What do you run on third and long in 11v11 tackle football?
Protect first, then attack the middle. On third and long at eleven a side the defense knows you are throwing and rushes accordingly, so the down is decided by whether the quarterback is still upright at three seconds. A deep cross converts when you have time; a screen is the answer when you do not, and it is the call that makes an aggressive rush stop being free.
Three answers, in the order to try them
- Start here, if you can protect
Y-Cross
Start here, if you can protect
The highest-percentage way to move a lot of yards against a defense playing deep, and the one that most needs five linemen to buy the time. Against man it is uncoverable; against zone it crosses three faces.
- If the rush is winning
Draw
If the rush is winning
Let them come and give it to the back through the space they left. A defense pinning its ears back on third and fifteen has vacated the middle of the field, and this is the call that makes them stop doing it.
- If they play a deep middle
Dagger
If they play a deep middle
The seam carries the safety and the dig runs underneath, past the sticks. It works here for the same reason it works at seven a side, with the difference that you have to hold it for an extra beat against a real rush.
What changes at this size
There is a clock on this down
Everything about third and long at eleven a side is governed by the rush, which does not meaningfully exist in flag football. The defense can send four and still drop seven, or send six and gamble, and either way the quarterback has around three seconds rather than the comfortable two and a half a 5v5 passer gets from a rusher standing seven yards away. That single fact rules out half the concepts the flag pages recommend: a route that needs sixteen yards and four seconds is a sack, not a conversion. It also creates an answer the flag pages have no use for. A screen punishes a defense for rushing, turns their aggression into your yardage, and forces them to rush more honestly for the rest of the drive. Against one rusher who started seven yards back, there is nothing to punish, which is why no flag page here recommends it.
When not to call it
If the protection cannot hold three seconds
Y-Cross and Dagger are both four-second concepts. Against a front you cannot block they are sacks rather than conversions, and the draw is the only honest call on the page.
Do not chase the whole distance
On third and eighteen, taking eleven and punting from better field position is frequently the right football. A page about converting should say when converting is not the goal.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the flag football play creator, collect them in the free playbook maker, and print wristband 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
What do you run on third and long in 11v11 tackle football?
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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.