The Quarterback Sneak Is Becoming Football’s Easiest Play

Defenses have yet to come up with an effective countermeasure against the sneak, yet some coaches remain reluctant to use the play. Routine handoffs remain more than twice as common as quarterback sneaks (694 attempts to 291 in 2022) when the offense needs only one yard, despite the large disparity in success rate. That’s perhaps a justifiable decision with a bruiser like Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry in the backfield or if “one yard” is closer to four feet than two, but it’s still not the optimal choice in most circumstances.

Some coaches may be understandably wary of injury on a play that turns the quarterback into an applied-physics experiment. Patrick Mahomes injured his knee on a sneak in 2019 and has not run one since. Kansas City sometimes compensates by slipping a burly tight end behind the center to dive into the pile instead of Mahomes.

Other teams insert backup quarterbacks like Jacoby Brissett (Cleveland Browns) or gadget-specialist Taysom Hill (New Orleans Saints) to run the sneak. Again, the element of surprise does not seem to matter much.

Injury concerns alone cannot explain all the alternatives that coaches deploy when they need to gain only one yard. For example, quarterbacks often align in shotgun formation in short-yardage situations, placing them several yards away from their goal. Designed shotgun running plays succeeded just 65.1 percent of the time in short-yardage situations in 2022, yet 235 of them were attempted.

Then there are empty-backfield passes and jet-sweep handoffs to tiny receivers running parallel to the line of scrimmage. From a statistical standpoint, none of these wrinkles are as effective as the simple snap-and-dive sneak. Yet play callers still follow their muses.

The Eagles eschew such over-engineering, so the Giants defense can count on Hurts’s lining up under center surrounded by his closest friends when the Eagles face fourth-and-short in their divisional-round playoff matchup on Saturday. That does not mean, however, that the Giants should not brace for a burst of creativity.

“The Eagles have been showing us this all year long,” McFarland said. “At some time in the playoffs, they’re going to do that, then have a play-action pass off it.

And when that happens?

“It’ll be a wide-open touchdown,” McFarland said. “I guarantee it.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/sports/football/quarterback-sneak.html