Triple option
What it is
One play with three ball carriers: the dive, the quarterback keep and the pitch, decided by reading two defenders.
Why it matters
The triple is the most demanding play in football to run and the most demanding to defend, because the offense declines to block two defenders and makes both of them wrong in sequence. It converts a numbers disadvantage into an advantage everywhere else on the field, at the price of requiring more repetitions than most programs can afford.
Both sides of it
Running it
Two defenders are left unblocked: the dive key and the pitch key. The quarterback reads the dive key at the mesh — give if he stays outside, pull if he closes. Having pulled, he attacks the pitch key and applies the speed-option rule. Every other blocker works to the second and third level, which is the entire point: two unblocked defenders buy two extra blockers downfield.
Stopping it
Three responsibilities, three defenders, no improvising: dive, quarterback, pitch — plus a fourth player for the ever-present play-action throw behind it. The most common failure is not being beaten physically but two defenders taking the same man. Defenses that beat the triple do it by making the reads muddy — slow-playing keys, exchanging responsibilities after the snap — rather than by trying to be faster than the pitch.
Also called
Programs call this triple, triple option, dive-keep-pitch or flexbone. The Coach answers to any of them.
Related
This entry is authored, not generated. It is one of 205 in the index that the AI-ssistant Coach retrieves from, and that Film Study tags clips against.