Crossing Them Up In The Red Zone
The red zone is a popular part of the field for crossing routes. Crossing routes can be a great weapon in your drop back passing game playbook. They offer a lot of solutions for a young quarterback or a quarterback with minimum arm strength.
Crossing routes are also great against man coverage, because if taught correctly there will be a natural rub that occurs as the two crossers pass each other.
Obviously, good defenses will work on fighting over the top and zoning off of the crossers so it’s good to have a change up or two on your call sheet. The play below offers a couple of answers, particularly in the red zone.
Before you look at that, take a moment to look at a traditional shallow cross play that could be called anywhere on the field. It’s important to understand what the defense has seen on tape.
Related: Wing T Counter Boot
Let’s look at this red zone changeup. The first thing this it does is let your quarterback pick one side to read. If he has been throwing a lot of slant routes to a particular receiver this is probably the best place to start.
Your quarterback can go through his double move footwork with the confidence. He knows that if the corner does not bite then he still has answers. A return route is coming directly into his vision as a secondary answer. This will allow him to be deliberate and patient with his footwork and mechanics.
The same goes for the sluggo route runners as they need to sell the slant route first. The return route runners can be patient as they should not start back outside until they get to the near A gap. Read this Z-Y-H or X-F-H.
