Blocking the Jet Sweep

The Jet sweep is designed to get to the outside (perimeter) of the defense very quickly. This is especially good if you have undersized lineman or not the best blockers in the world.
Its success is dependent on the full speed motion of a wing back and a deceptive 180 degree hand off by the QB. This eludes to our first rule: Timing is everything.
In order to be successful running the jet sweep you'll need to commit to practicing it and using it in a game. You have to build your players confidence in your system.
The Jet sweep attacks the "D Gap", which can be the biggest gap on the field. You need to practice running the play to the wide side and to the short side of the field. Most defenses will expect you to run the Jet toward the wide side of the field. If you can become just as effective running to the short side of the field you will give defenses fits.
I have had several colleagues tell me that the Jet can easily be stopped and that you have to have the fastest guys on your team running the play. Therefore it is not very deceptive even with the alternatives you can run out of it. What I say to them is by having my guy running at full speed he will already be faster than your guy who will be starting the play at a dead stop.
In order to have your team buy into and be successful at running the jet sweep you have to have several guys running the sweep in practice. This way you will have several guys use to running the sweep and have several different people that can run it in a game and out of several different formations. This also helps the fact that even though you have someone who is your primary ball carrier you can now spread the work load out even if the "D" cues on him. Also if god forbid he gets hurt you can have others run the ball effectively.
Now that I have gotten all of the babble out of the way lets talk about the line rules for blocking the jet sweep.
The rules for the lineman are really the simplest. This is nothing new, but I number the defensive players from the outside in. The play side corner is #1 because he is the furthest defender outside. The #2 is the outside LB or the safety, depending on the type of defense being run. The #2 is usually the person the D coordinator is depending on to stop the sweep. The #3 is the inside LB and the #4 is the other safety.
On the snap the offensive lineman will then work their way to the second level, which is the linebacker level. The all step play side gap. If an interior defensive lineman should get in our way then we would block him. Ultimately we are try to get outside leverage on the closest LB. If he is gone, don't chase or worry about him, just turn and wall off any backside pursuit.
The force player is the most important player that has to be accounted for. Usually he is one of the toughest players on the field. If we line up in a slot and run to the slot side we will crack on the force player or even double team the force player. (See diagram below)
When we run the jet the ball carrier will read the tight ends block on the defensive end. If the end fights hard outside than the TE will take him outside and we run inside. If the end fights hard inside we'll have the TE block him inside and we run outside.
We also will pull the play side tackle to help get around on the force player or to pick up the first odd color that would cross his face. If we crack the force than that allows the tackle to pick up a flowing LB or the safety.


In my Next article I shall discuss the QB Handoff and the back routes.