2025 New Research and Development: Creating the Explosive Play Culture – Case 1: Explosive Pass Play Generation

By Mike Kuchar
Senior Researcher/Co-Founder
X&O Labs
@MikeKKuchar

Our Study:

Let’s dispel the most common myth in our research. Explosive plays don’t just happen; they are constructed and can now be quantified. Using our exclusive A.I. Protocols, we analyzed over 1,000 explosive pass plays that were produced last season at the FBS level and went to task on measuring when they happen, why they happen, and how they happen.

Our Control Group:

We took the top 10 explosive pass offenses in the country last season at the FBS level. These are the programs that generated the most pass plays of over 20 yards or more.

They included:

• Miami: 129 total plays
• Syracuse: 128 total plays
• Texas: 127 total plays
• Ole Miss: 112 total plays
• San Jose State: 112 total plays
• North Texas: 107 total plays
• LSU: 105 total plays
• TCU: 104 total plays
• Penn State: 103 total plays
• Ohio State: 102 total plays

Our Metrics:

We analyzed 1,017 total pass plays, that produced 20 yards or more within these ten programs above to look at several factors on why these explosive pass plays occur. We segmented our research into the following sub-categories:

• The Most Common Down and Distances where explosive plays are generated
• The Most Field Zones where explosive plays are generated
• The Most Explosive Pass Play Combinations Between the 21-40 Yard Lines
• The Most Optimal Personnel and Formation Combinations that Generate Explosive Plays
• The ideal pre-snap alignments coincide with each particular explosive route concept
• The average catch depth for each particular explosive route concept
• The correlations between play concept and down and distance that generated explosives

Login to Continue Reading: Click the link below to login. When you do, this page will expand, and you’ll see the full study where Mike reveals everything listed above. This is the largest study ever conducted on explosive plays in football. And, as always, our research reports include game film and diagrams. Login below to get unlock the full report (and if you’re not a member, click the ‘Join’ button in the upper right-hand corner of this page).