How do you stop rub routes in 5v5 flag football?
In 5v5 flag football you stop rub routes by switching rather than chasing: whichever receiver comes out on your side after the crossing is yours. Your defenders are colliding because the concept is designed to make them collide, and it is legal, so telling them to try harder asks them to solve geometry with effort. With only five defenders a switch that half happens leaves somebody completely uncovered, so it has to be practised to the point of being dull.
Nobody is standing here. Your S is the closest defender to this spot and he is 13 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 failed switch in this format leaves a receiver genuinely alone
With five defenders and no spare once you account for everybody, two players taking the same receiver means one of four eligible players has nobody at all. In a bigger format somebody rotates; here nobody does, and the completion goes as far as the receiver can run.
Zone is unusually available, because there are so few receivers
Four eligible players is a small number of things to divide a field between. A 5v5 defense can cover grass rather than people without leaving obvious holes, and a defender responsible for a patch never follows anybody into traffic, so the rub has nothing to work on.
The crossing happens close to the ball, so there is no time to talk
In a five-player game the receivers start near each other and cross within a few yards of the quarterback. Whatever your defenders are going to do has to be decided before the snap, because the whole event lasts under a second and nobody is calling anything during it.
Your defenders keep running into each other and it is not their fault
Two receivers cross, two defenders follow them, and the defenders collide while the receivers do not. That is the concept working exactly as designed. It is legal in almost every rulebook, and telling your players to try harder is asking them to solve geometry with effort.
Switch, do not chase
The answer is for the two defenders to trade receivers at the crossing point rather than both fighting through it. Whoever comes out on your side is yours. It is one sentence, it needs no vocabulary, and it converts the whole concept into two ordinary matchups.
Zone defeats it without anybody having to communicate
A defender responsible for a patch of grass never follows a receiver into traffic, so there is nothing to collide with. That is why the simplest answer to a rub-heavy team at youth level is often to stop playing man rather than to get better at playing it.
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 S 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 answers, and what each one costs
Switch at the crossing point
Where it excelsTurns the concept into two ordinary matchups. Nobody runs into anybody, nobody chases through traffic, and it costs no extra defenders at all.
Exposed · the combinationA switch is a swap, and a coach who forces one can choose which of your defenders ends up on his best receiver. If the same mismatch keeps appearing after a crossing route, they are ahead of you.
Play zone and stop chasing
Where it excelsThere is nothing to collide with, because nobody is following anybody. The simplest answer to a rub-heavy opponent at this age, and it needs no communication during the play.
Exposed · the middle underneathZone concedes the space between defenders, and with only four underneath there are real gaps. A receiver who sits down in one catches the ball every time.
Play man and go under everything
Where it excelsBoth defenders take the inside path, so neither runs into the other and both stay between the receiver and the quarterback. It keeps man coverage with none of the collisions.
Exposed · deepGoing under a crossing route means giving up everything over the top of it. A crosser that turns up the field beats a defender who has committed underneath, with nobody behind him.
Play zone against a rub team, and switch only if you have practised it
Switching is the better answer and it is the one that fails worst when it is half learned, which at this age it usually is. Against a team that runs crossers, go to zone for the afternoon and make them find the gaps instead. Bring the switch back when your defenders can do it in practice without anybody having to think.
What a good offense does about it
Both defenders take the same receiver
The classic failure and it means the rule is ambiguous rather than the players careless. Make it about direction rather than about people: whoever ends up on your side is yours, said out loud before the snap. A rule with a direction in it does not need a decision.
They run it from a bunch
Receivers starting close together get to the crossing point before your defenders can arrange themselves, so switching is no longer available. Zone is the only honest answer to bunch at this size.
When this is the wrong fix
When your players cannot switch cleanly
A switch that half happens is worse than no switch: both defenders take the same receiver and the other is uncovered completely. If it is not practised to the point of being boring, play zone instead and come back to it next season.
When switching is what they want
A good coach runs a rub to force a switch and then puts his best receiver on the defender he knows will end up on him. If the same mismatch keeps appearing after a crossing route, they are ahead of you and the answer is zone rather than a better switch.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the football play designer, collect them in the flag football playbook builder, 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 rub routes in 5v5 flag football?
Are rub routes legal in flag football?
Is zone or man better against crossing routes?
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.