Santana Moss fears no broken plays

Jul/16/07 11:20 AM Filed in: Santana Moss
A while back I drew reader(s) attention towards a new series on Football Outsiders where they exhaustively break down individual plays. They covered a Redskins/Titans play that yielded good yardage and a first down... for the Titans. FO's Mike Tanier must have a vendetta crush on the Redskins, as his newest installment returns to the Redskins/Titans game, this time with the good guys on offense. The setup:

The typical full-house package includes several running plays, some six- or seven-man protection passes, and a few wrinkles on basic pass plays. Today, we are going to install something a little more exotic: an end around from a full-house formation. This play was used by the Redskins against the Titans in Week 6. The play only yielded a minimal gain, so we will examine ways to improve it after we look at what actually happened on the field.

The situation: First-and-10, first quarter, Redskins trailing by three points. The Redskins deploy a three-receiver, single-back, single-tight end personnel package, but they align in a full house formation with Chris Cooley and Antwaan Randle El at "fullback."

The article has helpful diagrams if this isn't making a whole lot of sense. What you'd see is Chris Cooley, Randle-El, and Portis in the backfield, with Moss lined up close to the O-line on the right and Brandon Lloyd wide on the left. The play involves Moss faking a block and taking the ball in a handoff towards the left sideline. It relies on subterfuge, as Randle-El has to sell a play fake to him running to the right. What happens?