What do you run on third and long in 7v7 flag football?
Attack the seam between the underneath defenders and the deep ones. At 7v7 a defense on third and long drops six and takes both the sticks and the deep ball away, which leaves a band around twelve to sixteen yards where nobody is comfortable. That is the throw, and it is the specific skill a 7v7 quarterback has to develop.
Three answers, in the order to try them
- Start here
Four Verts
Start here
Six defenders on third and long will drop and protect the sticks, which means the deep field is thinner than it looks. Four receivers past the marker asks their two deep players to divide four seams.
- If they stay deep
Flood
If they stay deep
Three levels on one side, all past the marker. The deep defender has to pick, and at seven a side there is nobody behind him to correct the one he did not take.
- If they squeeze the middle
Smash
If they squeeze the middle
The corner route is the chunk gain that still finishes near the sideline. Against a defense that has flooded the middle of the field to take away the crossing routes, the boundary is what is left.
What changes at this size
Six defenders create a seam instead of a hole
The free grass that makes 5v5 third and long manageable is gone. Six defenders can genuinely cover the sticks and the deep third at the same time, so the open receiver stops existing and the job becomes throwing into a window between two levels before it closes. That band sits roughly twelve to sixteen yards downfield, which is conveniently just past the marker on most third and longs, and it is the reason concepts that clear one level to attack the one behind it are worth more here than anywhere else in flag football. The other change is that scrambling stops being an answer. At 5v5 a quarterback who has time can wait and something opens up; at 7v7 the extra two defenders mean waiting only lets the coverage settle, so the ball has to come out on the timing the concept was designed around.
When not to call it
Waiting does not help here
At five a side a quarterback with time eventually finds somebody. With six in coverage, waiting only lets the zone settle, so the ball has to come out on the timing the concept was designed around.
When you are inside your own ten
On third and long backed up, the deep concepts here put the ball in the air over your own end zone. Take the underneath throw and punt.
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
What do you run on third and long in 7v7 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.