Defending the AFA veer option.
AP Photo by Douglas C. Pizac
This may be my shortest post of the year because defending the Veer Option is not a complicated task on paper. The AFA offense tries to out-execute their opponent by getting the defense frustrated and having players trying to do too much, or more than their responsibility. But if you study their offense you realize that they run the veer the exact same every time. There are no variations. It all comes down to who will be more disciplined.
There are three options on the veer: 1. The fullback gets the ball and hits the A Gap. 2. The QB keeps the ball and hits the C Gap. 3. The QB pitches the ball to the RB.
The first option -the fullback- is taken away by the nose tackle playing off the block of the center and filling the FRONT SIDE A gap -or the first play side gap- and the designated player on the backside playing the BACK SIDE A Gap. ALL THESE PLAYERS DO IS TACKLE THE FULLBACK.
When these two players do their jobs the FB option is shut down. In the last 4 years there has only been 1 play where the FB got the ball for yards and that is because the back side A gap defender tried to do too much and left his gap unmanned.
The second option is taken by either the defensive end or outside linebacker -depending on the play call. ALL HE DOES IS TACKLE THE QB.
This player is unblocked and is commonly referred to as the “option man.” The QB reads this defender to see whether he will keep the ball or pitch it. Sean Carney -the old AFA QB- loved to fake the pitch, which would get the defender off balance and then tuck the ball and run for a good chunk of yardage.
When you do someone else’s job, you give up big plays.
A player in the secondary handles the third option.
At the snap of the ball they go through their read progressions and those keys will take them right to the ball -if they are paying attention. On the snap, one of the safeties runs “the alley” to where the pitch will be and tackles the running back. This needs to happen on all option plays NO MATTER WHAT with the fullback or quarterback! If the safety sticks to is responsibility the play will result in a zero or 1.5 yard gain.
So what does it boil down to? You have to be unselfish and you have to tackle the man you are responsible for no matter what you see. On every play you only have one person to look at. Coach Mendenhall makes the assignments easy by simplifying the play calling. He keeps it really simple, which frees players minds up so they can concentrate on their specific responsibilities.
In the 4 years that I was at BYU the cadets struggled to move the ball against us. The option was useless, because we played very disciplined. The only success AFA had against us came in 2005 when we knocked their starting QB, Carney, out of the game in the first quarter. The back up came in and that is sometimes scary for one reason, back-ups have nothing to lose.
That is how he played.
In the second half he started slinging the ball all over the field -13 of 24 for 265 yds and 2 INTs- and they abandoned the option. Our coaches were searching for adjustments on the sidelines because we hadn’t practiced our coverage’s in the weeks practice. But, the coaches made the changes and the final score was 62-41 with Air Force scoring 27 points in the 4th quarter.
No need to fear, Air Forces passing attack worked for one simple reason. We had worked tirelessly in order to stop the option and in order to prepare a young secondary our defense had to sacrifice coverage reps for option reps. We were a bit stubborn in that we didn’t revert back to our normal defense until late in the 4th quarter. A wins a win right?
Last year AFA tried to throw the ball against us and spread it around and they weren’t successful because the 3-4 is better equipped to stopping the option offense. In that 2007 contest the cadets completed 33 passes for 98 yards.
In conclusion I wanted to give you a little FYI. Shaun Carney the 4 year starting QB for the Air Force Falcons beat every team in the MWC at least one time in his career, EXCEPT FOR BYU! We had a pretty friendly rivalry (he and I) and after the game he was pretty ticked off.
Ah, I love the smell of defeat in the morning.
Written by Markell Staffieri
I know Nixon and Bauman have had personal success defending Air Force in the past. How do you think Doman and Clawson will fare against the Zoomies this week? I think Clawson will play a particularly crucial roll defending the weak side. BYU needs him to have a great game.
Quinn,
You may want to comment on the respect showed by you and your teammates last year following the AFA game where you went and stood with them as is their tradition. The BYU/AFA rivalry had turned a bit nasty in the Crowton years, but that one act really cooled whatever level of animosity that still was there between the fans. It’s pretty hard to take the game so seriously when you see the guys sweating and bleeding over it standing together at the end. I’m sure there is a story to tell there.
Hey Quinn,
Matt told Jason about your blog — Jason told me. So, I’m here checking it out. Think I’ll add it to my daily read. Nice work!
// Brent
Jon, Doman and Clawson will be fine. The thing about AFA week is that we don’t play strong and weak. We play left and right to simplify things even further. The scheme is so simple against AFA. Those two will play well if they are disciplined.
Jared, what we did last year was we joined with them to sing the Armed Forces song. Every Academy sings it after every game, win or lose. We felt it appropriate due to the fact that we are in a real war and they are the ones who have chosen to fight it. We wanted to let them know that we are standing behind them and supporting their efforts. Whether we win or lose this Saturday, I hope we still stand with them to show our support.
How important is it for the DE or Linebacker to “seal” the offensive line and stop them from coming clean to block the “option man” as you call him? I am not sure if you want the DE to string and move laterally along the offensive line and move the play closer to the sideline, do you want penetration from the DE, or do you want this guy to stand stout and seal the offense lineman? Does the play of the DE matter if the option run is to the field side or boundary side?
Could you talk about play action and why it works? Who is getting beat, the corners or the safeties and what can they do to prevent it? I think MWC teams are trying to throw as much as they can against us due to perceived weaknesses and I think that will include Air Force. If we are keying so much on the option, will them throwing the ball be enough to beat us?
The option man is unblocked. The QB reads him to see if he will play the dive play or not. But he does want to stay near the LOS and ’slow play’ the QB, meaning, make him hold the ball as long as possible. If he attacks the QB right away the pitch will happen before the pitch player can get there. The goal on any perimeter play is to string it out.
Play action works when the LBs and the secondary are not reading their keys and when they are trying to play outside of the scheme. The AFA play action is completely different from other offenses in that the keys are very obvious if the D is paying attention to detail. We have not had a problem with it in the past and I don’t see is being fooled this year. Also remember that AFA is a running team. That is what they do. For them to make a game plan based around the pass would be their downfall. When you play close games you win by executing your bread and butter.
Is this guy a secret BYU fan and trying to pump the Cougars up a bit more before they play AF?
http://www.gazette.com/sports/falcons_43079___article.html/byu_air.html
On the surface, BYU looks terrifying. The Cougars will prowl into Colorado Springs with only one loss, a powerful passing attack and four straight wins over Air Force.
That’s the bad news.
Here’s the good news:
BYU might be the most overrated No. 17 team in American football history.
The Cougars barely beat CSU a week ago and UNLV the previous week. The Cougars surrendered 109 points in three dreadful defensive weeks.
Are the Cougars powerful? No.
Vulnerable? Oh, yes.
BYU coaches will be left shaking and sweating when they examine film of Jefferson’s performance. No way the Cougars stop Air Force’s running attack if they are forced to worry about Jefferson throwing perfect long balls.
I actually kind of miss the rivalry during the Crowton era. We exchanged blowout wins and road wins and Fisher DeBerry actually got interesting with his BYU bashing comments after each game. He was the coach BYU fans loved to hate. The heat died down when AFA realized that their dominance over us had come to an end. I’m glad the relations between the 2 teams is now to a point where they can stand together after games to observe the band playing. I just wish they could’ve beaten Utah for us this year.
I really hope the Cougs can put it together this week. I’m not even concerned about the Utes right now, this is a big game where we may get all we can handle. With that said, I did just receive my FedEx delivery with one crisp BYU-Utah ticket inside. Row 3 in Section W09!! If you are a Cougar fan coming to sit in the Cougar Section this year, you better bet I will make sure you are never warming your seats for too long, cuz the Cougs need us on our feet!! But yeah, totally focused in on the Air Force game this week. I’m glad players can focus better than fans! Go Cougs!
Jefferson, Shmefferson –
Let’s look at this Jefferson Guy for a minute…
On the year he is 148 of 278 (53.24% completions)
He has thrown for 1672 yards in 10 games (167.2/game) Are you kidding me? Let me say that again 167.2/game. If any team thinks they can beat us by passing the ball for less than 200 yards, I’d they they are in for some serious disappointment.
Keep in mind a lot those stats were padded against the likes of So. Utah, Houston, and SDSU.
He has thrown for 10 TD’s – that is 1/game. I think our O can match 1 TD/game. Interestingly enough he has thrown 10 INTs too. We will stop the run, they may move the ball with the pass but the fact remains that our O will dominate their D, and our D will not give up more than 17 to the Falcons.
Those aren’t Jefferson’s stats. Those are AFA’s opponents passing stats.
Jefferson has 23-39 (53%) for 456 yards 5 TD and 2 Ints
Passing gp effic comp-att-int pct yds td avg/g
SMITH, Shea 6 136.59 28-50-3 56.0 394 4 65.7
JEFFERSON, Tim 7 189.24 23-39-2 59.0 456 5 65.1
You are right, sorry about that, even better. This guys is nothing to fear…respect, but not fear. Let’s put it this way, we have seen at least 5 passing attacks better than AFA and we have won all but 1 of those games.
THE OTHER STATS I HAD UP THERE WERE ACTUALLY AFA’s TEAM STATS, WITH ALL 3 QBs COMBINED. STILL NOT A FRIGHTFULLY DOMINATING PASSING GAME.
Markell,
The song at the end of the game is the third verse of the Air Force Song (”Off we go….” is the first verse). The third verse commorates the valient efforts of those who have died in service to our country. It’s a reminder that there are more important things than football, and yes it was a very classy act by BYU to join us in giving their repects to our fallen servicemen and women.
LOVE your posts Staff!
Staff,
You and Quinn have the best blog on the Web for BYU football fans. This post, and the last two about how ILBs and OLBs assess the plays, is stuff I’ve never read before and I’ve been following football for 40 years. Extremely well done; please keep it up!
GO COUGARS!
Quinn,
Actually, AFA only completed 10 passes for 98 yards in 2007. Otherwise, it was a good write up.
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