Running Mid-line to the Weakside

It's not as much about the fronts we are going to face as much as having the play and its blocking rules in our playbook.

We are in Pro Right

5 Tech DE
3 TECH DT
1 TECH NT (to the TE)
3 TECH DT
5 TECH DT
9 TECH DE
Will stacked on G and SAM stacked on the B.

They are really trying to take away our OSV (bread and butter) and are obviously vulnerable outside and to the pass. It's like playing against a junior league team that just sends everyone up a gap. I realize there are other things we can run successfully (and have) against this defense, but I just want some more options. We have run weakside midline in the past but always have offset our backs and I want to get away from giving away that key and run it out of split. We also see a 3-5 with two 5 techniques and a shaded nose to our TE which i also think this play could be successful against. Can a backside pitchback successfully kickout the last man on the LOS when running a weak midline veer? We run a little counter trey out of a stagger look with the backside G pulling onto LB and the weak back kicking out DE, but the angle is much better. Thoughts?

As far as option goes to the weak side...3 tech is unblocked--inside release by the G to Will. WT base block DE. C Base block 1 Nose. SG inside release to Sam. ST--tough block here, but teams like Carson Newman have made a living off of this--have to get 3 tech, prob a cut block. TE same as ST but to 5 tech. All in all, it is basically inside veer blocking, just adjust your launch point for inside veer to A gap or near hip of C. What you are talking about with the back blocking sounds like load, and that's a great play here, but then that block is usually a log not a kick-out. Could be a great play if you can get to the second level and get the backside 3 tech blocked. Frankly, I would run a ton of weak toss from this as well with the LT and LG both pulling to cross the face of the man on them to widen that end. Simple iso and blast to the weak side is wide open too--strong side too, for that matter. But as you said, a quick slant to the back side is there too. Have you tried running a twins set to that side? If they don't shift their corner, you have numbers, if they do, strong side is wide open.

Also...upon looking at it, if your WG can handle their 3 tech over him without help, a wide split by the WT--at least 4-5 ft--can really open up one hell of an outside veer to the weak side. You are then playing 3 on 1 rather than 2 on 1.

I am not an under center option guy, but I can tell you that we have had great difficulty defending a trap option to that side, The team that tore us up with it was a wishbone team, but I would think some of the same priciples apply, qb would reverse out, they would fake the dive to the strong side, pull either G or C and give to the RB that was on the weak side. I know this is not splitback midline, but you said you were looking for some things to take advantage of the over adjustment to the TE. PM me if you want me to email a diagram of what they did to us.

I'm a bit of a geek, so I did the math on this...Based on what I teach on minimum splits for my linemen in SBV, I figure the back has a bit over 6 yds to cover in the time the QB has to mesh and attack maybe 1.5 yds...any more than that and you've got issues with possible collisions in the backfield. It's not impossible, by any means, I don't think, but it would be very fine timing.