I love the wide receiver motion runs we use. Why did we run them to the short side of field so much?
This question gets asked every year, sometimes twice. Formation generally dictates how and where the defense lines up. You can set the formation so that the defense is going to over load the wide side. Hence, the defense is sometimes much more vulnerable to the short side of the field. I can look at the pre-snap alignment and generally see those weakside runs coming to the short side. You just have them outnumbered. I count left and right of the middle linebacker almost every snap. It’s exactly what the QB is doing. He knows then where the run should be called. You can also slide a motion guy into an area and make it two extra blockers, as they did for that short side sweep. No one wants to leave the open side of the field one man short. So if a defense makes an error, it’s not going to be there. The NFL does not have those issues. The hash marks are set very narrow. Basically, that gives two open sides on either side of the formation. Easy for the offense. Hence, college defenses definitely do rely on the boundary side to help them play defense and will short change themselves with defenders there. When you catch them doing that and slide an extra blocker there without compensation, it’s a sweet play.