Play of the (other) Day: Yankee Concept vs. West Virginia
The Mountaineers’ teeth-chattering fear of the Penn State ground game opened the door for this potent Cover 1/Cover 3 beater
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Hate to say we told you so, buuuut…
Avid FTB readers might recall that two-ish weeks ago we predicted “shot” plays would become a point of emphasis this season now that No. 15 was slinging the rock instead of No. 14. Sure enough, our shake of the Magic 8 Ball didn’t steer us wrong…further proof that a broken clock is right twice a day.
In fact, our prediction came to fruition early in the first quarter.
As impressive as the pocket movement and poise from Drew Allar was in his first career start, we’re going to focus more so on the offensive X’s and O’s architecture that helped the sophomore QB throw multiple touchdowns versus the men in the yellow pants.
Allar’s first two touchdown passes were variants of a concept called “Yankee.”
A deep post route and deep over route are the bones of this concept, a max-protect, play-action route that’s often dialed up out of traditional run formations versus a single high safety. Here’s a look at it (FYI, we showed this diagram in the aforementioned preseason article as well…again, told you so!)
So why did Yankee work not once but twice for points on Saturday? Well, when you pose such a threat running the football, defenses are forced to bring a safety into the box. Football 101. WVU did this early on vs 12 personnel (can you blame them?), and quickly paid for it via the air. It also doesn’t hurt to have a surprisingly fleet-footed (within the pocket, anyway) QB like Allar who can avoid the rush and buy time for this long-developing concept.
Between being under center in a 2 tight-end set and short motion from KeAndre Lambert-Smith, everything pre-snap screams “Duo” — which is an inside run concept PSU often runs, and therefore was likely a point of emphasis in West Virginia’s scout of the Nittany Lions offense.
Loyal Coach Codutti Film Study watchers might remember that in his Auburn recap from 2022, Penn State ran Duo down the War Eagles’ beaks over and over by short-motioning Parker Washington back into the same condensed set KLS did on Saturday – same exact look.
When defenses are in a 1-High-Safety look, that player is referred to as the “post safety”: aligned in the middle of the field and responsible for the deep middle area of the field. Remember the deep post and over routes we talked about within the Yankee concept? Those routes force the safety to run with either/or, and leaves the remaining receiver in a footrace across the field versus their recovering corner – a tough assignment for 99% of DBs because it demands elite athleticism, anticipation, and chemistry/communication with the centerfielder safety.
That’s why, on the second TD utilizing Yankee, you have KLS wide open despite operating within a shrunken field.
