Stopping the Rocket Sweep

[Orange and Brown]

I would have to say the best way to stop it is to plug the open holes and force the play to the sideline.

[boilermaker]

Tackle the ball carrier

[Orange and Brown]

Tackle the ball carrier

Thats what I'm talking about. Short and sweet.

[wrestlefan]

play a cover 4
let the safeties run the alleys and make the tackle for a 3 yard loss... end the whole toss thing real quick...
put nine in the box (safeties).. man up on the outside .. jam the hell out of the tight end and bring it

[Charles Farquar]

Remember like all plays the Rocket should be part of a series. The Rocket sweep is part of a series of plays that like any other Wing-T series takes advantage of defensive reactions by creating conflicts. The Rocket motion actually becomes as important or more important than the sweep itself.
Because you have a running back coming in motion at full speed before the ball is snapped and then catching the ball on a dead all out run over the
tight end area he is already outside a large number of the defenders in the interior of the defense. The defense has to make movement or alignment adjustments to this motion or be outflanked, that is when the play caller has to attack the areas that have been vacated or left vulnerable by the defensive adjustments or movements.The play is intended to be a wide play with the pitch back taking it to the hash, numbers and side line. However it doesnt have to break wide all the time. The jet series is more deceptive but the rocket allows the pitchback to make better cuts upfield .If you have decent perimeter blocking from your wide outs and slot backs, your backs will learn with experience to find seams
that are created between the slots and split ends and be able to make cuts up into the perimeter defenders for positive yardage. Navy uses it as a compliment to the inside veer ran into a split end side, because you can put the defensive end in a 5 technique in a bind. If he is closing on the fullback to stop the veer he is vulnerable to the Rocket. If he is sitting on the rocket or widening on motion the ball will be handed to the fullback up inside the defensive end. A good compliments for teams that do not run the veer to the split end side is the Belly Zone. To the tight end side fullback rocket down play off tackle and the Down option which if the Outside Linebacker or strong safety is blitzing the motion back creates a seam for a running quarterback. After awhile any inside counter coming back away from rocket action will usually find the inside linebackers flying outside. It creates good play action possibilities with boots and screens away and play action playside should involve passes to attack areas vacated by defensive adjustments by the contain personnel or the Free Safety running the alley. Other things important to the execution of a Rocket Series would involve the use of an audible system to attack the perimeter side with the fewer numbers and the use of unbalanced formations against teams that allow themselves to be out flanked by alignment.

[wrestlefan]

good thinking charles..

however, i am a huge fan of cover 4... aggressive safeties jumping up to play the box...
they are unaccounted for in pretty much all blocking schemes..
4-3 cover 4
beat me when i cant man up with you on the outside...

[Charles Farquar]

Thats a tough secondary against the option and the rocket sweep. So Im having some fun here. I know, the last one with the marker board always wins and this is just Xs and Os, so depending on who I had for Jimmy and who I had for Joe I might not be able to execute it. So here goes my turn at the marker board .You must be able to execute play action wheel routes with a skinny post by the split end and a wheel by the halfback against it.Also skinny post with a playside halfback route attacking the flat. Blocking adjustment on the perimeter would be to off set the fullback and crack and wall off the safeties with the split end while arc blocking the corner with the Fullback. The same formation could be used to bait the the safety coming up on the rocket action in order to hit the wheel or flat route.
If you dont want to attack walled cities you could also formation the defense out of that coverage, rocket sweep can be ran out of no back trips.It can also be ran out of gun , regular empty or no back or gun empty.

[madpolecat]

Now this is getting interesting...

[MTSWNGRVSG]

CF-have you been down to GT? Have we talked talked before, correct?

[madpolecat]

I was intrigued by the way Navy adjusted -- formation-wise -- against Notre Dame last year.

I guess that the Navy guys were having trouble getting ND's linebackers blocked, so Navy moved the split ends in much tighter and used them to block the LBs.

How does the rocket time-up out of the gun? Would seem to me that the sweep would be slowed down by the gun snap.

The rocket sweep just fascinates me, guys.

[JabbatheDel]

Hey Farquar,

You seem to know quite a bit about X's and O's from all angles. Would you call yourself an "Innovator" in any way?

I remember a dinosaur from long ago who considered himself an somewhat of an innovator.

[wrestlefan]

sucky thing about the cover 4... formationing someone right out of it...
try hard all week/2 a days to scheme to stay in it.. but gotta just go cover three vs. something different... roll up a ss and know it is coming weak side... a lot of people say you shouldnt run cover 2 and 4 together cause of the different techniques required by the safety and the corner...
i think you can... play a half or run the alley... stay in a shell and not show the coverage...
sometimes squat the corners... but then you are asking your man up guys to be run first and your safeties to play the pass....
although qurky, i think with good coaching you can get this in during two a days...
ok i rambled.. i love talking cover 4..lol... when you have a few studs, they can just play maniac at a safety and are fun to coach..
we used to jump into a bear front mixed with 4-3 cover 4... our problem was we were asking our safety to come inside and play a lber in the bear... we didnt coach it well... our stud d1 safety wasnt coached on how to play lber and we didnt figure out that he wasnt playing it well because we were asking him to do something he wasnt coached... my fault...live and learn..(we still made the playoffs that yr.)...

[Ben Buckles]

Farquar must be a genius!!!!!! I'm gonna get in my 5-3 Farquar and shut that rocket down!!!!!! You have a good day buddy. You know who I am. Formation me out my butt!!!

[MTSWNGRVSG]

Do I smell cover 1 coming with the 53?

[OVCfan32]

for jet sweep. . . we always beat it with the basic 4-4 nickel package. . . . .having quick olb just force it back in towards the safety . . . usually a 1 to 2 yard gain. . or the olb tackles behind the line of scrimage

[91Buckeye]

Depending on the formation there are a couple of different things to look at defensively with the 5-2. If they are running it out of double wing with 2 te's your cb is going to offer a lot of outside/in support to your d ends allowing them to concentrate on blowing up the lead block and slow the momentum enough to for your lb's to get there. If they split you out on one side roll up a safety to the split end side to replace the outside support of the corner. If they spread both ends I like the cover 4 scheme. I think this gives you the best chance to defend this package from a variety of different offensive looks.

[boogerred]

Does anyone have a kid who plays 7-tech end that can stop both the rocket sweep and the off-tackle play underneath it?

[JohnKnight]

Depends on who is blocking him.

[boogerred]

An average TE

[Charles Farquar]

Boogerred have you ever looked on the website http://www.jetsweep.com? There is a rocket counter up on the home page you can play. If you register (no cost) you can get into their discussion board in the video section. Several clips of rocket and rocket counters in action.