Commanders Training Camp Review: 4x1 Formations
Breaking down a clip from Commanders training camp with the offense using a 4x1 formation
Over the weekend I put out an article breaking down a clip of Commanders training camp practice on Twitter from my friends over at the Redzone In The Lab podcast. You guys seemed to enjoy that, so I figured I’d take a look at another clip they posted. If you or someone you know is going to training camp practices and takes any clips, be sure to send them to me on Twitter so I can break those down too.
The clip I wanted to look at is the third clip on this tweet from Redzone In The Lab:
https://twitter.com/redzoneinthelab/status/1684939001873018881?s=61&t=tNRbe9bmEPrJChOH0fYe-A
Note: Twitter has banned substack from embedding tweets, so you’ll have to click the link to take you to a separate window for Twitter in order to watch the clip.
This clip might be a little harder to make out what is going on because of the angle, but let me break it down and why I want to highlight it. It comes from seven-on-seven practice, so there’s no pass rush and it’s all about practicing route combinations and coverages.
What we see in this clip is the Commanders aligning in a four by one formation. This means that the offense has four of their five eligible receivers all aligned on one side of the field, leaving one receiver isolated on the opposite side. On this occasion, the Commanders do this with two receivers, Dyami Brown and Jahan Dotson joining tight end John Bates in a bunch set to the left. Running back Antonio Gibson then also aligns to the left of the quarterback, making him the fourth eligible receiver to that side of the field. This all leaves Terry McLaurin isolated to the right side of the formation. On paper, it would look something like this.
By aligning all these receivers to one side of the field and having them run routes that don’t cross the field, the offense is forcing the defense to adjust its coverage significantly to match up. Most basic zone schemes and even some pattern matching schemes struggle to handle four receivers on one side of the field, so defenders from the other side of the field that would typically hold their spots instead have to slide across to try and help rebalance the numbers.
This is obviously a good thing for the offense to do because it forces the defense to adjust to being so heavily overloaded on one side of the field and if they don’t, then the offense will have an open receiver to that side. But perhaps more importantly, it opens up space on the other side of the field for the single receiver that’s isolated on that side. In the clip above, that receiver is Terry McLaurin. With so much attention focused on the other side of the field, McLaurin is effectively one-on-one on the back side and he can run a simple slant route to beat his man and make the use of the space created by the formation.
This is something Eric Bieniemy and the Chiefs used a lot last year to help create favorable looks for the offense and give the quarterback the option to get the ball out of his hands quickly. Here’s an example of the exact same concept, albeit from a slightly different look, against the 49ers last year:
The Chiefs get to this concept slightly differently, using pre-snap motion to get to the bunch set, but the route combination is the same with the intent to create space for the slant on the back side. Once the ball is snapped, you can see how the defense has to adjust to being overloaded on one side. The defense all slides across further than they would for a more balance formation, which vacates space for the slant on the back side. You can also see how simple this is for the quarterback. At the snap, he looks to the linebacker in the middle of the field and reads his intentions. As soon as that linebacker opens his body and turns his head slightly to the four receiver side of the field, Patrick Mahomes knows he can throw the slant and immediately pulls the trigger.
That last point is why I wanted to highlight this clip in particular. Obviously, it’s great to get a receiver like Terry McLaurin isolated one-on-one with space to work with. He’ll win from that situation far more often than not and then he can show off his ability after the catch to turn a simple slant into 10 or even 15 yards, maybe more. But more broadly, I wanted to look at how simple this makes things for the quarterback.
The Chiefs used these four by one formations to create very simple reads for the quarterback where he could read one single defender and throw based on how that defender reacted, all within moments of snapping the ball. They played around with different route combinations and ways to get into those four by one looks, but they all had the same core idea.
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