ASU Football: Play Action for The Offense

It’s no secret that the ASU offense likes to pass the ball.  The whole PAC-12 (with the exception of Stanford) likes to sling the rock all day long.  But offensive coordinators know that it’s important to have balance on offense.  Therefore it’s critical to try to establish a good running attack on offense.

Being able to run the ball well is its own reward, however it opens up the playbook considerably by way of the play-action pass.  Play-action is when the offense fakes a hand-off, making it look like a running play when it’s actually a passing play.  The idea of play-action is to freeze linebackers and safeties to hold them close to the line of scrimmage while your receivers release downfield.  It’s tough to defend.

But the problem is that if you aren’t effective running the ball, you won’t fake anybody out when you run play-action pass.  The defense won’t commit to moving another safety up and they won’t bite on the fake.

For ASU, quarterback Taylor Kelly thrives in play-action pass plays.  He also thrives in the zone-read option.  For those concepts to work, the Sun Devils must be able to run the ball effectively.  The re-tooled offensive line and the rotation at running back will be the prime factors in that endeavor.  Expect offensive coordinator Mike Norvell to mix in some pistol formation again this year, especially with DJ Foster in the backfield.  The Pistol formation keeps the defensive ends honest because the running back can run the zone read in either direction.

Bottom line is that if this new “nastier” offensive line can get the job done, the play-action pass will be a deadly option for this ASU offense.  With the weapons on this team, any scheme that gets one on one coverage out in space is going to be a problem for the defense.