Play of the (other) Day: Slot Fade vs. Indiana

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Hallelujah! An explosive play! For the win!

For our formerly comatose readers who just woke up, first of all, welcome back. Second, here’s what you missed: The biggest concern/gripe with the Nittany Lions offense through the first half of the 2023 season has been the unexpected Dust Bowl drought when it comes to explosive, chunk plays – both through the air and on the ground.

As Coach Franklin confirmed in his most-recent postgame presser, the Lions try to call 8-12 “shot plays” a game. Mishaps in pass protection, lack of separation down the field, mild lack of aggression by the QB, and good opposing coverage are all contributing reasons to why they have not been successful in this department.

The 57-yard, backs-against-the-wall, gotta-have-it TD to KeAndre Lambert-Smith late in the 4^th quarter of a tie game, however, was perfectly executed in terms of everyone doing their job. The OL/RB/TE executing 7-man protection, KLS displaying great route nuances, and Allar dropping a seed.

1st & 10 from the minus 43, 1:53 left in the ball game. Not pictured on the broadcast, but Yurcich pulls up the FTB article that we wrote just before the season started, highlighting concepts and scheme wrinkles that Drew Allar would thrive in, which includes wide splits.

PSU aligns in a 3×1 trey formation with the field WR (3-Dante Cephas) positioned all the way out by The Creamery, and the slot, 1-KLS, lined up splitting the difference between the numbers and hashes. Indiana does have a single-high safety, but the unorthodox pre-snap width between the ball and the two field receivers makes it nearly impossible for the safety to assist should one of those routes stretch vertical. Regardless of whatever coverage is called, there are only 2 DBs within a country mile of our 2 receivers. Thus, we have 1v1 matchups to that side.

The only thing that could muddy this read is if a safety lined up in the middle of the field and “bracketed” the slot to take away any in-breaking route. With the safety sitting on the opposite hash, though, that’s pretty much ruled out.

Starting with 11-Malik McClain, he appears to have a “best release” go route. This means he can go inside of the corner or outside of him — because there are no other routes on his side of the ball he could interfere with. BUUUT, because of that hash safety we just talked about, McClain is ruled out pre-snap by Allar – can’t throw there.

The 7-man protection holds up just fine against 5 rushers (this is tougher of an ask than you’d imagine). Although the play-action fake is borderline pointless on a throw outside the numbers, it at least may make the rushers honor their rush lanes for a second and not pin their ears back.

Now the fun. Slot fade for the win. What’s the difference between having the fade come from the slot and not the wide out? Well, the slot has much more space to the sideline and therefore offers a much wider/larger “landing pad” for the QB to use. KLS also does a great job of keeping his line and allowing the ball to take him outside so that the CB has to close the distance and play the ball at the same time. He doesn’t, so KLS scores.

The most recent/rememberable (if that’s a word) example of this same Slot Fade concept from Yurcich came in the forgettable 2022 Jan. 1 Outback Bowl debacle vs. Arkansas.

The main difference is that Clifford’s ball placement isn’t ideal (a little too far inside, which would provide the CB or true centerfield safety an opportunity to defend the pass) but Parker Washington’s speed makes it work.