Play Of The (other) Day: Picket Fence Shift to Duo Kick vs. SMU

True to his nature, Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki pulled-apart then contracted the Hoberman Sphere in the blink of an eye for a gift TD near the goal line.

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While Penn State’s first playoff game might’ve lacked some anticipated offensive fireworks, there were still a handful of very intriguing plays that caught the eye of us football sickos.

For me, personally, a pre snap movement that Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki plucked out from deeeeep in the vault brought a holiday smile to my face. Let’s take a look at Kaytron Allen’s early 4^th quarter touchdown…more specifically, how Kotelnicki used the Picket Fence Shift to gain a gap and create a walk-in score.

PLAY ON DIGITAL TAPE (until the corporate Grinch at Veritone blocks it…so hurry up and press play!):

2nd and Goal, early 4th Quarter, SMU’s will to win is already wavering. Out of the huddle, PSU lines up in this ultra-funky formation with essentially the entire offense stretched across the line of scrimmage. Take a look at the formation on paper and see if you can tell where I am going with this…

Side note – do I need to explain why this is called “The Picket Fence”? Pretty self-explanatory, no?

PLAY ON PAPER:

I am sure you already called it out, but see how there’s an extra OL on the left side of the ball?

The goal of this pre-snap song and dance is to distort the defense so much that they don’t realize this the placement/alignment shuffling of the offensive linemen. Typically, linebackers can sniff out a traditional tackle-over look pretty easily – they have seen a traditional “T G C G T” alignment so many times from their POV that anything different is almost immediately picked up on.

The Picket Fence, however, is so unorthodox that defenders’ minds go elsewhere – mesmerized by the movement. Post-shift, PSU is now in an ultra-condensed ‘Strong I formation.’ The offensive line is practically foot-to-foot with an extra big eater on the left.

Watch again:

Notice the confusion along SMU’s 2nd level. They’re trying to sort out how to line up to this, but they don’t figure out gap assignments in time. It’s tough to tell precisely what run concept this is but essentially you get heavy down blocks on the frontside with a Tyler Warren kick-out. Walk in TD.