What do you call on fourth and one in 5v5 flag football?
Throw to a spot, not to a player. With no blocking allowed, 5v5 short yardage is a passing down every time, and the highest-percentage call is a receiver sitting exactly at the marker with a route breaking away from him. The quarterback throws to the spot on a count rather than waiting for anybody to come open.
Three answers, in the order to try them
- Start here
All Hitches
Start here
Every receiver settles at the distance you need and turns around. The throw is to a spot on a count, which removes the hesitation that loses this down far more often than any coverage does.
- If they crowd the sticks
Quick Slants
If they crowd the sticks
Inside breaks that are moving toward the marker rather than across it. Against a defense that has squeezed to take the sit-down routes away, the slant is behind them before they can re-settle.
- If they load the middle
Bubble
If they load the middle
The ball out wide immediately turns a one-yard throw into a one-yard run behind a receiver. At five a side the defense cannot load the middle and cover the perimeter with the same four players.
What changes at this size
You cannot run it, so stop trying
The single most useful thing to know about short yardage in flag football is that the eleven-a-side answer is illegal. There is no blocking of any kind, so a dive or a sneak is five players standing still while a defender walks through and pulls a flag. That leaves you throwing, and it means a 5v5 team should build its fourth-and-one plan around timing rather than power. The good news is that four defenders cannot take away every short window: the defense has to pick between crowding the marker and covering the sideline, and whichever they pick leaves the other open. What kills 5v5 short yardage is not the defense, it is a quarterback waiting half a second too long for a better option. Pick the receiver before the snap, throw on the count, and take the one yard.
When not to call it
Do not try to run it
There is no blocking in flag football, so a dive or a sneak is five players standing still while a defender walks through and pulls a flag. Every fourth and one at this size is a passing down.
When your quarterback waits
This down is lost to hesitation more than to defense. If he is looking for a better option than the one that is open, the play is already over. Pick the receiver pre-snap and throw on the count.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the football playmaker, collect them in the football 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 call on fourth and one in 5v5 flag 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.