Blitz (gridiron Football) - Playing Against The Blitz

Playing Against The Blitz

Offenses employ the above procedures to beat the blitz as well as two other techniques and passing route combinations designed to exploit weaknesses in a blitzing scheme.

One of those techniques is called "throwing hot," which entails intentionally leaving one blitzing defensive player unblocked. The offensive line usually makes pre-snap adjustments so that the "free" rusher is clearly within the QB's field of vision. This limits devastating blind-side hits on the QB by rushers. When the preparedness of a quarterback allows him to not have to worry about getting hit from behind, it's one less psychological element of the blitz to be taken away, and thus blitz is incrementally made less effective by that particular element.

The other technique, sometimes used in conjunction with throwing hot, is called sight adjustment. Receivers are taught to run into the empty spot vacated by a blitzing player instead of running their pre-assigned pattern. The QB sees the free rusher or blitzing LB/CB and knows that the receiver will sight adjust accordingly and run a route that takes him into the hole left by the defender.

The West Coast Offense is an offense that focuses on ball control and short passes. This is a well timed offense where the quarterback throws the ball quickly to avoid the rush, but still allow the wide receiver to get behind the blitzing players.

Another method is a trick play, known as an "offensive blitz", because it is used when the defense blitzes. A quarterback throws a pass to a receiver to draw the remaining defenders to him, because the blitzers will be in the backfield, and the quarterback runs down the other side of the field; the receiver then throws the ball back to the quarterback with a lateral, who then tries to run in for a touchdown. If executed properly, this can get either a touchdown or a huge chunk of yardage, and heavily discourage blitzing. Ideally, the blitzing defenders are all in the backfield while the corners are all over the receiver. The New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers have run variations of the play successfully in the National Football League playoffs.