Playbook Hut

Top Plays from NFL Week 11

Learn strategic lessons from this week's version of the top play designs in the NFL.

Playbook Hut

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Football Playbook Maker for Coaches

Nov 19 • 4 min read

1. Cowboy Deep Strike

A very interesting play design from the Dallas Cowboys resulted in a long passing play on a third and long.

The Cowboys sent five players down field on routes, but the thing that made this play interesting was the distribution of personnel across the field. While the play called for all three of the wide receivers to go deep, the play design kept two of the Cowboy's most famous players distributed across the shallower part of the field.

Tight End Jason Witten and Running Back Ezekial Elliot each ran a choice route on their side of the play. Witten took the left, and Zeke took the route. With the defense focused on both of Quarterbak Dak Prescott's primary third down options, the Cowboys sent three speedy receivers deep downfield into the defensive secondary.

Prescott found Michael Gallup down the right sideline, who made a miraculous catch to secure the first down and put Dallas into scoring position.

2. Saint Short Corner

Different plays work better at different parts of the field. The New Orleans Saints broke out one of their favorite goal line plays when they found themselves inside the five yard line.

While looking for a touchdown, Drew Brees and the Saints sent five receivers into the end zone in hopes that Brees could find an open man.

On this particular instance, the Saints were facing man-to-man which left the tall tight end, Jared Cook, one-on-one against a shorter safety.

All Brees had to do was loft the ball up into the corner of the end zone and let his big tight end make an incredibly athletic catch to jump up and secure the ball in order to come down with the touchdown.

3. Cowboy Crossers

Under new offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore, the Cowboys have enjoyed success while running shallow crosser routes and various mixes of shallow crossing route combinations. This week was no different when Jason Witten made a great catch over the middle on a 10-yard In route.

Throughout his career with Tony Romo, Jason Witten compiled many first down receptions and his tenure with Dak Prescott is no different.

Out of a Shotgun Bunch formation, the cowboys ran two shallow crosses underneath the 10-yard In from Witten.

After having enough patience to let the shallow crossing routes clear out the linebackers, Prescott delivered the pass to Witten who successfully secured the contested catch and gained the first down.