It's Not Only How To, It's Who To And When

The most valuable thing I can say about playing quarterback and passing a football is that these acts involve no deep, dark mysteries. The whole art, if I may call it that, is based on a few simple elements. The hard part comes when the quarterback must start making decisions: who to throw to, when to throw and why, how to read defenses. But even here, once certain principles are understood, the complexities unravel and the job becomes straightforward. Naturally, no two quarterbacks do everything alike—we all have our trademarks—but we pretty much stick to the same set of fundamentals. What follows is a step-by-step analysis of how I go about the art of playing quarterback.

THE STANCE

A quarterback should not give away the play by the way he takes his stance. It must be the same every time. Therefore, he should set himself in a position from which he can instantly move in any direction: to spin and hand off, to drop back to pass, to sprint out right or left, and so forth. This requires a well-balanced stance from which he can get started without taking any waste steps. When I stand up behind the center my feet are parallel to one another and at right angles to the line of scrimmage, and most of my weight is evenly distributed on the balls of my feet. My knees are only slightly flexed. A quarterback should always remain as upright as possible so that his view of the defensive secondary is not obscured by the defensive line. My shoulders and head face squarely forward.

My hands are placed under the center's crotch, the back of my right wrist pressed firmly against his butt. The exact placement of the hands is a matter of experimentation and depends on the size of the center. The smaller he is the lower the hands will have to be placed. The two hands should touch at the inside of each wrist, the palm of the right hand facing the ground, the palm of the left hand facing forward. We call the left hand the stopper hand, because if the center shoves the ball too far back the left hand is there to control it and keep it from popping loose. My hands are always relaxed, the fingers well spread. You can't take a snap with tense, tightly cupped hands.

THE SNAP
When the quarterback receives the snap his hands should be in exactly the same position on the ball as they will be later when he sets up to pass. There should be no rolling the ball around to get the correct grip. My center gives the ball a quarter turn as he snaps it back so that only the last two fingers of my right hand fall across the laces. Meanwhile, my left hand will grip the ball almost directly opposite the right, only down a little, behind the fat part of the ball. An important thing to keep in mind is that the center will often be moving forward to block as he snaps. In such instances it is vital that the hands follow him up and out so that the snap does not come up short and squirt free. When the snap is correctly executed it will hit the quarterback's hands with a loud, smacking "pop." When no popping noise is heard, it usually means that something is a little off.

THE KEY IS CONSISTENCY

READING DEFENSES

As I drop back my eyes are watching certain key members of the defensive secondary who are going to tell me by their movements whether I am about to face a zone or a man-to-man defense. I do not need to look at my receivers because I already know what they should be doing. I can usually pick up my clues from the three defenders out on the side to my right—the safety, the cornerback and the outside linebacker. If the safety rotates back toward the outside corner, the cornerback comes up and the outside linebacker drops back, I read zone. From experience I also know without looking at them pretty much what the other secondary defenders will be doing because in a zone of this sort they have certain responsibilities. I will read a man-to-man defense when the safety comes up to cover our tight end, the corner-back stays one-on-one with the right-side wide receiver and the linebackers start dropping straight back 15 yards into what are called the hook areas. There are a tremendous number of variations, of course, but these are the most common defensive patterns.

Let's examine a typical example of what can happen. A pass the Colts call frequently is one to the right outside receiver who goes down 12 to 15 yards and then cuts sharply to the sideline. If the coverage is man-to-man I will stay with the play, expecting the receiver to be able to beat the cornerback who is covering him one-on-one. If the defender makes a good play, on the other hand, and sticks right with him, I will have to start thinking about my alternate receivers who are running patterns staggered from right to left across the field. The tight end goes downfield and runs a hook pattern at about 18 yards. The outside left receiver is running, possibly, a come-open-late pattern deep downfield—a hook inside or a hook outside down about 20 to 25 yards. So I take it in progression. Check the right outside receiver first. If he is not open I look for the tight end. If he is not open I look for the left flanker. If he's not open I will probably throw the ball away or hang on to it, get tackled and lose the yardage rather than the ball.

Now, if I read zone as I am dropping back I know immediately that my right-side flanker is going to be double-covered and is therefore unlikely to shake clear. So I must go to one of my alternate receivers, usually the tight end. In this situation, when the tight end came off the line and noticed the safety heading for the outside corner he read zone, just as I did. What he will do then is make an adjustment. Instead of going down 18 yards and hooking, he will run what we call a zone pass. What he tries to do is to slide outside the left linebacker into a dead area just behind him and head downfield in the unprotected seam of the zone. He knows I have read the same thing. I will then try to hang the ball out over the head of that linebacker where no one but the tight end can get to it. Of course, if the tight end can't get clear I will have to try one of the other alternatives that are built into every play.