Explosive PAP’s to Manipulate Two-High Safety Coverages

By Joel Przygodski
Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receiver Coach
Ann Arbor Pioneer High School (MI)
Twitter: @joel12p

At Pioneer, we are a Pro-style offense that relies heavily on gap run schemes to control the clock and possess the ball. The foundation of our run game is power/counter and we became efficient with pin-and-pull concepts towards the end of the season. We use multiple personnel packages, formations, shifts, motions, and different tempos to attack the defense with our base run plays. We also protect our run schemes with play action concepts to punish a defense that is over-playing the run.

Pass Protection

The majority of the time, we will execute our Power-Pass or Stretch-Pass protections when calling for a play to attack downfield. They are the protections that our players are the most comfortable and confident with. We want our linemen to fire-out low and aggressive to sell the run action before progressing to their protection rules.

Power-Pass Assignments

PST - fire out and block the play-side B Gap

PSG - fire out and block the play-side A Gap

C - fire out and block the back-side A Gap

BSG - flat pull for the play-side C Gap and look to kick the defender out

BST - seal-hinge the back-side B Gap (just like Power)

TB - look to seal the edge after the play-fake. If no-one shows, look back-side

We call our Stretch-Pass Protection a little different than most coaches I have spoken with. It is a full-slide protection where our linemen are responsible for protecting their back-side gap and the Back is responsible for the C Gap defender. We run enough opposite reads (back-field running stretch right while the OL blocks stretch left and the QB will read the end to give on the sweep or keep and run QB stretch), so this protection is a great answer for safeties who are getting anxious to get involved in the run game.

Stretch-Pass Assignments

PST - hard zone block the play-side B Gap

PSG - hard zone block the play-side A Gap

C - hard zone block the back-side A Gap

BSG - hard zone block the back-side B Gap

BST - hard zone block the back-side C Gap

TB - mesh with the QB and block the C Gap Defender