West Coast Offense : The "Drive" Concept
by John Anderson

    The "Drive" route is type of route which gives the offense several options. It gives a automatic "Hot" read, as well as a front/back option versus the strong hook zone area of zone defenses. Versus Man coverage, it gives the offense the ability to supply a option to defeat man coverage as well, by  using the principle of running away from man coverage. The backside has a built in "Clear" route, but can be changed to another route by series, or by game. Another late option is the working of a 3rd receiver to the side of
call, whether that be a corner, flat, or circle route. (For years our terminology for this play was "76 Line". But due to some terminology disputes, we  changed it to the Walsh version for the sake of clarity. Which worked out well for us).

    Blocking for the Drive is mostly 200 or 300 variety. This also can be changed by series or game.

Lets begin at the Flanker Drive.

    The Drive is based on the ability of giving the called receiver the ability to gain separation by the use of natural pics and rubs, common to the  West Coast Offense operating principles. This is established for the most part by utilizing a receiver in a close proximity to another. In its vanilla form, It usually began with the Flanker coming in motion to the Tight End, where he would be in a "Close" position. What I mean by close position is that the Flanker would end up at a spot that is one yard deep, by one yard outside the position of the Tight End. At the snap, he comes right underneath the Tight End, and will initially be a "Quick" route if he reads blitz.

    At the snap, the Tight End comes off the line of scrimmage (LOS) aiming to obstruct the Outside Linebacker (OLB) from jamming the Flanker from coming through his zone. Initially, we instructed the Tight End (TE) to use his shoulder and strike the inside shoulder of the OLB. But, defenses evolved into aligning on our TE's outside shoulder more and more instead of a head-up position. This, then, allowed the Inside Linebacker to read pass, and come up hard and jam our Flanker coming inside. This broke down our original play. So with the addition of applying a 3rd receiver to that side, this forced the defense to have to lay back and read the pattern as it developed. They couldn't come up and jam everything hard, because it would allow someone to jump open quickly. The Halfback would align behind the right tackle, and shoot hard off the outside hip of the TE. The TE is actually providing three functions here. He is walling off the OLB with his inside shoulder now, trying to drive the OLB away from the Flanker, and he is also trying to drive the OLB into an uncomfortable position with a RB coming out of the backfield to the outside of him.

    If the defense is playing a form of zone coverage, we already have the defense in a bind. The OLB is trying to hold his zone against two receivers, the Inside Linebacker, reads pass and is retreating with a receiver coming underneath him, and the Corner is playing a outside technique, and sees two possibilities coming at him. The Zone assignments now come into play. If its Cover Two, we are challenging the three underneath zones with three receivers. If its Cover Three, we are putting three receivers versus two defenders. If its Man Coverage, then we have already put in a natural rub with the TE on the OLB, and may pic either the Corner coming inside, or the ILB coming outside. This is why this play was one of our favorite Zone/Man patterns. We haven't even addressed the pass routes yet.

    Lets go over the rules of the routes being run here. Remember, they have different rules versus different coverages, which is one of the reasons why the West Coast Offense is known for its flexibility.

Flanker (Z) - upon initially breaking under the Tight End, drive across the formation to point 4-6 yards deep. Versus Zone coverage, stop at a point 4-6 yards deep in front of the backside Guard, by opening your hips to the Quarterback (QB) and look for the ball. You will know it is Zone coverage if they open their hips and drop.

        You will know it is Man Coverage if the they move laterally. If you read Man coverage, execute your Drive route and run at the same depth across the field. As you run across the field, it is your job to try to get a "rub" on any of the LB's coming inside out who are trying cover the Halfback (HB) out of the backfield. This may also help you to get a pick by using that LB to rub on the defensive back (DB) who may be trying to cover you. Gaining separation from your defender is paramount !

Tight End (Y) - Outside release, drive the inside shoulder into the chest of the OLB.  As you do, drive to the outside shoulder of the OLB, and Strong Safety.  He needs to fight hard to get back into his route, in which he will run a 10 yard crossing route or post route depending on whether there is a safety in the deep middle of the field.  This is where you will see the Tight End read the defense on his way upfield. If the middle of the field is open, the Tight End runs the post into the middle of the field. If a Safety rotates into the middle of the field, the Tight End will plant down on his outside and run the 10 yard crossing route.

Halfback (HB) - Free release from the backfield, then run the 10 yard  corner route. Threaten the Safety deep and "anchor" him to his half of the field. Get your head around quickly on the corner, you could be a big play opportunity in man coverage.

Split End (SE) - Runs the Fly route  - He wants an outside release versus press coverage. He wants to stutter inside and takeoff outside and make the DB to commit himself to the inside, then club him and go outside. The game plan may be adjusted to go to other routes ( I.E. Hitch, Out, Slant).

Fullback  (FB) - Pass Protection to a check down route. The Fullback also has a “Double” read. The double read is a inside-out read on the LB’s to the call side. He checks the inside “B” gap first for penetration, then will peek outside for a blitz off the corner. If no one comes in either of  those two areas, he proceeds to his check down route.
 

· Offensive line blocking – (Taken from the Book from Bill Walsh “Finding the Winning Edge”)

             Protection: 6 Man Turnback

2 (3) Jet Protection or 200 (300) Jet Protections
  Offensive Line: (Alert for “Tom” or “Base” calls)

- Slide away from the call.

- Backside guard may “open”, “in” or “out”.

- Use “L.A”/”Raider” or “L/R” protection when appropriate.

- “Base” call will be made versus “B” & “M” blitz or 34 fronts.

- Alert for “Gap”, “Ringo/Lucky” calls

FB - Double read for two blitzers to the call side. Alert for “Tom” or “Base”calls.
        Also read offside ILB when C & G are covered (51 & 57 Fronts). Alert to
        Check SS versus the blitz.

HB - Free release and run appropriate route.

* This is also Fox 2-3 Protection for the line.






Quarterback (QB) -

    A. Pre snap - Watch the defenses reaction to the motion man to the
         motion man across the formation, then it is most likely Man Coverage.
         The Drive route should be open. If the defense, shifts or bumps down,
         then its most likely Zone Coverage and the crossing route should be
         open. You will have to key the Free Safety for the read. If the motion is
         "F Short", then check out the defense to see how they adjust.

    B. Post snap - Key the drops of the Linebackers. If they drop deep, hit the
        drive route in rhythm. If they come up to stop the drive, then hit the
        cross coming in behind them. Be aware that there are big play possibilities
        with the TE and the HB coming outside to the flat or to the corner.

    C. Blitz - Three step drop with a hitch up to the SE (Split End) as he is the
         built in "HOT" route and will be looking for the ball quickly.

    The QB has to keep in mind that his pre-snap read can change significantly with disguises and the direction of any snap rotation that the secondary may perform. So, with this in mind, I always told my QB's that film study on the depth of the alignments will many times give away the intentions of the defense. Once they came to this understanding, they were much more able to change
their mindset if the defense did do something different. Sometimes its as simple as seeing a Strong Safety aligning a yard or two closer to the LOS than normal.

    Anytime you have multiple possibilities in a pass pattern, you must establish some distinct rules so that confusion is kept out of the equation. We have two choices for the TE on his read, and we have some possibilities for the Flanker to "Stall" his route in a couple of different areas. The Halfback will have never have a "read", but will have a couple of different routes. When we go to the
third Wide Receiver in the pattern ( or "E" for extra receiver) he will execute the short crossing route underneath the linebacker coverage. One year we asked him to run the streak, and once even the 12 yard out route.
 

    The Halfback (HB) will either execute the "shoot" route, which is a one yard flat route, while still gaining some depth; or he will run the 10 yard corner route. The Corner route here is the big play possibility if we happen to draw man coverage on a LB. This will be determined by game plan or by series. But, mostly we will have the HB run the Corner route. There is a block option that will be
discussed later.

    "Stall" - This is where we may ask the Flanker to find the soft spot underneath of zone coverage and show his numbers. We have had him stop in any one of three areas at a depth of about 3-4 yards: in front of Center, the Backside Guard, or the Backside Tackle. This is established according to game plan. It will usually depend on the type of underneath coverage we will probably see. The Flanker will execute his Drive route the same way almost every time with the exception that when the defense drops into a zone coverage, the pre-planned stall will be executed to give the QB a outlet, which could also turn  into a big play for run
after the catch yardage (RAC).

    So now that we have given you an idea of what the individual players responsibilities are, we can go into how the play unfolds.

     Versus Cover 3, we want to attack the Drive in the stall area, or attack with the crossing route with the TE. Versus Cover 2, we will send the TE into the deep third of the field, and still use the stall in the short hook area. Versus Man Coverage, we
have the Flanker driving across the formation looking for the ball at his numbers and to be twelve inches in front of him at a depth of 4-6 yards. We treat Cover 4 like Cover 2 in that we attack it the same way.


    When running this route, you will certainly have to try to come up with some variations or disguises in order to keep from tipping off the defense. Here are some of the ways in which we used other variations or additions to help us out and put the defense in a bind.

    The Extra WR is placed in to the personnel package to add some speed and some variation to what we want to do. He is called "E" in the WCO scheme because he is part of another personnel package and will make it clearer for our players to learn and communicate better. So "E" is essentially the 3rd wide receiver in the personnel grouping. What we like to do with him is to either leave him outside of the flanker, and motion in the flanker to the "Close" position, or we want to align the flanker in the Close position and motion the "E" receiver from across the formation and bring him to a point about 10-12 feet outside of the flanker and have him run the Circle (Texas) route behind the Flanker. This creates a twin Drive route. As mentioned earlier, we may also ask him to run a streak route or a 10-12 yard out route (which has happened maybe 3 times).

    The Split End is usually asked to run the streak route downfield, but when we see a defense who is heavily depending on a Cover 3 defense we want to take advantage of it. There were some times we asked our Split End to run the Seam route, in between the Corner and the Free Safety. He can apply pressure on these two by threatening the seam in between the deep third and the middle third of the field. Once we hit this route for a 48 yard touchdown, mostly a result of the athleticism of our Split End.
 

    Earlier we also mentioned about a block option for our Halfback. This was installed one year because we were playing a team with a very good LB who was adept at blitzing off the corner and disrupting plays.  We knew our 200/300 protection would not do a very good job of picking him up. So for this game, we added this particular option for our HB. That year, our HB was a good sized athlete and we knew he was capable of carrying out this assignment. What we asked him to do was, if he saw this LB coming hard off the corner, he was to disregard his pass pattern assignment and aggressively block this LB hard. It took away a pattern option, but it gave us added protection.

    This last variation really is a built-in safety valve in the event of excellent coverage by the secondary. This assignment has to do with the Fullback (FB). We ask the FB to provide protection in the "B" gaps to the side of call. Many times he has picked up
a blitzing LB or stunting defensive lineman, a couple times a DB. But, there were a number of times, that no one at all come into his area of responsibility.  So we decided to make use of his talents as a pass receiver, by giving him an added responsibility.
We asked him to execute his planned protection responsibility and silently use a two-thousand count. If no one came into his area, he was to spin around quickly, and show his numbers to the QB, and backpedal quickly downfield looking for the ball. We would pick up 3-5 yards this way and continue to pressure the LBs in the short zones. This fit in nicely into our scheme.

“X” and “E” Drive – We have shown the basic outline for the Flanker Drive, now lets just show a basic outline for the Split End (X) and Extra receiver Drive (E). Keep in mind that this is just a outline. This opened up the Drive concept to the other receivers in later
years by coaches like Mike Shanahan and Mike Holmgren.

“X” Drive

    Split End (X) – Drive across the formation to a point 4-6 yards deep from the backside guard.

                                           A. Key – What do the LB’s do? If they drop and open their hips, it is zone.
                                           He is to settle and find a hole showing his numbers to the QB
                                           when he is ready for the ball. If the LBs move laterally, then it
                                           is “man” coverage, and he is to quickly run across the field trying
                                           to get a “rub” on any of the LBs for the Halfback . This could
                                           result in a big play opportunity  that needs to be taken advantage
                                           of.

    Flanker (Z) – 12-14 yard Speed Cross ( Outside Release )

                                        B. Zone:  Find a hole in the LB coverage and settle, making eye contact with the QB.

                                        C. Man:

                                            1. Club technique : Accelerate and breakdown with the inside
                                            foot first. Club your way by the defensive back with your
                                            inside arm, and come underneath to the crossing route. He
                                            must keep fighting through the defensive back. His goal is
                                            to get the DB to turn his hips and make him think you are
                                            going deep.

                                            2. Shake technique : This is used versus the trail technique that
                                            DB’s use.  We instruct the flanker to use a head and shoulder
                                            fake first, and instruct him to shake the opposite way that
                                            he is going. Plant your outside foot hard giving a good fake,
                                            and come inside flattening your route.

   Tight End (Y)

                                    A. Tight alignment: 10 yard Corner route.

                                            1. Outside release run at the outside shoulder of the LB or SS
                                            over you.  Work deep, cutting with your inside foot foot
                                            and break to the corner. You can use a Head-and-shoulder
                                            fake to freeze the SS, or pick a point in between his eyes
                                            and simply stare at him to freeze him for a split second.
                                            this is another method to derive separation from a defender.

                                    B. Open alignment: Fly route.

                                            1. Get a outside release versus a press coverage cornerback.
                                            We instruct the End to stutter inside and takeoff outside
                                            make the DB commit to the inside, then club him and
                                            go outside.

                                            2. The Game Plan could call for another route to be run in this
                                            situation. (Hitch, Out, Slant).

   Halfback: 10 yard Corner route

                                    A. The Halfback is told to get a free release from the backfield and
                                    run the Corner route. He is to threaten the Free Safety (FS) deep
                                    and “anchor” him to his half of the field. He needs to get his
                                    head around quickly on the corner, because there exists a big
                                    play opportunity in man coverage.

   Fullback : Pass Protection to a check down route.

   Quarterback : Seven step drop (Quick)

                                A. Pre-snap: Watch the defenses reaction to the motion scheme
                                that may be in place at the time. If they chase the motion man,
                                chances are it is probably man coverage and he will look for
                                the drive to open up. If the shift, its probably zone, and he will
                                check for the crossing route coming over the top. Key the FS
                                for the read on the coverage.

                                B. Post-snap: Key the drops of the LB’s. If the LB’s drop into zone,
                                the QB is instructed to look for the crossing route. We instruct
                                the QB that big play opportunities exist in the halfback and the
                                tight end routes.

                                C. Blitz: Three step drop and throw the hitch to the Split End on
                                Hitch or Fade route depending on the Game Plan. The Split End
                                is the built-in HOT route and will be looking for the ball quickly.
 

    The “E” drive is very similar, and simply sends the E receiver in a drive route across the formation, and sends the “X” receiver in place of whatever route is designated. It’s that simple!

    Now, were going to go through some examples of the “Drive” from the San Francisco 49ers. Keep in mind that the examples were during tenures  in which Mike Shanahan and Mike Holmgren were the Offensive Coordinators. You will see some different looks than which we have discussed in certain situations, but we have only gone over the basic building blocks of the route.
Especially with the offense while run by Shanahan, in that he uses the Drive mostly with his receivers split out wide and with three or more in the package. He clearly likes to spread the field and make the defense cover the entire field.

    In the above play,  we see that WR Jerry Rice has single coverage. QB Joe Montana reads this and gets the ball off quickly versus a stacked defense that has taken away the Drive on the strong side. Anytime in the West Coast Offense that the QB sees single coverage to the split end, in this formation, that is where he is instructed to go.

    Below is another match-up zone concept, this time by the Washington Redskins defensive coordinator, Ritchie Petibon. In this match-up concept, the Redskins want DB Darrell Green to cover WR Jerry Rice. Green is Washington’s best cover man, and they want him to have coverage on Rice a high percentage of the time. But, the 49ers want to change that. They want to use the Redskins defensive scheme against them.
    On this play, the 49ers have WR’s Jerry Rice and Mike Sherrard on the tight end side of the formation, and John Taylor on the weak side. Washington's Green is directly across from Rice, with A.J. Johnson across from Sherrard and six yards off. Before the snap, Sherrard executes “Short Motion” to the stack of the formation, just to the inside of Rice. The 49ers want to try to “bump’ Green inside to cover Johnson. The Redskins don’t fall for that, knowing that Rice on Johnson is a mismatch.
    At the snap, TE Brent Jones tries to get a rub on Green to shake Rice free. Green jumps Rice on the Drive route quickly and has tight coverage on Rice, taking him away. Sherrard hesitates and runs the flat route, coming open quickly. Jones also comes open, but QB Joe Montana feels the pressure from the Washington pass rush and gets the ball quickly out to Sherrard. LB Monte Coleman (51) forces the quick pass which denies a big play to Jones. But, Sherrard does get 9 yards on the play.

    In 1991, the 49ers will still show the Drive out of a multiple WR set a large number of the time. Against the Rams, the Niners will run the Drive in the red zone.  Rice is still on the tight end side and 4 yards to the outside. This time, WR John Taylor is in the slot to the weak side, with Odessa Turner outside of Taylor. The Niners know that the Rams defensive Coordinator Jeff Fisher likes to run a cover three zone in this situation. The Niners bring Taylor in motion to the tight end side before the snap placing 3 receivers in a “Bunch” to the tight end side, but the Rams don’t change their approach.
    At the snap,  Rice comes under the coverage on the drive route. Brent Jones drives down into the end zone and executes a turn to the outside, and back inside showing his numbers to QB Steve Bono. The other thing Jones does, is that he clears the hook zone out for WR John Taylor. This is a red zone adjustment to his route.
    Taylor comes up field after gaining width, and breaks inside under LB Fred Strickland. Strickland gets distracted by FB William Henderson, who executes his 200 protection responsibilities, but breaks to the outside on a swing route. This leaves the hook zone open for Taylor to make the catch and turn up field. In this third and 10 situation, Taylor doesn’t get a touchdown. But, with everyone executing their responsibilities, Taylor gets a critical first down at the Rams 1 yard line.

    Later in the game, the 49ers call the same play out in the middle of the field. It’s the same play, against the Rams nickel personnel package. But, the Rams will be in a Cover 2 match-up scheme. Taylor gets open again, and picks up 8 yards. Clearly, the 49ers knew this play was available all day long.

    At the beginning of the 1992 season, the 49ers under offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan will show more multiple receiver formations. Against the New York Giants, Shanahan follows his trademark packages with multiple receivers.  Shanahan brought more of a spread ‘em out philosophy to the West Coast Offense schemes.
    Below, the 49ers show 3 receivers to the tight end side of the field, while WR Jerry Rice to the single receiver side. The slot receiver John Taylor will go in motion inside, then back outside again. This is game planned to try to get the defense to tip off what kind of coverage the Giants are going to use. Since the Giants at this time were a strong zone coverage team, the chances were that since the corners were in “outside” technique that it would still be zone. SS Myron Guyton will follow Taylor further reinforcing zone coverage.
    At the snap, the Giants coverage is true to keeping everything in front of them and not giving up the big play. That is except TE Brent Jones, who breaks clean into the post third of the field. This is clearly a mistake by both the LB’s and the SS Guyton. Someone should  have been in “trail” technique, and Guyton was caught too far outside to come over top. It's another big play for the 49ers.

    In Game 12, the 49ers use more of the three WR scheme in the “X Drive” concept. WR Jerry Rice comes in motion all the way across the formation. The motion by Rice shows zone coverage by the Philadelphia Eagles defense. The Eagles adjust by stretching the free safety outside to account for Rice. This leaves a lot of space for the Eagles to cover two great receivers like
Rice and John Taylor.
    At the snap, Taylor runs the Drive route, and Rice runs the deep crossing route, RB Amp Lee runs the flat route and draws LB William Thomas which opens the crossing route for Rice. LB Byron Evans is caught flat footed by Taylor’s drive route. QB Steve Young could have gone front or back with this play and won.

    In the playoffs that same year, the 49ers meet the Redskins. Shanahan tinkers with the Drive scheme by taking the tight ends route and begins sending him to the corner.  Another wrinkle is to send him on a out route. Another change in the scheme is to send the FB off the right side to pressure the strongside flat. In this case, the Redskins leave the flat empty and give up 7 yards. Though the situation was 3rd and 8, the seven yard gain helps to give the kicker a better percentage attempt. The 49ers get the field goal. Shanahan will use the tight end corner as his version of the Drive.

    Later in the same game, the 49ers will run the Drive route from a different formation. The 49ers  will have the same three wide receiver package. Rice is now on the wing to the left of the formation. This forces Darrell Green to line up over WR John Taylor, and leaves SS Alvin Walton over Rice.

At the snap, TE Brent Jones runs his assigned post route and draws double coverage downfield. FB Harry Sydney comes through is 300 protection and has no one to block, and proceeds to run a flat route underneath of the Drive route by Jerry Rice. When Rice comes across the middle of the formation, he has open space and is matched up on LB Andre Collins. Collins is quick, but cant
match up with Rice.

   In conclusion, this route scheme has many opportunities in which to move the ball. The West Coast offense is designed to gain separation from defenders, and find the vacant areas in zone coverages. The Drive route gives many opportunities in which to match up with defenses and provides the same scheme that can be executed from formation variation and motion variation.
The blocking scheme, route structure, and basic responsibilities are interchangeable and enable the above mentioned characteristics to come together.

    If you undertake adding the Drive scheme to your offensive package, be ready to enjoy some success! Be ready to adapt, and to enjoy the ride!

Note : Pass Protection scheme found from Book by Bill Walsh “Finding the Winning Edge” by Sports Publishing Inc. 1998 (Page 499)

My thanks to J, Hildebran for his contribution to this article, his willingness to learn is most refreshing!



John Anderson can be contacted here:  aharvest@earthlink.net