A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet…

Posted on August 13, 2020 by Noone

August 12, 2020

By Noonefromtampa

No, we’re not got to have some big, long thesis about Shakespeare. [For anyone who doesn’t remember, the title is a line from Romeo and Juliet.] You may have read that Washington’s offense is having to learn new terminology this season as a result of the coaching change. In this column, we will attempt to cover some of the differences in terminology between the main three offensive schemes used in the NFL, which are the West Coast Offensive, Air Coryell, and Erhardt-Perkins. I will examine the play calls into the quarterback in the huddle for each, but I won’t cover the offensive line protection calls, audible play calls or protection set calls made at the line of scrimmage that may occur during the course of actual play.

Background

First a little history: the term “West Coast Offense” is a misnomer created by the famous “Dr. Z” aka Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated from a 1993 interview with quarterback Bernie Kosar, who was with the Dallas Cowboys at the time. Kosar was referring to Don Coryell’s “Air Coryell” scheme but Zimmerman attributed it to Bill Walsh’s system, which Walsh developed with the Bengals under Paul Brown and made famous with the 49ers in the 1980s. Over the years, both schemes have “borrowed” heavily from each other, probably to the point that it’s hard to distinguish them without hearing the terminology used to call plays. For example, all three systems have some form of the popular mesh play call. This is a diagram of a mesh play:

The Three Systems

Most offenses that are run in the NFL today derive from one of three sources:

Jay Gruden’s offense is a West Coast Offense (WCO) system and uses a specific terminology to call plays.
The Scott Turner offense via his father Norv Turner is a Don Coryell (Air Coryell – AC) based scheme with terminology developed by Coryell and Ernie Zampese (current QB Coach Ken Zampese’s father). This was developed in the 1970s when Coryell was in San Diego with the Chargers. Joe Gibbs was one of his assistants back then.
The Patriots run a different offensive concept and terminology called the Erhardt – Perkins model, which is known for it simplified short word concepts. This system was developed by Ron Erhardt and Ray Perkins in the 1970s under then Patriots head coach, Chuck Fairbanks.

Let’s look at some sample offensive calls, keeping in mind every offensive coordinator uses slightly different wording in their playbook:

WCO – Green Right Strong Slot Spider 2 Y Banana

AC – Twins Right Fly, Scat Right Five, 25 F Post Swing

EP – Deuce Left Mesh

WCO and AC both have the concepts of formation, protection and routes in their terminology, while EB has formation and initial protection into one phrase and routes in the second phrase.

Offense	Formation	Protection	Routes
West Coast Offense	Green Right Strong Slot	Spider 2	Y Banana
Air Coryell	Twin Right Fly	Scat Right Five	25 F Post Swing
Erhardt-Perkins	Deuce Left	Included in formation	Mesh

WCO and EP have a similarity in that the passing routes are described by one phrase encompassing all five pass routes for that play. AC terminology specifies the routes for each of the eligible receivers. Some WCO coordinators have adopted the AC route terminology in their system, replacing the route phrase, further obscuring the difference between the two systems. The offenses all have the commonality of running the same play from different formations to camouflage what they are attempting to do. Conversely, they also can run different plays from the same formation. The idea is to “stress” the defense so they cannot predict what play is being called based on a particular formation or personnel grouping.

Deep Dive into the “Air Coryell” system

Even before the play is called into the quarterback, the correct personnel must get on the field. One of offensive coaches has responsibility of calling out the personnel package so the correct players are on the field, once the play call is selected. Some common personnel groupings and possible names that are called out on the sidelines (some teams use playing cards, some use animals):

“00” group – 0 running backs, 0 tight ends, called “Mary”
“01” group – 0 running backs, 1 tight end, called “Ace”
“02” group – 0 running backs, 2 tight ends, called “Trey” or “Trips”
“10” group – 1 running back, 0 tight ends, called “Light”
“11” group – 1 running back, 1 tight end, Joe Gibbs called this “Posse”
“12” group – 1 running back, 2 tight ends, called “Base”
“13” group – 1 running back, 3 tight ends, called “Jumbo”
“14” group – 1 running back, 4 tight ends, called “Heavy”
“20” group – 2 running backs, 0 tight ends, called “Deuce”
“21” group – 2 running backs, 1 tight end, called “Pro”
“22” group – 2 running backs, 2 tight ends, called “Double Deuce”

Below is the frequency of the various personnel groups by the 2019 Carolina Panther offense:

“11” Group – 68%
“12” Group – 18%
“21” Group – 6%
“22” Group – 6%
“13” Group – 2%

The next concept is the formation for the play. Formations are described by families of related terms such as bunch, spread, pro set, slot, twins, trips and jet. Each family can have anywhere from 4 to 8 call options which also get mirrored for strong-side and weak-side alignments. So, by doing the math you can quickly reach 80 to 100 possible formation calls. Some formation families or call options are designed to be used with specific personnel groups, so having those aligned properly is important to avoiding a delay of game penalty.

The Air Coryell system has been married to a variety of running game schemes. Power, zone blocking, and spread schemes have all been used over the years. Joe Gibbs adeptly adapted “12” personnel group with a power running scheme, specifically the famous counter-trey play, to combat the 3-4 defenses they ran into during the 1980s. Most running schemes can operate out of the various formation families. More detail on running game calls is below.

Protection schemes are generally one-word calls that may vary in execution in each week’s game plan depending on the type of defense faced. Common terms used in protection schemes include base, scat, scram, option, spider, flash, and hi-lo. Each call designation tells the number and positions of the player in that particular protection scheme and who is responsible for protection adjustments. This is probably the most difficult component to learn from a player perspective and the hardest for fans to understand when a quarterback is sacked. Without knowing the protection call, it’s difficult to understand where the breakdown occurred. For example, a scat call may be a six-man strong side slide protection with the fullback player position responsible for any weak side unblocked player.

The passing game is what set the Air Coryell system apart from other offenses when it was conceived. It had defined route trees assigned to the various eligible receiver positions. The nomenclature used is some variant of X (flanker), Z (split end), Y (tight end), H (halfback) and F (fullback, although nowadays this is usually another tight end). Furthermore, the route trees are divided into inside, outside and backfield route tree. The XYZ positions are usually referred to by a 3-digit route code combination such as 368 or 545.

Basic Coryell Route Tree – Outside Receiver (X, Z)

Route depths can vary by defensive coverage or down and distance; a typical route distance is shown below.

1 – Hitch route (5 yards)
2 – Slant route (5 yards)
3 – Out route (10 yards)
4 – In route (15 yards)
5 – Comeback route (15 yards)
6 – Curl route (15 yards)
7 – Post-corner route (15 yards)
8 – Post route (10 yards)
9 – Up or go route

Basic Coryell Route Tree – Inside Receiver (Y, or slot WR)

1 – Flat route (5 yards)
2 – Cross route (7 yards)
3 – Out route (10 yards)
4 – In route (10 yards)
5 – Hook route (12 yards)
6 – Curl route (15 yards)
7 – Corner route (10 yards)
8 – Post route (10 yards)
9 – Seem up route

Basic Coryell Route Tree – H/F Backfield Receiver

Many fans today are well aware of these route calls through the former players who are color analysts on the various game telecasts. They also sometimes have names instead of numbers, such as wheel, swing, sneak, leak, circle, cross, corner, post, flat or fade. There are also option and choice routes in which the determination of the actual route being run is made from reads on the defense such as the linebacker or safety coverages played. Some teams who use three wide receivers set primarily will use these names to describe the routes for their Y receiver replacing the F position in their play calls, such a “Y Post” or “Y Option”.

Running Game

The terminology for the running game can widely vary by the type of running game installed in the offensive scheme. The basic format is formation phrase, play phrase, and blocking modifier phrase. The formation phrases are generally the same as in the passing game. Some teams use numbering system for the play phrase and some use words. The blocking modifier is usually a word phrase that indicates some typing of special blocking on that play such as counter, trap, or chip. There can even be double modifiers such a pull trap or counter trey. Washington Football Team (WFT) fans are very familiar with that last phrase. Two Gibbs running plays are famous in WFT history: 50 Gut and 70 Chip. The 50 Gut is an inside run to the left behind the guard. In most run number systems, odd number holes are to the left and even number holes are to the right. 70 Chip is an outside run to the left with the chip block from the H-back (F player position).

Wrap Up

Other terms that can be included in the play call are used to signify whether play action or motion is going to be used. If the formation call includes words like “Dagger” or “Dart”, that indicates there is a play action fake to be executed on that call, which would be something like “Twins Right Dagger”. Motion phrases can be short motion, long motion or reverse motion. Long motion involves the X or Z player moving across the entire formation to the other side of the field. Short motion involves any of the receivers moving from an outside to inside position and may involve a chip or crack block if it’s running play. Reverse motion is where the player starts from one side of the field going to the other side but they reverse their field at some point going back to the original side they started from. This is a common ploy to see if a defense is playing man or zone coverage.

So, going back to the Mesh play diagrammed above, the call in Air Coryell terminology may be something like:

Pro Right, Scat Right 447, F Post Wheel

In a June video interview Dwayne Haskins said, “I feel very comfortable just because having learned an NFL offense last year, it’s easier to translate into different terminology. The concepts are the same, the reads are the same, just told differently. This year, it feels a lot easier getting used to what we’re doing.” Click here to go to the page that has the video of the Haskins interview.

This is by no means a completely definitive set of rules around play calling, but it is illustrative of what play calls are like. Every team uses different nomenclature and names for the various concepts presented here, but this may help your understanding of the game when you’re watching and listening to what the color analyst is explaining.

Source(s): sharpfootballstats.com