The Stretch Play

On the stretch play the landmark for the ball carrier is the butt of the tight end. The landmark is the same regardless of whether there is a tight end or no tight end. The ball carrier will take a drop step and align with his path, the important thing here is to get his shoulders turned and going directly to the landmark.

The quarterback will open step to the play at a 45-degree angle and put the ball into the ball carrier’s belly and burst out the other side on a naked action away from the play. The quarterback gives the ball to the ball carrier between his first and second steps. As the ball carrier is about to hit the ground with his second foot the quarterback begins to deliver the ball.

On the third step, the ball carrier must make a decision. The ball carrier is either going to go downhill or take the ball outside. The reason the decision is made on the third step is the timing of the blocks of the offensive line. On the third step, the offensive linemen make their push on the defenders. The push of the offensive line and the cut of the back must coincide.

He must then make his decision and commit to it. He does not juke defenders or double-cut with the ball. He takes what the picture says and gets the ball up field or outside right away.

The ball carrier will read the first defensive lineman from outside-in. If the defense aligns in an even front, the read is the 7-technique defender.


In an odd front, the read defender is the 5-technique aligned on the offensive tackle.


The steps and mesh are the same, but the read defender changes. The ball carrier will make his decision off the read defender. As soon as the defender moves, the ball carrier knows where to run the ball.

When the defense aligns in a 3-technique and a 7-techniuqe, the read can get very fast for the running back. It is particularly fast on the weak side play. In an over front with no tight end to the weak side, the defenders align in a 3-technique and 5-technique. The ball carrier sees the quick outside movement by the 5-technique and must read the movement of the 3-technique inside or outside to determine his cut. He reads the movement of the first defender quickly and makes his decision off the number two read of the inside defender.


Defensive linemen will align outside and slant inside or align inside and slant outside. The ball carrier makes his decision from where the defenders are going, not where they are aligned. The ball carrier must bust into the hole and take what they can get and not dance around trying to make 90 yards out of nothing. The long runs come when the back busts through the seams and comes out running.

Against a reduced look to the two-man side of the offensive line, the ball carrier reads the movement of the 5-technique defender as the number one read. His break comes off the number two defender aligned over the offensive guard. The same thing occurs to the strong side of the front. The back reads the 7-technique defender for his quick read. The movement of the 7-technique tells the running back to take the ball outside or turn up field. From that read, his attention focuses to the 3-technique defender for his cut up field.

If the defense is in an odd alignment with a linebacker or safety over the tight end, the defensive end over the offensive tackle is the number one read, with the nose tackle being the number two read. If the defensive end slants inside, the back knows immediately where he takes the ball.


The wide receivers are an important part of this play and are responsible for blocking the safeties to their side, unless a fullback is involved. However, the wide receiver blocks the safety with what is referred to as a push-crack block on the safety. He will push up on the corner then come inside and crack on the safety.


If the safety cheats up or fills immediately, the wide receiver comes to the inside at once and blocks the safety. The receiver wants to keep outside leverage on whomever he blocks.


Stretch from I-Formation Normal should have the fullback cutting off the backside pursuit defender.


The current play in I-Formation Normal should be renamed Stretch Force, as the fullback is leading the play to the strong side and can have a number of blocking assignments to the strong side. The force call tells the wide receiver that someone else will block the safety and that he has another assignment. On stretch force, the tight end arc blocks on the safety, and the fullback has the first linebacker off the ball to the strong side.


If stretch force is called to the weak side, the tight end will motion to that side, and he and the fullback have blocking assignments to that side. Since the wide receiver knows he does not block the safety, he will stalk block the corner. The fullback will enter the play from the inside and blocks the first linebacker off the line of scrimmage. Nothing changes for the running back. He has the same reads and mesh. The only difference for the running back with the release or arc by the tight end is that the reads are quicker.


This play can be run from one- or two-back sets. Two tight ends or three wide receivers can be used in the formation. In the one-back set, there are no calls for force, arc, or release because there is no fullback present. A direction call and the terms strong and weak.

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