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Chalk Talk: How to Get James Washington Open

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Despite having six catches for 89 yards, Oklahoma State wide receiver James Washington had trouble getting open in the Cowboys’ 35-24 loss to Baylor on Saturday. Washington, who was often isolated on one side of the field, was frequently bracketed by a corner and safety and didn’t find very many opportunities.

But Washington doesn’t only have to be used as a deep threat. When you have a star receiver, you want to find ways to get him the ball in any way possible. Today, we’re going to look at three ways to get Washington open and practically eliminate double coverage.

Move him around

One way to give Washington some cushion is to use him in motion. Motion makes defenses to reveal their coverage. It also forces them to communicate, which can be difficult on the fly. It’s harder to double cover a receiver if he’s always on the move pre-snap because the defense doesn’t know for sure where he’ll end up.

Receivers can also find success in the slot. It is harder to double cover a receiver in the slot for a number of reasons. First of all, a safety often won’t take the risk of focusing on the innermost receiver when there are one or two receivers on the outside of him. Second of all, the slot receivers often run short or intermediate routes, often directed toward the opposite side of the field (e.g. cross, slant, drag, etc), making it harder for the safety to cover.

Take this out route by Arizona Cardinal wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald:

larry

Or this seam by former Detroit Lion Calvin Johnson:

vertsmega

Star receivers can find success in the slot. No one is saying Washington should operate in the slot from now on, but it can serve as a solid wrinkle in any passing offense.

Crowd the area

There are plenty of formations that make it harder to double cover a receiver. The Cowboys did use trips a number of times against Baylor, specifically in third down, but they had Washington on the weak side of the formation. This made it easier for the defense to bracket him because they didn’t have to worry about another threat on that side. He could find a lot more success on the strong side of the formation, either on the outside or in either of the two slot positions.

You could also practically eliminate double coverage with formations like double stack:

stack

Or bunch trips:

trips-bunch

These formations, and specifically the bunch, make it difficult to focus on one receiver. Take the trail route combination, for example:

bunch-trail

If Washington were the “Z” receiver in this play, it would be a poor decision for a defense to double team him. Not only would the “H” receiver be left in one-on-one coverage on an outward-breaking route, but the slot receiver would be left one-on-one on his double-move route (he is essentially ‘trailing’ the path of the “Z” receiver).

Additionally, if the back-side post breaks past the coverage of his side’s safety, he’s left one-on-one with no support defender around him. In the bunch, the defense can put an extra focus on a particular receiver but nothing more.

Use intermediate Routes

This is something that we’ve already touched on in the previous section, but short or intermediate routes are difficult to defend against. Take drive concept, for example. The drive concept is similar to the trail in that the initial drag route sets up for the trailing route (in this case a dig-curl read).

First of all, it’s hard to double cover a shorter route, especially if the safety is staying deep before the snap.

shallow_throwgraphic

Secondly, it sets up for other routes to be open in certain route combos. If the defense sucks in on the drag route, it leaves the receiver behind him open.

shallow_hit_curl

So even if the defense does decide to focus in on the drag route (which would be run by Washington in this hypothetical), it opens up for other receivers.

In conclusion, there are plenty of ways to get Washington the ball. Washington isn’t only effective on the deep ball. He’s shown the ability to make difficult catches and get yards after the catch. Additionally, if the defense is putting too much of a focus on him, it’s the coaching staff’s job to make sure that they make the defense pay for it. The OSU coaching staff is smart enough to fix this in their game plan for the Texas game this Saturday. The only unknown is how they will do it.

How would you your best receiver involved? Leave your opinions below in the comments!

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