The Flexbone Offense

[DRM]

The Double Wing, Wingbone, Double Slot, Spread Option, or as EA has chosen to call it the Flexbone is an option offense out of a Run n Shoot Formation.

The flexbone has the potential to have 4 receivers in the pass game and 4 backs in the running game. The flexbone formation is balanced and forces the defense to play a balanced front as well. Any over shifting by the defense gives the flexbone an advantage to the weak side of the defense. The base play of the flexbone is the triple option it's the bread and butter of the offense, this play must be ran consistently against everything the defense has put up to stop it.

This is my version of the Flexbone, I don't run it the same way the more traditional triple option teams such as Navy, Air Force or Rice run it. I like to pass the ball and stay balanced and I use the running game to set up my big plays in the passing game. Think of it as a Triple Option Run n Shoot Offense.

Offensive Personnel For The Flexbone

Quarterback - It really doesn't matter. I have ran this offense effectively with Jason White, who in this game has a speed rating in the mid 50's, I don't agree with that but that is for another thread. Probably the most important ratings would be AGL & ACC, the QB doesn't need game breaking speed but he needs to be able to cut quickly incase there is penetration by the D-Line and he needs to be quick enough to get up field quickly on the "keeper". I prefer not to have a really fast QB because I usually end up out running my blockers and/or my pitch man. I'm not saying you can't be successful with a fast QB I'm just saying that you don't have to have a Brad Smith or Marcus Vick to run the Flexbone. In fact Chris Leak from Florida may be the prototype QB for the Flex.

Half Backs - Quick and Agile backs with good hands. I throw a lot of passes to my HB's and I usually use converted WR's at this position. Before I took the time to actually learn this offense I was under the impression that I needed decent blockers at HB, but that’s not the case at all. SPD, ACC, AGL, and CTH are much more important.

Wide Receivers and Tight Ends - Pretty much whatever you prefer here. You don't need the TE's to be great blockers. I prefer receiving type TE's because I use them a lot in the passing game.

Offensive Line - This is where it all begins...and if you have a bad line this is where it ends...very quickly :) . I have recently had a change of heart about this position, due to me not allowing enough of my budget for discipline and the probation that resulted I was not able to replace my graduated linemen with my usual 6'5" 300+ lbs OL's. I thought I would be forced to depend less on the run than before but actually I am running the ball better now than ever. It seems that an average linemen with great ACC and AGL doesn't get pushed back as often as an average lineman without those attributes. So basically you don't have to panic if your line isn't huge, yeah there will be times when they get pushed into the backfield but not enough to keep you from being effective on the ground, and also motion and misdirection seems to take some of the aggressiveness out of the D-Linemen.

Fullback - Ok I saved the most important for last. This should be the best athlete on your offense. The FB needs to be strong, fast, quick, agile, and have the ability to break tackles. He doesn't need to be big, I like my FB to be at least 200 lbs but I had a 186 lb FB that won the Heisman with almost 3000 all purpose yards. Unlike a traditional FB he doesn't need to be a great blocker or even a good blocker because he really doesn't do much blocking except in pass protection.

The Playbook

This is pretty simple. The Air Force and Navy playbooks both offer all of the Flexbone formations. The only difference is that Air Force has 3 different I formations and Navy has the Power I and a couple of SG formations. I use a custom playbook because I don't play online, the other 3 formations are always changing in my custom playbook, but I'm not really sure why because I never use them anyway.

At the moment my custom playbook looks like this...

Flexbone - Normal
Flexbone - Twins
Flexbone - Wide
Flexbone - Split
Flexbone - Slot
Flexbone - Tight
Ace - Spread
Ace - Slot
Ace - Trips

Like I said I never use the other 3 formations, I tried using the wishbone formations but they really didn't fit with my personnel or philosophy so I went to the Ace formations, its really up to you what you use.


Ok, there is the basic set up, I will try to get into the playcalling ASAP.

[DRM]

Ok you have your personnel and your playbook set up, so now all you need to do is line up and run the triple option over and over until you score, right? Well you can but you are limiting yourself and missing out on a lot of big plays and eventually your option will be stopped and you will be calling "ALL GO" and lobbing passes downfield.

At one time I had pretty much given up on running any of the WB runs, they just didn't work. After taking a closer look I realized that they compliment the other running plays and if you set them up correctly they can be very dangerous. When running the WB plays the first thing I look at is the playside DE, I let him decide if the play goes inside or outside, if he crashes to the inside or is driven back then I go outside if he tries to go around the tackle or simply holds his ground then I will cut back to the inside.

I have divided the plays into series much like a Wing T offense does, which is logical considering the formation that EA calls a Flexbone is really more of a Double Wing T formation than the Flexbone formation a team like Air Force runs. If they wanted to make a true flexbone formation they need to give the linemen wider splits (Air Force uses 2' splits between the guards and center and 3' between the guards and tackles) and the WB's should be aligned 3' off the ball and should split the tackles stance with their inside leg. Anyway we all know EA has never been accused of knowing X's and O's so I will just be thankful that they got it this close.

Back to my point, I have divided the plays into 3 series, the FB Option series, the Dive series and the Sting series. To see what I'm talking about look at the FB Option play, now if you look at the Option Pass, Quick Option, and WB Inside you will notice that the FB's route is the same on all 4 plays. I call the FB Option then the Option Pass, WB Inside, then the Quick Option. I don't always stick to that order and sometimes I will leave one of the plays out to keep from becoming predictable, but you get the idea.

Below are the 3 "series" that I use. All three series can be run from any of the 6 formations because all of the flexbone formations contain the same running plays with the exceptions being the QB Sweep which is not in the Normal or Wide formations and the Triple WR Option which is only found in the Twins and Split formations.

FB Option Series
FB Option
Option Pass
Quick Option
WB Inside

Dive Series
FB Dive
FB Trap
WB Lead
Triple Option
Triple WR Option

Sting Series
FB Sting
WB Around
WB Sweep
QB Sweep
Triple Option Counter

I run Play Action off of the Dive and Sting series. For the rest of the passing game I use a lot of the Run n Shoot philosophy that is well documented in COG's RnS thread along with the screen passes.

[maddenbowl62]

nice post. i might try the flexbone.

[CrazyOldGuy]

Good Stuff DRM!!

Like Bomber I kind of cut my teeth on the wonderful old Wing-T offense. So I just loved how you incorporated the idea of a "series" style of play calling as I'm always looking for ways to be more like the wing t coaches I know who always know if they're opponents are defending the dive, they should run the sweep, if the are defend the sweep they should bootleg pass, just such a simple and effective way of calling a game especially if you're new to football strategy and looking for an easy way to employ real styles of playcalling.

[DRM]

I haven't used the flesbone much lately because of the huge drop off in talent I have had lately, which for the most part is due to my unwillingness to suspend my star players and the subsequent probations that resulted.

Because of the poor talent level I have moved to a VERY conservative 2 TE 2/3 RB scheme which allows me to lose by a small margin instead of the 20-30 point margins I was losing by :o

Off the top of my head the two PA rollouts were very good especially the one where you roll left and one of the WB's runs a fly route, he will be open most of the time and if you get time and he has good speed and hands then its almost a money play. Then of course there are the screens with the most effective one being the WR screen out of the slot formation, I really like that play vs zone coverage and if you motion the FB to the playside he will take out the CB on that side allowing the WB to pick up the safty or a LB and it usually results in a big gain.

[djwill13]

someone was asking where this thread was(i wondered too ;) )............found it :D

[mikeylanga]

I'm absolutely addicted to running the flexbone attack. It's by far the most enjoyable offense I've found to run. I have to agree with DRM that the flexbone is great for a multi-threat running attack, and also yields a very effective passing game. Not only is it a great offense to utilize for a balanced attack, but I love the variations and nuances that you can throw in here and there.

I've found that the passing game out of this formation can be unstoppable at times, especially when you play off the threat of your running attack. I pass to the WB's/TE/FB to control the middle of the field (very effective against the blitz); this gives fits to LB's defending the run/pass. Something simple I run is to playaction to the FB, which freezes the LB's, and then just swing the ball out to a WB. Against man, if you can clear out one side by running your WR through then your WB can easily beat the LB to the corner and you have a nice gain up the sideline. Also, with your WB's/TE/FB all receiving threats, it's easy to run one over the middle and one to each sideline. This is a simple attack to use against a blitz. Just watch the zone blitz with DL's dropping back, but normally all you have to do is dump it in the area that is being vacated by the blitzer. The option pass is also a good play provided you get decent protection.

[JF-HAWKEYE]

If you use motion the flexbone offense is too predictable. I think it takes too long for plays to open up and it allows for EASY blitzes around the ends. I've always had no trouble blowing it up out of 4-4 with good corners and olbs

[djwill13]

that's when you pass out of it!!!

[mikeylanga]

^^^ exactly! I think Flexbone is one of the best formations to beat the blitz with. IMO, the trick is to utilize the speed of your WB's. If I get blitzed off the ends, I just dump it to a WB. This has worked really effectively for me, and I actually welcome teams blitzing against me. The Flexbone is great for quickhitting plays in the middle or to the flats because of the WB's to either side. I don't pick up big gains all the time, but I'm more than happy with a 5-7 yard gain over the middle on a simple dump play. I rarely keep my WB's in to block because they're useless in that fashion--that might be the problem with your opponents against your blitz.

IMO, you can be more creative with motion out of this offense than any other set. You can motion WB's out to the slot, or in to the backfield, or sometimes across the formation to creat a trips look. Are you saying that motion gives away the option game? I regularly motion even on passing plays so my opponents can't really guess option on me.

[djwill13]

the flex is a great pass protection scheme too. if you're getting blitzed from the outside, have one of your WB's on the side they're blitzing from stay in to block.

i give people fits with this set online. i just wish i could be more versitile with it. so far i only run 3-4 plays in it. tryin to run the triple option on line is hard. those HB inside plays are practically useless too

i do like the fb dive, fb trap, that one angle play (i forget the name of it), and that all streaks play, oh and the PA play, so i guess that's 5 lol

[sparepart33]

I started a new dynasty last night and I decided to use Air Force since they run this type of O. I play on heisman and the sliders are set at default for me and max for the CPU. I had one heck of a time running the play. Averaged less that 2 ypc on 42 carries. yikes. However, I passed for over 300 yards and that was mainly due to chucking up the deep ball because I was in 3 and 8 most of the game. I played against Cal. I know their D was pretty good for Pac-10 standards but I couldn't run the ball at all. I broke my plays down similar DRM. I had a little luck running the option but nothing else seemed to work. The only thing that I can figure out is that AF's line is really small. The guards were pushed in the backfield all day. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[djwill13]

no..............you're playin on heisman. if you want to run the ball go down to AA and increase your sliders for the cpu to max and lessen yours to about 25%.

it's almost impossible to run the ball against the cpu on heisman no matter what team you play with.

[sparepart33]

thanks DJ. The funny thing is that for the most part with other teams, I can run an "option" type offense on heisman using the I-norm. It doesn't make much sense.

[djwill13]

that's about the only play i can get to work (options) outta iform. i don't like doing that though, feels cheesy.

if you really want a challenge, try knocking your sliders all the way down and increasing the cpu's all the way on AA.

that should make things a lil interesting

[sparepart33]

I will give it a try. I have fallen in love with the power spread thanks to Air but I want to try and expand my horizon. I agree on the I-norm thing. After a while it definitely feels cheesy.

[djwill13]

i've found that the best offense is one where you blend all types of styles

my current playbook has

iform norm
flexbone
shotgun
shotgun trips
shotgun y trips
shotgun bunch
shotgun 2 back
shotgun spread

so i have the power run, the run n gun, the run and shoot, and the power spread all in one pb.

i normally come out in iform first couple plays of the game then go to one of the shotgun sets then go down to flexbone then another shotgun set just to keep my opponent off balance

try incorporating different styles into your offensive scheme to make it even more potent

[Air Raid]

i've found that the best offense is one where you blend all types of styles

my current playbook has

iform norm
flexbone
shotgun
shotgun trips
shotgun y trips
shotgun bunch
shotgun 2 back
shotgun spread

so i have the power run, the run n gun, the run and shoot, and the power spread all in one pb.

i normally come out in iform first couple plays of the game then go to one of the shotgun sets then go down to flexbone then another shotgun set just to keep my opponent off balance

try incorporating different styles into your offensive scheme to make it even more potent


Great point DJ...the less predictable you are, the better you can be and the more options you will have to defeat your opponent...

[sparepart33]

Normally I do mix my play calls up just to be different but I was trying to see if you could actually run this system similar to the other true option type teams. As I found out, it doesn't work too well. If i didn't change Air Force's playbook, it would not have been pretty. Thank God for the Shotgun formations. I was trying to add a little more realism to the game. Perhaps maybe if I used a team like OSU, the system may work.

[djwill13]

doesn't make a darn difference what team you use, you'll still average 2-3 ypc. you'll break one run for over 20 (mine was on a full back dive believe it or not).

[Chomppig]

Great write up on the flexbone. Thought I'd give it a bump. I change offenses like underware, but everytime I feel like running the flexbone I run it like this and it works great.

[chrisbzn832]

Having played several seasons of Air Force, I really enjoyed running the flexbone. However, I prefer having a scrambling QB, not only for option purposes, but also for play action. The PA Rollouts are great in this package, but I want that speed at QB so I can give myself sometime more time.

[skillz97]

when you are recruiting what are attributes are you looking for exactaly in these postions:
QB, RB, FB, & OL

what is the one thing that each of those postions has to have in order for you to recruit them. I run the Flexbone. I've tried power spread, one back option, & the I option but always end up comming back to the flexbone after 1 season. What pass play do you run to get you WB's the ball vs. blitzes, it seems my guys are always dropping the pass. I play agaisnt a guy in a dynasty who runs a 4-2-5 and either zone blitzes or sends one or both inside LB's up the middle.

[Chomppig]

when you are recruiting what are attributes are you looking for exactaly in these postions:
QB, RB, FB, & OL

what is the one thing that each of those postions has to have in order for you to recruit them. I run the Flexbone. I've tried power spread, one back option, & the I option but always end up comming back to the flexbone after 1 season. What pass play do you run to get you WB's the ball vs. blitzes, it seems my guys are always dropping the pass. I play agaisnt a guy in a dynasty who runs a 4-2-5 and either zone blitzes or sends one or both inside LB's up the middle.

QB- I'd look for AGI, ACC, SPD. You don't have to have great passing attributes. 4.60 or below 40 times is what I look for.

WB- You want SPD, AGI, ACC, and CTH. they gotta have good hands. You don't even have to recruit a RB, speedy WR are great WB.

FB- This guys you want to recruit a RB and make him a FB. He has to be your best runner. You want the works with him; SPD, AGI, ACC, BTK, CAR. Pretty much the best RB you can find.

OL- I look for BIG O-linemen 300+ punds with a high squat number. In the high 600s and 700s

Don't forget to check out the ATH. I always find good QBs and WBs there.

hope this helps.

[skillz97]

you have to cross your fingers that your recruit has good agility when they come in. Didnt they uses to have the shuttle or cone drill as one of the attributes or is that only in madden?

[Chomppig]

you have to cross your fingers that your recruit has good agility when they come in. Didnt they uses to have the shuttle or cone drill as one of the attributes or is that only in madden?

Just in madden I believe. usually if the speed is good the AGI and ACC will be good too.

[Chomppig]

And to add something else. It helps if you make your 2 best o-linemen your guards since they are the two most important in this game for running the flexbone. if they keep getting pushed back it really screws things up so you want your two best to play guard.

[Dr.Flexbone]

what is the one thing that each of those postions has to have in order for you to recruit them. I run the Flexbone. I've tried power spread, one back option, & the I option but always end up comming back to the flexbone after 1 season. What pass play do you run to get you WB's the ball vs. blitzes, it seems my guys are always dropping the pass. I play agaisnt a guy in a dynasty who runs a 4-2-5 and either zone blitzes or sends one or both inside LB's up the middle.

In this situation, I look for plays that have the wb's, te, or wr's crossing underneath. In flex normal, try out WB Corners. If he blitzes the LB's, you can hit the WR udnerneath crossing the field, Or you can audible the FB and/or one of the wingbacks to block and hit the WR post or the WB running the out route. Although not necesserily in flex normal, there are several pass plays in the other flex formations that combine crossing routs and posts.

[skillz97]

I've been running the flexbone forever and agaisnt most of my opponets who dont see it except when they play me i can usually just run right over them, but since me and this guy paly every sunday he sees it all the time so i really need to pass more. With those crossing routes to back him up. He controls the FS on defense, so if i can get time to get it off i should be able to get him. Anyway I love option football and love talking about it, Thanks

[Chomppig]

I have been working on a way to run the Flex and Wishbone together. In the past I couldn't use both with the same success because they require different personel at runningback. In my current dynasty I'm keeping 8 HB on my roster. 4 WB- smaller, quicker and can catch. And 4 Wishbone Halfbacks who are bigger, stronger and can lead block. Now I'm running both with great success. I got the speed and passing of the flexbone and the power running and clock control of the wishbone and the option is a constant with both.

[Gator3guy]

Fullback - Ok I saved the most important for last. This should be the best athlete on your offense. The FB needs to be strong, fast, quick, agile, and have the ability to break tackles. He doesn't need to be big, I like my FB to be at least 200 lbs but I had a 186 lb FB that won the Heisman with almost 3000 all purpose yards. Unlike a traditional FB he doesn't need to be a great blocker or even a good blocker because he really doesn't do much blocking except in pass protection.

This is the key to running a successful flexbone O. A team with a great FB such as Colorado or Rutgers can become lethal with their FBs. Some other teams I'll try that look like they have the personel are Arkansas, West Virginia, and Georgia.