arrive on the catch rather than to cover it, because a bubble that gains four yards is a win and one that gains twelve is not.
When this is the wrong fix
When you over-commit underneath
Crowding the short zones is exactly what a double move is drawn to punish. A team that has been throwing quickly all afternoon and suddenly sends somebody deep is not improvising, and your defenders leaning forward are the reason it will work.
When the completions are actually fine
Three yards on first down is a good outcome for a defense. Do not redesign anything because the ball is being completed; redesign it when the completions are moving the chains.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the free play designer, collect them in the playbook maker, and print 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 quick passing game in 11v11 football?
Should you press against a quick-game offense?
Why does the quick game work so well against my defense?
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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.