Truck Toss or pin and pull from condensed is big in the NFL during the playoffs right now. The Packers showed how good of a run this could be last weekend against the 49ers running the ball with WR's with good leverage cracking down on DE's and LB's to help get athletic OL to block DBs in space and create space for the RB to hit the alley or circle the defense depending on the blocks on the perimeter. It's a staple of the Shanahan Coaching tree run game, Monken while at Georgia as the OC had called this play often with success, and it has also been a big play for the Detroit Lions under Ben Johnson. I like his play and can hit on some positives and some negatives of it on why we've liked in the last two seasons, but wanted to start with a video of Dan Orlovsky explaining why he thinks it's a great play and you'll see Detroit do well with it this weekend.
When we studied this is summer of 2022 before installing it and discussing the issues with the play. The big ones we found were:
Issues with Truck Toss or Flip:
Penetration in the C gap where the tackle gets picked.
Match up issue with the Slot (for ex) on a MIKE, etc.
Gray area (i.e. stemming) on who is pulling between PSG & C.
Peculiar fronts and bunch alignments need to be worked.
What we found that we liked about the play was:
It's a spotted play meaning we could call it and haul it vs all looks and rules would our hold up even if it wasn't home run, we didn't need to Can or Kill the call.
It was a great Can or Kill to for us when paired with duo if the point of the bunch had bad leverage to block Sam blitz inside the point of the bunch.
We could use motion to help gain numbers by motioning to or away from the call.
We were very motion heavy to gain numbers or have fakes opposite the point of attack.
We preferred it from condensed formations which was our base splits, but helped have leverage for crack blocks.
Multiplicity with the Crack Blocks, we organized out crack blocks into two buckets:
Uno: Single Crack. Crack first man inside on LOS we referred to it as the "one block." (usually the DE))
Dos: Double Crack. Outside man blocks first man inside the box off the LOS we referred to this as the "two block." Usually the PSLB.
End head up the point of the bunch and Backer inside = Zillow call combo between the 1 & 2 blocks from 1 to the 2 block.
We would tag an Arc for the number 3 player in the bunch to Arc for #1 defender from the SL . (Example call: Bunch RT SQZ 18 Dos Arc)
We could motion to gain numbers to arc block as well with the motion man as the Arc. This helped with teams that might not adjust to motion to gain numbers. (Example call: Stacks RT SQZ F-Rocket 18 Dos Arc)
Motion was also good if teams did adjust to it for us. If teams focused on the motion we often had ways to motion to get defenders running away from the point of attack and gain better leverage and angles. We could fake fly sweep one way and run Uno Arc or Uno without an Arc to go opposite where the defense has numbers.
The ball handling can also be faked to hand the fly action and flip the ball to the RB opposite to help put horizontal stress on the defense and help the defense have dirty eyes.
Examples below of different looks we had worked on:
Base Rules:
Sam on LOS:
End Outside the Point:
End Head Up the Point: (Z should push 1 block into the F on the way to the 2 block F needs to seal 2 in the box if he passes the F angle wise pin next defender off the LOS in the box pullers will clean up defenders outside the crack blocks.)
Our general rule for pullers was to run to reach, if defenders were dead set on setting an outside edge then the block could turn into a wider kick out. If you were cracking you pinned the defenders inside leading with your hands traditionally outside foot up in crack alignment. A good split by the 1 block helped stop the tackle from getting picked by the C defender getting cracked. If your crack block is outside of you, then you can't crack him so you should always be looking inside to pin based on rules. If worst case scenario happens and the man your pinning crosses face look for another defender flowing to pin inside the pullers will clean up anyone who escapes the box.
The next thing besides the concept is carrying plays to protect it. We carried Naked and Keeper passes off toss action to take advantage of aggressive run fits. If you run fly sweep you can use that as well as a constraint play to protect it if teams are giving you leverage to do it. I have also seen teams carry gadget plays off it including flea flickers, HB passes, throwback screens, and other gadgets to take advantage of defenses off a base run concept. You can dress up the constraint plays and play actions the same way you would motion shift or trade to run toss.
Below are some resources on the play including playbook diagrams , clips from X (Twitter) and cut ups on Youtube. Included at the bottom are gadgets, tricks, and keepers as well as a screen off of the play.
2018 Kyle Shanahan 49er's Playbook
2016 Kyle Shanahan Falcons
2012 Matt Canada Playbook Drawings
Keepers off of Taxi Crack Toss Action:
WR Screen away from Toss Action:
Gadget Plays off of Crack Toss:
Any questions on the topic please feel free to reach out and hopefully can find some more resources for you.
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