How do you stop quick throws in 5v5 flag football?
In 5v5 flag football you stop quick throws by standing closer and rushing nobody, because the ball is out in about a second and a quarter and no rusher covers seven yards in that time. Every defender you send is one fewer body in the three-to-five yard band where the ball is actually going, so rushing harder makes the completion easier rather than harder. You will not prevent the catch; you make it cost three yards instead of eight.
Nobody is standing here. Your CB is the closest defender to this spot and he is 8 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 5v5
A rusher is a fifth of your defense, aimed at a play that is already over
Seven yards takes a young player about a second and a half. The throw is gone in one and a quarter. In a format where you only have five defenders, spending one on a race you lose every single time is the most expensive mistake on this shelf, and it feels like effort while it happens.
Four defenders on four receivers is enough if they are close enough
You do not need a spare man against the quick game, you need four defenders standing near the people catching the ball. Tighten everybody up, keep the fifth in the middle, and the three-yard throw becomes a three-yard gain rather than a three-yard catch and a five-yard run.
Tackling is the whole defense here
Against a quick-game team the difference between a good and a bad defensive afternoon is entirely how quickly the flag gets pulled after the catch. That is not scheme, it is the thing to spend Tuesday on, and no coverage adjustment substitutes for it.
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 happenedOpen5v5: 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 fixCovered5v5: 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 squeeze it, and what each one costs
Tighten up and rush nobody
Where it excelsFive defenders all standing within a few yards of where the ball is going. Completions still happen and they gain nothing, and the offense has to throw it eight times to score.
Exposed · deepEverybody is close, so nobody is behind anything. The double move off the quick game is the play drawn for exactly this, and it is the one snap that turns a good afternoon into a bad one.
Press at the line
Where it excelsDisrupting the release destroys a timing-based throw before it is thrown. Against an offense that lives on rhythm, this is the answer that stops the concept rather than limiting it.
Exposed · the flatA missed press is a receiver running free from the line of scrimmage with your defender behind him, and the throw was going out there anyway. High variance against a team that is already completing everything.
Play off and tackle
Where it excelsNothing over your head and nothing behind you. You concede the catch entirely and make your money on the pull, which against young receivers who cannot make anybody miss is a perfectly sound plan.
Exposed · the middle underneathYou are giving three or four yards on demand, so a disciplined offense gets first downs without ever taking a risk. It loses slowly and it does lose.
Tighten up, rush nobody, and keep one man deep anyway
Bring your four cover defenders close enough that a three-yard throw is a three-yard play, and put the spare defender behind everything rather than in the middle. That way you have squeezed the quick game without volunteering for the double move, which is the only way a quick-game team scores quickly.
What a good offense does about it
They double move off it
Inevitable if the quick game has been working, and the reason the deep defender stays home. Tell your close defenders that they are never beaten deep because somebody is behind them, which is only true if you actually left him there.
Your defenders keep jumping the route
An interception attempt that fails is six points, because the man who jumped is now behind the play. At this age the instruction is to tackle rather than intercept, and it has to be said out loud because everything else they watch tells them the opposite.
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 flag football play designer, collect them in the football playbook maker, and print printable play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw it for your own team
Open the designer at 5v5, 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 stop quick throws in 5v5 flag football?
Why does rushing make the quick game worse?
Should my defenders try to intercept quick throws?
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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.