The Wedge
1. Best Ways to Run Wedge
2. Testimonials
3. QB Wedge
4. Cross Toss Wedge
5. Dipper's Wedge Counter
6. Wedge Blocking Tips
7. Dipper's Eyes Wide Shut Drill
8. Wedging Against Bear Crawling D-Line
9. QB Wedge with SP Action
10. Discussion and Trouble Shooting

1. Best Ways to Run Wedge

By BryanOney
You can put in a silent wedge where the QB keeps the ball and gooses the center to start the play. On the FB wedge I think I will run a criss cross action with the backs. I think this will keep the Des from chasing down the FB from behind. As they say Wedge or Die.

By Coach Greg
In Reply to: Re: Wedge Blocking <44402.htm> posted by BryanOney
Great comments on the drills.
The criss cross action will improve your yardage gained on the wedge.
One suggestion on the wedge. [works unless you've been scouted]
When you first run it in the game run it straight up (Tight 2 wedge). Let the defense sweat it with out any action. I have my QB boot to 8 on the Tight 2 Wedge this pulls the playside DE most of the time and I have found it gives the FB a window to pop out of if the wedge stalls.
Once you start running XX 47/56-C and the defense is flying all over the place or standing real still and trying to figure out what the heck is going on in front them, then hit them with the Tight Rip 2 Wedge XX action. Run it after running a few SP's or when they would expect the 47-C. The defense will go hay wire and the FB will get a god-awful amount of yardage. I actually gained 5 to 6 more yards on the wedge with the XX action then the regular wedge.
The other thing I think I am going to do is have the QB keep if the DE starts biting down on the playside and the PSTE release to banana. If anything the QB should be open for a run, at least last year he was once the defense went to full commitment on the wedge. I would call it Tight 2 Wedge - Keep or Tight 2 Wedge Bootleg.

By Coach Greg
In Reply to: Re: Hey! Coaches Wade and Greg! <29430.html> posted by Dum Coach
Against an even front, the Wedge should be centered on the playside guard in this particular case. Also the guys wedging should have their inside shoulders slightly behind the center of the wedge (in this case the PSGuard) their initial move is a angle block inside but they should actually triple team the man over the wedge point.
The other thing is since he can slip into the wedge at the A gap the B gap is were he will slide into as the wedge develops. I like to teach the QB to kickout the PS defender coming down behind the wedge. For us the wedge is very effective especially if you tie it in with the cross-toss fake lst game we got 6, 25, 40, 42 yard gains off the cross-toss wedge. The safeties bit hard on it.

By Coach Greg
In Reply to: Re: Hey! Coaches Wade and Greg! <29363.html> posted by Dum Coach
WEDGE - We call a G WEDGE if we see an even front. This tells the playside Guard that he will be the center of the wedge. On the A Gap the center and PS guard close the gap with the rest of the line wedging. The FB as to flow into the B gap and stay with the wedge. The other thing is a good fake from the motion WB and the QB. It is still difficult to attack that A gap pressure and it is a 50/50 thing.

From Bryanoney
Coach,
The way we try to get the players to visualize the wedge is as a V shaped fence that parts the defense. Those defenders that we do not part we run over as a team. I feel it is best to teach the wedge vs a 5 man front. That way the C and 2Gs get used to triple teaming the man over the C. This block is very important to get the D moving backwards. Once the players get good at this you can run it vs a 6 man front. We run it the same way just like there was a NG over C. The C and 2 Gs act as a unit. The whole rest of the line takes a angle step inside and tries to get shoulder to shoulder with the man inside him. Try and maintain this contact with your team mate. If anyone gets in your run them over. We drill this with the O line without a D and they get good at it fast. Dipper has his line do it with their eyes closed, I want to try that. This year I am going to try having the QB reverse out and give the ball to the FB in the 1 hole then have the FB cut back to the 2 hole like the trap. I want everything to look like Toss this year. I am kind of hoping the FB will get lost in the shuffle like he does on trap. After the QB reverses out I have the A back fake the cross toss to the C back. This gets the LBS standing up rubber necking or even chasing the toss or the cross toss. Many kids on D gets shoved out of the way, some get rolled over backwards. It is a synergy play that is hard to imagine until you see how effective it is. We also run a silent wedge where the QB keeps the ball and the whole team wedges. There are no fakes. QB taps the C on the leg when he is ready, the C snaps the ball in a second or 2 and we are off to the races. Let me know if I did not answer some of your questions. Hope this makes sense.

2. Testimonials

Dum Coach;
To talk about how effective the Wedge play is. Dipper, of the Dipper's Double Wing forum once got pinned on his three yard line by a lucky punt. I watched the game film from that game. It was Joe Montana-like. They were down by four, and called eleven straight wedges in a row, used the ENTIRE fourth quarter, and scored the winning touchdown with something like :03 left.
THAT is the beauty of the wedge out of a tight double wing formation. The other team KNEW it was coming, KNEW where the ball was, and STILL couldn't stop that four yard advance.
I'm sort of on the horns of a dilemma. I've completed my playbook, and of course I included the Wedge. (Right and left, as a matter of fact, in case we find a weaker guard to wedge on.) I send the backside TE on a slant-post route and REQUIRE the QB to fake a pass to him (which he then is to fake catching, as well). Here's the problem: I want to add a play action pass off of the wedge. I know that TE will be all alone out there after the 15th or 16th time we run the wedge, but that puts me at 12 plays total.
.

From: TNSPARTY

Dipper,
When I set up the Wedge I actually had my QB turn with his back to the play and protect the backside. He would actually backup as the play moved downfield. He would at times get knocked back into the runner by DEs looping around the pile 7-8 yards down field. We had 1 ref that called this assisting the runner. We played a team with dark purple jerseys and we had dark blue. You can imagine the big pile of dark jerseys on the wedge. He called it and I asked him who it was and he told me there were so many dark jerseys he couldn't tell. For the most part they did a real good job. After I started XX the backs and bootlegging the QB they stopped calling it. The play didn't seem to suffer. It also set up a QB keep bootleg. After running it a few times the end would cheat in and ignore the fake bootleg. My QB did a great job of faking the handoff looping with his back to the line and rolling left with the ball and no one saw him. Went 35 yards for TD. Actually the ref called an assisting the runner on it but had to eat the flag when then B back did not have the ball. It was payback. Doesn't work all the time but in the right situation it does.

From: DIPPER

Thanks, Coach.
That's really the way to run this offense, I admit. In that context, motioning on Wedge is a very good idea.
Unfortunately, my personnel situation made the Wedge our main play, as opposed to the Toss. I wanted to run the Toss and we ran it about 10 times a game. But I had very slow, inexperienced wings and really huge linemen my first year and the Wedge was always there, cheap and easy, and nobody could stop it. So, we ran it 19 times a game on average (more than 30 times in one game) and fed off the Wedge with Wedge Counter and the other plays as changeups.
Obviously, not running Dwing "by the book"...just doing what we could do well and making the most of it.
My second year was more of a traditional Dwing offense and we ran Wedge 10 or so times a game (also scored more points and were much more explosive). But, I believe it's best to find something that fits your personnel and milk it for all it's worth.

From: ASSASSIN

Coach,
We had problems early on with the defensive ends dragging our fullback down from behind. Our wings just couldn't get their assignments down. They would either run into the wedge and trip the linemen from behind or they would hesitate and the defensive end would slip through. Instead of spending a lot of reps trying to get them on the right track we instead started faking (with motion) 88/99 after the wedge hand off. It worked great for freezing the outside defenders on both sides. It also caused confusion for any middle defenders that were back off of the LOS. They couldn't find the ball and usually took more than a few stutter steps trying to decide if the QB or the Wingback had it. We, like Coach Davis, try to establish the Super Powers first so the defense usually reacted to any motion by flying to the off tackle gap and weakening the middle. More than once our faking backs were tackled while the wedge was still chugging down the field. Last year we scored twice from long range and two other times would have if our fullback had run to daylight. In every instance the defenses deep men had run from in front of the wedge to pursue outside.

3. QB Wedge
From: BRYANONEY

I really like the QB wedge. We call it silent wedge. We get all lined up, the QB taps the center on the leg when he is ready and the center snaps the ball in a second or 2 without a sound and we are off to the races. We gain good yards off of it. We even break off 2 or 3 long touchdown runs per year. The whole team wedge blocks on this. The FB goes to the right and hits the first man he sees outside the slot. The line watches for movement out of the corner of their eye. We really catch teams off guard and it can be quite amusing. We go on silent count, quick, one, and two. These different counts really will keep a defense off guard.
With the FB wedge I like a criss cross action with the A and C back. If you try the silent wedge I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
I get a lot of mileage out of the wedge play. I run it 2 ways. We run the normal wedge on quick. It works really well. We vary our count a lot so we catch teams off guard. We probably average 6-7 yds per wedge and score several long TDs each year on it. The second way we run the wedge we call silent wedge. On this play the QB lets everyone get set then taps the center on the leg. C snaps the ball in a second or 2 and we are off to the races with a wedge without a sound. The QB keeps the ball and the FB goes to the 6 hole and gets in on the wedge. This play is as good as the regular wedge and we break more long runs off with it since our QB is usually one of our best athletes.

By Coach Greg

Coach,
I have the BB kickout the DE (normal) and the AB fake the SP. The QB rotates as to toss than flows into the wedge. The CB goes normal wedge rule. This is good change up to the 2 Wedge and gets the QB more involved with the offense.

Hey Coach, Last year we ran what we called B Rip (LIZ) 2/3 Wedge. When the FB goes in
motion, the defense usually freaks out and one of the LB's goes with him. You don't have to
worry about the assisting a runner call, and from spread, it get another defender out of the
box. We even ran it from our DOUBLES formation (TWINS on both sides). The QB usually finds
daylight because the D is definitely expecting pass and at least 5 defenders are taken out of the
box.

4. Cross Toss Wedge
By Dum Coach
"Dum" me again. So what the heck is a "cross toss wedge"? Are you faking the cross toss and then wedging the FB? From the sound of it, the "cross toss" is a cousin of the counter option. Are you showing toss in one direction and then reversing it and running it the other way?
You'll have to pardon my ignorance of DW terminology.

By Coach Greg

From tackle to tackle it is a wedge action the TEs wedge if they have to seal off inside pressure otherwise the can go to the next level and block a ILB. Lets call it a 31 cross-toss wedge (fb in one hole with cross-toss action). From tackle to tackle it is wedge blocking. The TEs are taught to wedge if their is someone in the C gap otherwise they wing the outside man than move to the next level blocking the ILBs. The QB h/os to the FB in the one hole and then fakes the toss action to the motion WB (which is playside) and then fakes back to the cross-toss action of the BSWB coming between him and the LOS. If the fakes are executed for 10 yards like thier supposed to be the LBs and secondary get crossed on who has the ball and the wedge is moving up the field with the runner lost in it. I also have my QB bootleg to playside also to add more confusion. If you run TOSS, and CROSS-TOSS enough with a little success this play gets big bucks!

By davek

I dont doubt the success of the play but I am trying to figure out the qb's motion
what makes my cross toss work is the qbs motion is the same on the 45 toss lets say
he spins right and than in one fluid motion goes out and tries to block the corner on the play
side. on the cross toss he spins like a toss but than brings the ball down
for the inside hand off. if he hands it to the fullback it stops that spinning fluidity
that makes it look the same. I was under the impression the defense was confused
by the qb's motion , but maybe they are just reading the wings movement and over playing him.
I will try it tonight at practice. My defense is hard to fool since they see are double wing so much.

By Coach Greg
by davek
Coach you are right the QB motion of opening up (spinning backside and faking toss is part of it) has the QB spins to toss he hands the ball off with his inside hand as the bswb (in motion) fakes the toss and the pswb comes for the fake cross toss. If you have ran the TOSS and CROSS TOSS with any success at all the DEs must play the off tackle and the LBs should get caught up in the crossing action of the two WBs. The wedge clouds the vision of the LBrs reads and it becomes an instinct thing for a second, commit or not to commit.

5. Dipper's Wedge Counter
From: DIPPER

No motion, TN. Want it to look exactly like Wedge. Motion would tip it and would also make the handoff nearly impossible. As it is, the QB has just enough time to fake and stick the ball out for the wing. The wing goes balls-to-the-walls for the FB's head (pre-snap).
The speed of the play, along with the fact that it begins so much like Wedge (and, naturally, you've been pounding them senseless with Wedge), makes the play very tough to stop.
It's almost like a Reach play, except with the FB going first. I imagine you could even block it the same, but I liked getting that big pile moving up field to distract everybody. As long as the corner and DE aren't laying for it, nobody else can really tell what's going on. On some of my film, the playside corner has no clue what's happening until the runner is 10 yards downfield and all he can do is turn and watch.

From: DIPPER

That pulling guard is really the weak link in the play. If he isn't quick, he can get over run by the runner. My first year, the left guard was the fastest kid on the team. He had no problem, except that he'd occasionally forget to pull. But, the play still worked because his main job is to block the cornerback and the cornerback was usually floating inside to stop the Wedge. When he did get downfield, the play was usually a guaranteed long gain. Interestingly, my guard the next year was so slow that he'd get turned and take a step and the runner was already gone. Fortunately, my A back was a super player who could hook the DE even if we told him it was coming. I guess I was just using the guard for insurance. There were occasions when the A back just missed the DE and the guard kicked him out, saving the play. To tell you the truth, this play is 100% better from the Wildcat.
To answer your main question: it would be bad if the DT crossed the LOS. Best to have your TE and tackle block aggressively to fill for the guard.

From: DIPPER

Coach,
I never used motion on my Wedge play (although I might add that on occasion now), so the Counter ran without motion. If your wing just goes balls-to-the-walls for the handoff, he gets there just after the FB clears (you'd use your fastest guy for it, but even slow guys can shine).
I tried it to a split end side and didn't like it. It just seemed to add another guy to think about for the runner. My best kid at running it was simply fast...he'd get skittish and slow down if he thought he had to show any running skills. With a good stalk-blocking end and a runner with confidence, it should work fine. I'm not sure if having the wing start one man closer (as in Spread) would allow him to really tee off, but seems like a minor adjustment.
The play seemed to work because, after each successive 7 to 10 yard gain with the Wedge play, the corners would creep in a little tighter and the safety would come up a little closer to the line until they simply had no position on a guy flying outside. Some teams feared it so much that they took to lining their corners about 10 yards wide of the DE on the LOS. That was great for the power plays, allowed us to run our Wedge Pass without a split end, and was good for the passing game, in general.
I hate to admit it, but there were times when the guard forgot to pull and it just didn't matter...maybe even made it more convincing as a Wedge play. It's so hard to see the wing coming around with those big guys driving the wedge and the wing's first steps on Wedge were to the inside anyway.
It ain't a great play like the Toss or Wedge, but it sure did mess with the D's heads. What's more fun than that?

6. Wedge Blocking Tips

By Tray
I have only ran the wedge from a tight split.
Only the center and the right guard aim at the defensive tackle. Everyone else, End to End, must first make contact with the TEAMMATE TO THEIR INSIDE AND DRIVE INSIDE, never breaking the wall.
WEDGE - YOU MUST KEEP THE WEDGE INTACT
Teach your kids to drive into each others ribs. Tackles ribs to guards, guards to center and center to guard. Drive into the defensive tackle or NG.
One drill we do is line the kids up in the proper wedge position at if the ball was already snapped and run the forward about ten yards. Do this until there is no separation between the linemen. Next do it from the three point stance. Even front, we wedge at the guards to pick on the DT odd front , we wedge at the center to pick on the nose guard

By Dblwingcoach:

As far as letting the DT go unblocked consider this: The wedge is designed to avoid touching ANY defender other than the man you're wedging (either the NG or the DT). Remember that the goal of wedge is gang up on one man, so in essence you're already teaching them to avoid contact with the defender across from them. I tell my kids "block against the team mate next to you, NOT the defender across from you". If you have men leaving the LOS to get LBs you'll create a seam in your line. Penetration is one of the primary reasons wedges get stopped (submarining and getting caught from behind are a couple others).
Other thoughts: 1) You want to teach the kids that what you're doing is establishing the mother of all double teams on a single interior DT. At first, I made the mistake of teaching the wedge in a manner that had either my Center or Right Guard making contact with the selected DT and the rest of the O would assist that man in driving the 'scrum' downfeild. That was a boneheaded error on my part. You want to establish a good solid double team between the C & RG have everyone work to push the double team down feild.
2) Your lineman (other than the C & RG) need to be conditioned to AVOID contact with the defender accross from them at all costs. If they engage that man in any way your wedge will be compromised. Instead tell 'em their real job on this play is to 'block' the teammate adjacent to them.
3) Here's my take on the reasoning behind why the FB needs to hustle.
Speed is the true key to making the wedge a big hitter. The faster the wedge hits, the more off balance the D line will be. I tell my kids that Speed NOT Power is essential to forming the wedge. We'll get all the power we need by simply ganging up on some poor unsuspecting kid, but the speed with which the play hits is what gets your guys past theirs and into the wedge blocking without getting hung up on the defender across from them. No kidding, I grind on them continuously about that. The faster the line can form the wedge, the farther down field it's going to go. So it follows that if your grinding on your line to form the wedge quickly, you better be grinding on your FB to get into the wedge quickly also.

By Coach PJ

We teach wedge blocking just as Wyatt has it drawn up.
The only drill we do is to have a big coach with a hand held dummy line up in front of the center or guard and hold back the wedge as long as possible as it moves downfield. That usually gives you enough time to correct the more obvious mistakes.
Wyatt is correct when he says you can't treat it like just another sneak or dive. It has to be repped the same as any other play. Some of the problems are - 1. The linemen not getting down to the next man inside quick enough. 2. Getting there quick enough but not getting locked onto the inside man in the correct position causing them to slide in front of or behind the wedge. 3. Tripping over each other as the wedge moves downfield. 4. One side moving faster than the other causing it to break up. 5. There are more but most have to do with getting 7 men to come together and become a single driving force.
Coming together and becoming a single driving force is also why they like to run it so much. I don't know of a more team-oriented play in football. Coach Wyatt calls it the "ultimate team play". It is also because of the overwhelming power. It's kind of like an icebreaker slowly chugging along slicing through everything in its path. It's ugly ugly ugly but the kids like it when they are able to absolutely mow down everything in front of them.
I went to a playoff game to watch two other teams and happened to sit behind a couple of other coaches. I overheard one trying to describe to the other how some team had run a sneak over and over against him. After awhile I realized he was talking about us. He could not for the life of him understand how we were able to do it. He also could not describe how we blocked it because he thought it was just a sneak and each of our linemen was completely dominating the man in front of him. I was cracking up.
The only eligibles left in the Wedge after our fakes are the tight ends but those fakes sound like a great idea. Our B back didn't always break through the wedge as quickly as I would have liked when he had an opportunity to go all of the way. That's a real hair puller but it's only because we drilled patience. As far as involving the non ball carriers I think you will find they love the wedge and already realize they are accomplishing something. Your lineman will be asking you to run it and your parents will be chanting "wedge, wedge, wedge". We started running the fakes because defenders were getting around behind the wedge and pulling the ball carrier down from behind. It was easier to run the fakes than it was to get the wings down inside deep enough to prevent it. We never had the QB keep it but it would probably have worked.

From: BRYANONEY

This may sound strange, but to help the kids visualize wedge blocking we call it snow plow blocking. We have big v shaped snow plows we use in Ohio and we tell the kids if we keep the snowplow shape the D will slide to the side like snow off a snowplow. Is that corny or what. It does seem to make the play easier to teach. I cannot wait to try Dippers eyes closed wedge drill.

7. Dipper's Eyes Wide Shut Drill
From: DIPPER

Hey Coach,
Now, on the Wedge drill...I'm assuming that you're talking about the odd little drill that Wingnut christened the "Eyes Wide Shut Drill" and that I've suffered such humiliation over since I brought it up (kidding)? I'll explain it and you can mull it over.
The Wedge concept requires all the linemen to converge toward the inside, banging up against the next guy inside and making as tight a fit as they possibly can. Simple, I suppose. But, I had a tackle who you could yell at, take his hand and walk him through it, stand in his way...whatever you could think of to make him go to the inside, but as soon as you walked away and let them run it, that kid would run straight down the field, getting farther and farther from the rest of the wedge as he went. I don't know what was wrong with him.
So, I told him to close his eyes and use the guard to guide him. I suggested that, if I saw his eyes open, I would kill his family and his dog and burn his house down. Having only that one point of reference (the feel of the guard next to him), he began to do it right simply because running with your eyes closed in open space is terrifying.
I thought, why not make everybody but the center close their eyes and concentrate on using that next inside guy as a crutch?
It sounds stupid and it was good for some yucks, but after a few reps, it seemed to me to make a difference. It does make the point that forming the wedge and moving it forward is all that matters...you don't need to see anything in front of you because you aren't gonna block anybody there and you better not even go there.
HS coaches probably don't have to worry about stuff like this. They can just bench that odd kid. But, I didn't have that luxury.
I wouldn't run this as my main Wedge drill, maybe just a couple times early on to give them the idea and pull it out if a problem develops later. It stands a fair chance of making you look like an idiot, but I think, in a desperate situation, it could do some good. It's still no substitute in most cases for simple threats or exhortation.
Anyway, I hope this is the drill you were talking about. The only other drills I use for Wedge are simply running it over and over and over for 15 yards, mostly on air, but occasionally with me or some unfortunate player with a shield lined up somewhere between the guards, maybe with another coach tossing sled bags into their feet, sometimes with players lined up on the tackles or B gaps to entice them into blocking instead of just making the wedge.
If anybody else has any good wedge drills, I'd love to have them, because, in my mind, coaching the younger kids, this is the best play you'll ever have. It ain't flashy, but I never had a loss or a penalty or even a fumble on a Wedge play in over 300 attempts.
Actually, if for some reason I had to choose between running Toss or running Wedge with those 8-9-10 year olds, it wouldn't even be a contest.

From: DIPPER

Hey Coach,
I guess you found out what I also found out...although Wedge looks fairly easy on paper and the concept is obvious, it takes a fair amount of work to develop a consistent play that you can count on, play after play. I don't use it as a "keep 'em honest" play, figuring to get a yard or two, or little more if I really catch them sleeping. I want five every time. But, then, it's been more of a bread and butter play for me than Toss (blush).
I don't know if it was a stroke of genius or I just got lucky. Probably just luck. I'd need a few more years running it to say that you could get away with wedging ONLY on the center, covered or uncovered. I sure would make it a double on a guy down in the A gap.

From: BRYANONEY

I still wedge on the man over center in unbalanced. I also have the RG double the man over center. Since I am always unbalanced right this lets the C and RG work a lot together and get very good at the wedge. I love watching that play on film. It is amazing. Do you guys have your QB open to the side the FB is going to so it hits quick, or do you have him reverse out like on the toss. I always wedge right. I have him just open up to the right so the FB can quickly get up behind the wedge. I will recommend that coaches try the silent wedge ran by the QB if they have not tried it before. It is just a wedge that starts when the QB gooses the C. I actually have the QB tap the C and the C then hikes the ball in a second or 2. The rest of the team just watches for movement out of the corner of their eye. Talk about catching a team off guard and a wedge plowing through a team. I laugh my head off when I watch it on film. The kids love it to. We break one or 2 of these QB wedges a year for TDs. Our QB usually has better break away speed than our FBs. This may sound strange, but to help the kids visualize wedge blocking we call it snow plow blocking. We have big v shaped snow plows we use in Ohio and we tell the kids if we keep the snowplow shape the D will slide to the side like snow off a snowplow. Is that corny or what. It does seem to make the play easier to teach. I cannot wait to try Dippers eyes closed wedge drill.
Dipper, blocking technique: I want my center to get his flippers up and then each guard bangs his inside flipper up behind the center's, with the tackles trying to make the same connection on the guards. Be nice if the TEs could do it, too, but I'm happy if they just avoid falling down.
As long as they work hard to keep those flippers meshed and stay on their feet, the wedge will hold up.

8. Wedging vs. Bear Crawlers

From: ZAD4

What do you guys do with the wedge when D-Linemen bear crawl or worse yet, when they cut your interior offensive linemen? At the HS level we had several teams cut our linemen and it stalled the wedge. Obviously, we were better able to run the toss, but we would still like to run the wedge as well. Even in practice, once our defensive kids figured it out technique wise, we could rarely get the wedge to go in live scrimmages. The wedge was especially ineffective in short yardage and goal line situations. Markham himself doesn't run the wedge, instead he runs a QB Blast with some wedge blocking principles. Still, I think it is a great play. We have the Wyatt videos and have practiced the wedge over and over, against air, live, everything, still to no avail. We are big too. Our guards our each 230 and our center is 215. Both our tackles are 225 and our right TE is 210 and our fullback is 190. These are all kids who can power clean over 215 and two are over 235, so we are not weak, but even our scout team D can stop the wedge at our level, and our scout team players are not world beaters for the most part, rather they are backups, because most of our kids go both ways. What can we do better to make the wedge more productive? Any advice would be great.

From: DIPPER

Hi Coach,
We taught our center, since his pads are lowest at the snap, to almost dive into a man in his A gap and try to get some lift on him, with the guard coming in a split second later, as low as possible, too.
This seemed to roll that guy right up and he'd end up on his back 4 or 5 yards downfield. But, I can't really be sure how determined that poor guy was...this may not be THE answer to that problem. It wasn't HS ball where, I'd think, the grit level would be a little higher. But it was 13-14 year olds, so not far behind.
As far as the defenders making logs...we did work in practice, throwing bags across the wedge. But, bags aren't men and don't fight too hard. Nobody ever tried that against us, but I'd think it would get old quickly for the guys playing like logs. If the wedge can form very quickly and be as tight as possible, it might be that most of those guys can be brushed aside from the force of it or stomped over. Throwing right into your center or guard's legs would be tough, but it might be wise, if they want to do that, to call some other play, since those guys are pretty useless for anything else.
Did your wedge work well against other defenses and techniques?

9. QB Wedge off SP Action
By Coach Greg

My QB was dying at a chance to run the wedge. So I threw him a few bones. It was successful because the D was keyed on the FB movement that they went to the FB on snap. So it can be very deceptive if you run the wedge using the QB and have the FB kickout like a SP with the BSWB doing TOSS action towards the FB kickout. Watch what happens.

10. Discussion and Trouble Shooting

From: DIPPER

Hey Coach,
Averaged 5.0 per carry over 2 years and produced our longest run from scrimmage. I've run it as many as 30 times in a game and it's been a great long-yardage play...figure that.
We started wedging on the Center, covered or uncovered. It works best against a nose, but we rarely see anything but even fronts. Wyatt teaches wedging on a guard if the center's uncovered, but it never worked well for us.
It's just simple to run and very discouraging for the defense, especially with kids, because you can rarely get them to submarine and that's the only way to stop it. Even on the goal line it's very hard to stop.
I've said this before...I once called it 7 straight times to score from mid-field. I love the play. It's ugly and doesn't make you look like a genius coach, but when you get 7 or 8 or 10 yards with it, who cares?
We've run it over 200 times and only lost yardage once and never fumbled. It's as close to a perfect play as I can find. I definitely build my team around the Wedge. The other stuff is great and I love it, too, but I want teams to fear my wedge first.

From: JSG2020

Anyone here have advice on installing the Wedge? My Powers, Trap and Counters seem to be going well, but when I run the Wedge against a scout 6-2 defense, it seems like the right Defensive tackle is able to penetrate and my B Back is getting hit in the backfield...Very frustrating.

From: DIPPER

By right defensive tackle, do you mean the tackle aligned around your right offensive tackle? If that's what you mean, it sounds like your right tackle and TE are slow getting off the ball and forming the wedge, or aren't working to keep the wedge tight. If you're wedging at 2 with the guard leading the wedge, the tackle is probably not the problem, unless that DT is aligned in his inside gap. If the DLs are aligned head-up, it's most likely that the TE is hoping he doesn't have to get involved. You may have to ride him a bit to get him interested.
Be sure to have your C Back loop in behind the tackle and bang him in the back and stay connected with him.
It's also possible that your B Back is too deep or too slow off the ball and isn't getting into the wedge quickly enough.
Also possible that your linemen just haven't worked enough on forming the wedge or that tackle is trying to block the DT instead of blasting over to join the guard in the wedge.
If this doesn't sound right, give us some details on how you're trying to run wedge.

From: TNSPARTY

I was seeing that with a nose guard. The center was being pushed back. I got on the guards for not locking in with the center forming the wedge and helping to strengthen it. They seemed surprised when I got on the guards for not helping the center.

From: DIPPER

It takes them a while to understand and appreciate the nature of the Wedge. I think they don't quite believe in it, at first, because it's so unlike anything they've done.
Your center, by himself, can't hope for more than a little push on a nose man unless he's a real stud. As you've probably heard, the Wedge is simple in design, but you have to rep it to death. Good idea to continue to work just the line, against just one guy, then adding other DLs to not be blocked. Once they understand what's required, they'll be fine.
I've been thinking that it would nice to have a sled, maybe on big thick tires, with a brake you could adjust to increase resistance, and have them push that thing a set distance (10-20) yards, while timing them. Anybody got one of those? A one-man blocking sled on skids tends to get turned and mess things up. And having one guy with a shield can get a little tricky.
Well, just keep at it. You won't be sorry

From: TNSPARTY

I agree. Still need a lot of reps to perfect it. The defense I rep against know we are running it so the have the middle submarine. I keep the honest by faking the wedge and bootlegging the QB out. We are going to run against a different on Thursday that doesn't know our plays. We'll see what happens then.
At least they understand what they are supposed to do. The tackles still want to fire out and hit the DL instead of stepping inside and blocking into the back of their teammate. Old habits die hard.

From: DIPPER

Hi Bubba,
Two suggestions:
Have your wings pivot (depending on how you align them and how the DEs align) on the DEs and get a piece of them, to keep them out of the wedge before it develops.
Try running my Wedge Counter. Honest, it does take advantage of DEs who are too eager to get inside on the wedge.
I need some help!! We run a seven man defensive front line. with a nose guard head up on the center. Guards in the guard-tackle gap, Tackles in the Tackle end gap, and ends outside shoulder of the offensive ends. We have a middle linebacker, 2 cornerbacks and a single safety. We ran up against a physical offensive front this past week and were eaten up, off tackle and on the dive plays through through the 1 and 2 holes. What is the best defense to employ to stop the opposing teams run between the tackles??? Thanks for your help in advance...Note, this is an 85 lb league so we do not get involved with defending many passes.

By Dum Coach

I'm going to go with Coach Wade and guess that you were wedged. This creates a guard/center/guard triple team of the NG which knocks him back into the Mike LBer which creates a block on him also. A ballcarier follows the mob and it looks like the "O" just blew you away in the #1 and #2 holes (Guard/center gaps).
If this is the case you can either change your defense entirely or fix the one you've got. The repair is to send your defensive guards in the guard/tackle gap in a hard charge at the guard's near shoulder. This eliminates/reduces the wedge block and simultaneously hinders the guard's ability to pull or his ability to get to Mike. That's a lot of pluses and it's a technique I use.

By Archer

We don't see any DW teams here and I don't think I have seen anyone successfully wedge block against a strong gap control defense. Of course, I know successful offensive schemes must be coached properly to work. What keeps the D linemen from shooting out low and making a pile?October 24, 2000 at 14:18:13

By Coach Greg

Their are two ways we can combat this. First off we run TOSS and CROSSTOSS which are offtackle and counter offtackle plays. This action is duplicated in the wedge and the crosstoss action is duplicated in the crosstoss wedge. If the defense does commit to going low we go back to TOSS or CROSSTOSS since they have basically left the DE and PSLB isolated. The other way is to call TE LOOKIN PASS and hit the PSTE on a QUICK HIT inside since they are giving us excellent passing lanes inside.

By Coach Greg

We setup with TOSS and CROSSTOSS until we see adjustment. If the defense is looking for and committing to CROSSTOSS we eat their lunch on the CROSSTOSS WEDGE. We have scored more touchdowns this year on CROSSTOSS WEDGE than any other play. I haven't used a lot of SWEEP plays this season due to a lack of outside speed, we are much better TOSS team than a SWEEP team. On the CROSSTOSS WEDGE we get about 8 yards a carry. We spend a lot of time on teaching the RB to slide playside once he feels the wedge losing steam.

By davek

Interesting wedge blocking. I have been running dw for about 3 years and never have wedge blocked. We double team or down block depending on even or odd front. If we get the defense stacked inside we call wings on and down block with the play side wing, then the fb kicks out or turns up right after wing followed by the pulling guard and tackle. It's not a sweep we are not trying to get wide just run off the wing.
If there is back side pressure, we only pull the guard and we might call kick out and the off side
tight end might pick up the backside de or lb whose been blitzing and keep the tackle home.
lately I had a coach blitz one of his inside lbs into the b gap after he
saw the wing in motion trying to plug the toss hole and also stop my playside wing
from looping around and getting him. well we sent the play side wing through the hole first
cutting under the te and he just killed this kid just blindsided the kid his eyes where just
big but just focused on the wing with the ball, and bam from the other side. He was very tentative about coming through that hole again. Just some ramblings about my favorite offense

From: DIPPER

Hi WN,
A good Wedge FB doesn't have to big (we often make this mistake) because the Wedge, as it begins to break up, becomes a finesse play and the difference between a fair Wedge, that relies on the push of the linemen, and a great Wedge is in how the runner finds the daylight at that moment when the linemen have taken him as far as they can. Two years ago, our Wedge was truly awesome because our linemen were very big and good, but it became devastating when our FB (a skinny little athlete who'd never played football before) got his chance to make a break, often gaining 5 or 10 more yards, or breaking it all the way. This kid was naturally a smart, patient runner who was never willing to just put his head down and ride the linemen...he was always looking for daylight.
The Trap play has the most potential failure points of any of the Dwing plays...by far. A lot of coaches have trouble with this play and it nearly drove me insane. If the trapper makes a bad decision, if the linemen fail to release (tying up the defensive linemen on the line and not blocking the backers), if the handoff is slightly askew, if the runner isn't patient at the beginning and then doesn't read the blocking, this play can look awful. It requires so much work, so many reps, that, if it wasn't such a great play when it does work, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

From: TNSPARTY

Dipper,
We were having trouble getting flagged for assisting the runner when we ran the wedge. We were not doing it on purpose. Sometimes the refs said that with the pile moving like it did we must be assisting. They would never call it on the 40 they would wait and call it at the 1. We found that as defenses looped around the back side, they would knock my QB into the runner. I had him to protect the backside after handing off. Wyatt suggested I fake the XX47 with the Wings and have the QB fake the bootleg left. Just another variation. I can see where you wouldn't want to do any faking if you wanted to set up the counter though. What I did like about the XX fake was the wings were instructed to crash at anyone looping. It set up some big hits as the DE came around the pile and was crushed by the opposite side back.
Dipper: Actually, I like that fake XX idea alot. Really, I don't dislike any of the possible fakes using the QB and one or two wings. I just especially like that explosive effect of running Wedge on first sound and I don't care for revealing the possibilities of a counter play before I actually run it. Just me, I guess. We tried running Wedge with a fake counter and QB bootleg opposite that fake. It didn't impress me much.

From: DIPPER

This is for the guys that've run UB. Who did you generally wedge on?
When I first started running Dwing from a balanced set, we taught them to wedge on either the guard or center, whoever was covered. But it seemed that, because of the guard's depth, the wedge wasn't very good when we wedged on guard. It would break up very quickly.
Maybe I'm just lazy, but I started having them always wedge on the center, even if he was uncovered. We never saw anybody down in the A gaps, so our center and guards could just blast through the gap between DGs aligned on the guards, with the FB tucked in behind them, and be 3 or 4 yards downfield, pushing LBs, which was beautiful. Sometimes, even one or both tackles could muscle through, too. Then it was an awesome play.
I know this ain't the way a wedge is supposed to be run, but it sure worked nicely.

From: CDAVIS123

Dipper,
Only reason we started using motion and a snap count for the wedge was to try to get the defense to worry about our toss, or some type of toss counter. Our staple play is the toss and all of its' compliments. We never ran wedge more than 7/8 times a game, unless they were giving it to us, Split 44 or I was trying to make a point of intimidation.
By Coach Wade: By the way, speaking of that Wedge Pass, what do you think of this:
Wyatt has the QB drop back behind the wedge and watch for fumbles. I'd prefer to use him to set up a touchdown by faking a roll out. Instead of using the backside TE on the wedge blocking, send him on a slant/corner about 15 yards. Make the QB fake a thrown pass, almost jumping in the air like he's chucking a football, and make the TE fake catching the ball and running with it. (This might take a little timing to look realistic.)
This will have a couple of effects on the defense. First, if a defender sees this out of the corner of his eye, he'll probably bite on the pass, and that's one less guy to block. Second, it gets the TE deep into the defensive backfield, and facing back towards the offense, which puts him in a prime position for a peel back block if the FB breaks into the clear.
Finally, and most important, after you've done this six or seven times, that TE should be all alone out there. I'll bet the QB could ROLL the ball to him and have a good chance of getting the ball there safely.

By bman52

First, thanks for the comments.
Second, as far as rolling the QB out after handing off on the wedge I have two thoughts. I was planning on running wedge with motion to make it look like Super Power. If I do that. I really don't want him rolling out because it will tip off that it is not Super Power. On the other hand. If I am running the Wedge out over the tackle, I really don't want the D to think it may be Super Power because I will get flow to the play, I may have to fake 99 Super Power. In this scenario I think it might be better to do just as you say.
Do you think you will get more mileage out of the Super Power Fake or out of rolling out and maybe sticking to running wedge on a first sound basis?

By Coach Greg

Wade,
That is what I do, I roll my QB to the backside on normal 2 Wedge. I don't send the BSTE, but it is a good idea against a team that is keying the TE for pass, you could actually draw upto three players away from the wedge - man on QB, man on TE, and FS reading the pass. Against a team that is reading run and letting the FS flow to the TE it would not be effective but the pass would be open to the QB.