Establishing the run is important, but building play action into your offense is essential, just ask North Dakota State.
Over the past decade, North Dakota State has established itself as the top football program at the FCS level, churning out championships and NFL Draft prospects, including current QB Trey Lance. The North Dakota State Bison offense makes a living not just through their unique run game, but also in building in play action threats all around it.
Few teams at the college level have mastered the art of deception quite like the North Dakota State Bison program. North Dakota State offensive coordinator Coach Roehl put together a tremendous video clinic on how they built their play action pass game (LINK). In the video excerpt below, Coach Roehl provides insight into how the Bison mirror their play action pass game with their traditional running game concepts, creating exploitable mismatches with their fullbacks and tight ends in the process.
How the Bison achieve Play Action success
The Bison offense creates its identity through establishing a physically overpowering run game, allowing them to control time of possession, and thus the pace of the game itself. North Dakota State sets out to execute an efficient pass game by teaching their quarterbacks to make sharp decisions, taking what the defense gives them, and taking downfield shots to punish defenses with explosive plays when the opportunity presents itself.
The Bison rely on a healthy mix of both gap and zone run schemes, attaching a quarterback run option to all run plays to stress defensive gap integrity. The playbook focuses on their four staple run concepts, power, power read, inside zone, and outside zone, equally effectively out of both traditional under center and shotgun formations.
Moreover, the Bison offense works to execute any of their traditional run plays out of varying personnel groups(21, 22, 11, 12, ect.), while simultaneously confusing defenses with countless pre snap shifts and motions. While a successful run game is not the sole determining factor in play action success, it is a huge factor. North Dakota State averages over 6 yards per carry on all four staple run concepts, which means that defenses HAVE to respect the play action fake or they’ll get shredded on the ground.
Benefits of the Bison’s intricate Play Action attack
North Dakota State’s entire identity as a play action offense stems from their ability to disguise their schemes to mirror their staple run concepts, allowing their offensive lineman to continue imposing physicality and confusing opponents. Under center, the Bison use two staple concepts, power pass and naked boot, although they maintain the ability to disguise either look off of their staple concepts, borrowing their same verbiage and adjustments as the defense has seen all afternoon on various rushing plays.
The Bison coaching staff takes great care to mirror the play action concepts with their run game, and are often able to sneak their fullbacks into the flat, out-leveraging defenders to create easy check down reads for their quarterbacks, and often creating space for yards after the catch. This offense is designed so that tight ends mirror their pass game releases to their blocking assignments, using deception to secure proper leverage, and maintaining physicality at the top of their routes to create necessary separation.
The Bison create easy half-field levels reads with their rollouts, with two players in the his field of vision working toward the sideline. With 2021 NFL draft prospect Trey Lance under center, they have someone who can tuck it and run, creating yards on the ground if all receivers are covered, keeping the offense on schedule. Finally, their rollout concepts are built to include a backside crosser, giving the quarterbacks potential to create something extra downfield if the receiver can gain separation behind the linebackers who are drawn up by the smoke and mirrors.
Conclusion
North Dakota State’s ability to mirror their play action attack with their staple run game concepts has allowed their pro style offense to flourish, becoming the gold standard at the FCS level in the process. Through their ability to routinely control the line of scrimmage, this offense is able to keep defenses on their heels with deceptive play action concepts, combining a healthy mix of calculated downfield shots, with an efficient bootleg passing game.
Programs at all levels could learn from the North Dakota State’s play action attack, potentially using their tutelage to unlock the ability to control the line of scrimmage, consistently move the chains, and capitalize in the red zone through the art of deception.
CLICK HERE to watch the rest of this incredible video clinic on CoachTube!
