(Photo via bostonglobe.com)

Looking for a few plays to spice up your playbook? We’ve got you covered. Not every play you have has to be amazingly creative, but it helps to have a few plays that defenses haven’t seen. You can spend hours thinking of some plays yourself, or you can get inspired by college and pro coaches.

RELATED CONTENT: How Trey Burton will help the Chicago Bears offense this season

Tennessee Titans unbalanced power RPO

Marcus Mariota is one of the more dangerous running quarterbacks in the NFL. Finding ways to make his legs a weapon besides the basic zone read is advantageous for the offense. This is a really interesting concept from former Titans head coach Mike Mularkey and offensive coordinator Terry Robiskie:

Nice unbalanced shotgun single-back power option (reading backside DE) with arrow RPO to both sides (stack: pre-snap read, TE: post-snap read)

Unbalanced and stack formation got nickel to line up to the boundary.

TE arrow got safety to clear the alley.

Mariota is fasssst 💨💨 pic.twitter.com/dnn7yBd9Jj

— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) April 3, 2018

The offense was in an unbalanced formation. The left tackle, Taylor Lewan, was lined up as a tight end to the right, while tight end Delanie Walker was lined up at the left tackle position. There is also a stack formation to the right, so the defense declared that side to be the strong side and lined up its nickel to the boundary.

When the ball is snapped, the offense ran a power concept with the frontside of line down blocking and the backside guard wrapping around for the inside backer. However, instead of a hinge block on the backside by Walker, he ran an arrow route instead, which took the strong safety with him.

Mariota read the backside end because Walker left him unblocked. The end chased the running back, Derrick Henry, while the safety chased Walker, which caused the defense to part like the red sea for Mariota. If the safety went to tackle Mariota, Mariota had the option to throw Walker the ball.

RELATED CONTENT: See how Auburn and Oklahoma tweak their zone blocking schemes, and how you could implement them in your offense

Throwing to Walker was a post-snap read. Mariota also had the option to throw the bubble screen to the boundary if he thought he had a numbers advantage. Overall, this is a really well-designed play that could easily be installed in an offense, especially if it already runs some form of power option from the shotgun.

Counter dagger RPO

 

This play from Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy is another gap-scheme RPO. Instead of “power,” the base run concept is a counter trey with a pulling tackle and guard.

The offense was in a 3-by-1 formation with the three-receiver side to the field. The counter trey was run to the boundary and the quarterback read the backside linebacker for run or pass. The linebacker chased the run across the center, so the quarterback made the correct decision by pulling the ball and throwing the pass.

The No. 3 receiver ran a seam. The No. 2 receiver ran a bubble. The No. 1 receiver ran a dig route underneath the seam. I don’t believe the bubble is an actual option on this play unless the quarterback thought he could throw it hot because of a blitz.

RELATED CONTENT: How Andy Reid's shallow cross package could work for you

What makes this play interesting is that I believe that the quarterback could throw the dig route if the free safety covered the seam route. Without the backside linebacker playing underneath either of these routes, the free safety could only cover one of them. Giving the quarterback another answer with the dig route is smart, but he would have to see it quickly and get rid of the ball quickly because the offensive line is run-blocking.

USC two-point play

 

This two-point play creates all sorts of confusion. First, the defense has to identify who is actually an eligible receiver. I had trouble, and I get to watch the formation from the all-22 camera angle.

The “center” on the play is No. 45. He, along with the four linemen, split out wide toward the left are ineligible. The quarterback, Sam Darnold, had the option to throw the screen to the left with a convoy of offensive linemen to the left or roll out to the right.

He looked to have the numbers to throw the screen if he wanted, but chose to roll to right instead. The tight end (No. 83) on the left of the center pulled and leads for Darnold. One of the receivers ran a corner route and looked like the primary, while the other ran a spot route. Darnold’s roll got the defense to flow toward the sideline and left the spot route open for the conversion.

This would be a fun play to install and could be a headache for defenses. It could pay dividends to have this play to go to when you need a two-point conversion.

Follow Ted Nguyen on Twitter at @FB_FilmAnalysis

Want to see more content like this? Check out our Coaches Notes feature.