In this article I'll talk a little bit about our audible system; our
philosophy of it, how we coach it and how we execute it. I'm a big
believer that audibles can be a crucial element in successful football
offense. Look at what Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts
have managed to do in the last couple of seasons with Peyton making lots
of adjustments at the line of scrimmage.
What is an audible?
We use the term "audible" to mean a situation where our quarterback
changes the play in some manner at the line of scrimmage and conveys
that to the rest of the team thru either verbal or physical signals.
It can be a minor adjustment, like running the same play to the other
side of the field, or a major adjustment like changing to an entirely
different play.
A "hot read" is a different thing. That's what happens when one
or more players, frequently including the QB, sees something in the
defense that triggers him to make a pre-planned adjustment to their
action on the play. Hot reads are usually not communicated between
players, it's each player's responsibility to recognize the hot read and
make the appropriate change.
When To Audible
We tell our players that there are two times that we want to audible:
- To get us out of a bad play
- To get us into a good play
If the play called in the huddle is a sweep to the right and our
quarterback sees when he comes to the line of scrimmage that they've
overloaded the right side and are obviously blitzing off that corner
then perhaps a sweep into that action is not the best idea. An
audible into a different play would be a good idea.
On the other hand, occasionally a defense makes a mistake in
alignment or personnel. I'm sure we've all had a play or two where
no defender went out to line up opposite one of our split receivers.
In fact, I have a funny story about that happening in one game which
I'll relate shortly. When that happens you'd like your quarterback
to be able to recognize it and quickly get your team into a play to take
advantage of it.
We don't limit our quarterback's ability to audible. If he
makes a read that tells him he should change the play then he should
change the play. In our offense we also don't restrict what
he can audible to. The entire playbook is open for him; though
obviously some plays are a lot more common audibles than others and we
do give him some shortcuts to help.
Types of Audibles
We actually have two kinds of audibles:
- Cadence audibles: These are the kind that most people
think of when they think of an audible. Our quarterback comes
to the line of scrimmage, sees that he wants to change the play and
as part of his cadence does so. An example of this would be:
"One, slant!
One, slant!"
- Play adjustments: These are somewhere between a hot read
and a cadence audible. For example the quarterback may come to
the line of scrimmage and see something in the coverage that tells
him that he wants the X receiver to run a fade route instead of a
slant. At some point pre-snap he will look at the X and give
him a physical signal to indicate that. It may be grasping his
own facemask, slapping himself on the chest or making some kind of
hand gesture. The X indicates that he understands by clapping
his hands.
Our Cadence
Before we get into how we call our audibles I should take a moment to
explain what our cadence is. The cadence is the set of signals
that the quarterback calls at the line of scrimmage to initiate the
play. In our system it goes like this:
- As the quarterback approaches the line of scrimmage he looks
over the defense (we'll talk more about pre-snap reads soon).
When he is ready he places is hands under the center (or holds them
up if he's in the shotgun) and yells "Down". That tells our
offensive linemen to get in a ready position with their hands on
their knees and tells our backs and receivers to get to their first
position in the formation. The exception is our center who
should already be in position with his hand on the football, ready
to snap, when the QB assumes the position behind him.
- The quarterback then calls the audibles which consist of a
number generally between 1 and 4 followed by a play indicator.
"One, Slant" or "Two, Bob 2 Freeze" or "Four, Mirror" etc.
He will repeat the same audible twice, once to the left and once to
the right.
- After a beat the quarterback will yell "Set!" That tells
our offensive linemen to drop into their three-point stances and
tells our backs and receivers to either assume their three-point or
two-point ready stances depending upon their position. If we
have motion in the backfield this tells the motion back to begin
their motion.
- After the appropriate delay (usually just a beat, but could be
longer if we have long motion) the quarterback yells "GO!" which
tells our center to snap the ball and the rest of the team to begin
the attack.
Like most teams we do use a snap count and that indicates which "GO"
we're actually going to go on. If the play is on 2 then he'll yell
"GO!....GO!" and we'll go on the second GO!. On 3 we'd go on
the third "GO!" and so forth. We rarely ever use more than 3 gos.
Our quarterback usually decides in the huddle what count he wants to
snap on, but on occasion when I send the play in I'll also sent in an
instruction that he should use a short or long count for that play.
We have a lot of different rhythms we can snap the ball on.
Here is our list of possible snap counts:
- "On first sound" - Like it says, first thing the QB yells
the center is going to snap the ball and we'll attack. Great
for catching a defense off-guard; especially useful against defenses
that shift around a lot or that we feel we're better conditioned
than and we want to press the tempo.
- "On down" - Essentially the same as above.
- "On first call" - The ball gets snapped as soon as the QB starts
his first audible.
- "On second call" - Like the preceding; ball is snapped as soon
as the QB starts his second audible. This one is pretty
effective at catching defenses off-guard. Once you get past
first sound and start into your audibles most defensive players take
a deep breath and assume you won't snap until you finish both
audibles.
- "On set" - Audibles are done and we're going to snap on "Set!"
instead of waiting for "Go!"
- "On 1" - First Go!
- "On 2" - Second Go!
- "On 3" - Third Go!
- "Sit Tight" - We don't use this very often but sometimes
(especially in short yardage) against undisciplined or aggressive
teams, we'll let our QB just try to hard count them. He may go
thru 3, 4 or even 5 Go! calls and the ball is never snapped.
If he decides that the defense isn't going to jump then he'll step
back for a moment, yell to everybody "It's on." then we'll snap the
ball on his next Go! and run the play.
Sometimes we'll use "Sit Tight" with no play at all; especially in a
4th and short situation. If the QB gets a few Go!s in and decides
the defense isn't going to jump he'll just pull up and call a timeout.
Then we'll send the kicking team out.
Live audibles vs. fake ones
If every time you come to the line of scrimmage and yell "Slant!" you
change your play to slant passes the defense is going to catch on pretty
quickly. Sometimes when you yell "Slant" you want to stick to your
original play instead. You want the defense to have no idea what
you're actually going to run. Accordingly you need some way to
signal to your team when you are really changing the play and when
you're bluffing. Some teams do that with colors:
"Blue 42! Blue
42!"
Are we changing the play or not? The only way to know is if you
know what the "Live Color" is. The offense is told beforehand
"Blue is our live color" so anytime they hear "Blue" they know that the
play is changing. If the QB yells "Red 42!" and the live color is
blue then he's bluffing and the play doesn't change. Some teams
change their live color every game. Some change it every quarter.
Some change it every series.
I prefer to use the snap count system myself. I think it's
easier for the players to remember and it's more multiple. You
never have to change it because it effectively changes every play.
I think it's too easy for a player, especially a tired one, to hear
"Blue 42!" and think "Is Blue still our live color? Or was that
last quarter?" Then you get confusion and missed plays.
Our system is actually pretty simple when you get used to it.
One rule: If the number the QB says first is the same as the snap
count then we're changing the play. For example: If the play
called in the huddle is "Bob 2 Freeze on 1" then the QB comes to the
line, looks over the field and yells "1 Slant, 1 Slant" then that means
we're changing the play to a slant pass to our split receiver(s).
If he had said "2 Slant, 2 Slant" then we are not changing the play.
The snap count was 1 and at the line he said 2.
If the play called in the huddle was "Chad 8 Sweep on 3" and he comes
to the line of scrimmage and yells "1 Bob 2 Freeze, 1 Bob 2 Freeze" then
we're not changing the play. The snap count was 3 and he said 1.
If he came to the line and said "3 Fade, 3 Fade" then we are changing
the play to fade. Snap count is 3, audible was 3.
The defense can't break it unless they know what the snap count is.
Our QBs use real audible words on every play ("Slant" is a popular
choice) so they can't guess that just because the QB said "Fade" or
"Sweep" that he's changing the play.
Naturally this also means we can only change the play at the line if
we're going on 1, 2 or 3. If we're going on first sound we have no
opportunity to change the play. That's a weakness but one shared
by all systems so not really important.
One last rule...if we change the play with a line audible we're going to snap
the ball on 1. I've gone back and forth on this, concerned that it might
confuse the players, but my current thought is that it's easier to just snap on
1 if we change the play.
I'll have some more on this subject soon...