How do you beat the blitz in 11v11 tackle football?
Have a hot answer before the snap. In 11v11 a blitz sends more rushers than you can block, so somebody is coming free by design and the quarterback has to throw into the space that rusher left, on his first hitch, without waiting. Protection identifies who is unblocked; the hot route is what you do about him. Neither idea exists in flag football.
Three answers, in the order to try them
- Start here
Slant-Flat
Start here
The hot answer. The slant breaks at three yards into the vacated interior and is thrown on the first hitch, before the free rusher arrives. Every receiver has to know it converts automatically against pressure, which is a rule that only makes sense where a free rusher is possible.
- If they keep sending it
Draw
If they keep sending it
The counter-punch, and the reason good defenses cannot blitz every down. Rushers running upfield past the quarterback have taken themselves out of the play, and the back is through the space they left before anybody can turn around.
- If the interior is collapsing
Waggle
If the interior is collapsing
Move the launch point away from the pressure instead of standing in it. Getting the quarterback outside halves the field but also halves the rush, and it gives him the option to throw the ball away safely, which a flag quarterback never needs to do.
What changes at this size
Somebody is unblocked on purpose
Everything changes at eleven a side because blocking exists. A blitz is not a faster rusher, it is a defense sending six at a five-man protection so that one defender is free no matter what the linemen do. That means the answer is not a quicker concept, it is a pre-snap decision: the centre identifies the front, the protection slides one way, and the quarterback knows before the snap which rusher is his responsibility to throw away from. The route into that space is the hot, and it breaks at three yards whatever was called in the huddle. The other half is that you can punish it. A defense that blitzes has emptied the middle of the field, so a screen or a play-action shot is worth more here than anywhere else. In flag football there is nothing to punish, because there is nobody extra to send.
When not to call it
If the protection is not identified
None of this works if the centre has not declared the front. The hot route is an answer to a specific unblocked defender, and a quarterback who does not know which one is coming free is guessing rather than reading.
Against a simulated pressure
Defenses show blitz and drop eight. If you throw hot into that, you are throwing short of the sticks into a crowd, so confirm the rusher actually came before you convert the route.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the football play designer, collect them in the football playbook maker, and print play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw any of these in about a minute
Open the designer, change the routes, save it to your playbook.
Open the designerRelated questions
How do you beat the blitz in 11v11 tackle football?
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.