Mike Macdonald's Stacked Box Brilliance

this one [Music] hit and on this play call we're going to look at here is first take notice prior to the snap to the left hand side of your screen and we will notice that we've got two Seahawks stacked up off the edge there right and I with the recording options you get on the online deal sorry about the overlay a little bit there but it's a little bit sometimes they don't let you kind of show the full play prior to the snap so you have to kind of make do with this a little bit but what you want to see here is you got four guys to the left hand side of the offensive lines for formation here if I chop that Center down the half right if I took the center and I just took a line straight down the line you got four to the left and you've got three showing to the right so you've got blockers for the three to the right but only if you slide the center back over to the right and the Seahawks are bringing the heat off the left side so what the quarterback does here is the protections get adjusted to the left the slide adjusts to the left and why because look micata is coming downhill they're showing the blitz it's coming I'm telling you man it's coming it feels like it's coming that's that whole thing I tell you when they're down here like this it's very hard to say it's fake it isn't happening it's not real they're going to just drop into a fourman box you go no they're coming no it's coming and you want to have that instinct as a quarterback every time or as a center every time to change into that protection so they Slide the protections a little bit here let's go to post Snap now same position here same same situation and look at the alignment it's a little bit lighter to the high side of the defensive formation you got Mike Morris you got the other two stacked over the top of him we've got the four stack on the side so we run the numbers game fully here on the offensive line you've got 3 six for 1 2 3 four 5 six seven you've got seven guys showing that they're going to come for the six blockers up front the running back can help and give you a four seven a full seven on seven there but it still gets confusing trying to kind of get that all blocked up if you're an offensive line but look at the top of the screen what's happening here now watch this little tandem move here and this is right before the snap so you see the snap come off but watch the Twan movement between AATA 39 and the slot corner you see that subtle see the subtle change the protections have slid left but I'm pulling one man out from left I'm driving him right now and what ends up happening you end up with a free Rush off the left side now it gets picked up still relatively well by this Browns team but look look as well the sticks are at the 40 yard line the quarterback would like this play from a third and 10 scenario to allow those guys to get past the sticks what this pressure looks to do on those kind of situations of third and 7 38 3d9 third and 10s is it's looking to force the quarterback's clock to speed up before the routes can get to the sticks that's what happens here so while it gets picked up relatively well by by the rounds even though they're surprised by it as you can see what ends up happening here post Snap let's lock into that same left- hand side of that offensive line formation okay left tackle left guard Center what happens here post Snap you drop two back into coverage you only end up bringing one extra so you end up with Mike Morris double teamed up the pack picks up the other Blitzer and then the the one last extra guy coming is the guy that gets free you can see him there he's the guy that forces the throw by Walker off the back not but by DTR off the back foot Robinson the quarterback throws off the back foot because of the slot pressure so AATA Tyrese Knight drop out the slot pressure comes downhill with the other safety that's aligned in there right over the B the a b Gap sorry B Gap but this is the hard part about reading this prior to the snap because everything prior to the snap on you tells us this blitz is coming it's coming off the left side and they slide that you end up now you do end up in a position here we got one two three five guys right we do end up in a position we've got five guys coming but they keep the running back in that's part of that protection check that they just made with DTR is the running back stays inside here too as well so what you've done in addition here is you're getting the pressure with a free rusher but they should have the man the numbers here to pick this up you shouldn't end up with a free rusher you didn't overload them you gave them the the appearance of an overload and you changed it right at the snap with that subtle little bit of movement second that you realize the protections were changed aat is moving he's going to go in out Tyrese is out and now you got the free rusher coming and now watch where the throw goes he's got to throw this ball here two defenders in space right there the the over the the the route over the top basically which is to run those Defenders off and open this up is is cut off he's got to throw this at basically at a 5 yards when it needs to get to Seven you complete this with a 5 yard play you need it a third and seven and it's because you're able to speed up the quarterback's clock and you were able to speed up the quarterback's clock because you're able to confuse him prior to the snap about what he was seeing to get him to change the protections to open the door for the pass rusher late let gets right home quick completion you have two man there to make the play great play call you're going to see more of this type of stuff on the often in this uh in the Seahawks defense this is a big part of what Mike McDonald does stack those boxes you don't know who's coming you don't know where they're coming from you don't know who's going to drop back into coverage post Snap and it's very hard to predict that type of stuff offenses want a lot more certainty the whole point at times of running motion is to get offensive certainty about the coverages that you're going to see on the back end is it man is it Zone the one place offenses don't want to be is in a place of utter confusion