Have you ever watched a game where the quarterback fakes the handoff, a receiver leaks out wide open, and the announcer says “great play design”?
It’s not the design. It’s the install. Play action only works when every single skill player on the field, not just the quarterback, is coached to sell the run first. Most quarterback content stops at “fake the handoff and look off the safety,” but that leaves half the play uncoached.
How Do You Teach A Quarterback To Sell Play Action?
You teach a quarterback to sell play action by coaching his fake as an extension of the run scheme it’s built off, matching his ball placement, hand action, and eye discipline to what he does on the actual run play, while your offensive line and running back sell the identical run action for the first three steps. Play action only works when the whole backfield, not just the quarterback, is coached to disguise it.
In this article, we’ll break down the full install, the setup, the offensive line, the quarterback’s fake handoff mechanics, and the running back’s action, so you can build a play action package that actually creates explosive plays instead of just looking pretty on the whiteboard.
Step 1: Build The Play Action Setup Before You Ever Call It
Play action pass fundamentals start before the snap. This is 100% on you as the coach, not the quarterback. You can’t just tag a random play action pass onto your call sheet and expect it to hold up, you have to dress it up off a run you already run well, and you have to have called that run enough that the defense has to respect it.
Here’s the football behind it. The same mesh-point discipline shows up in how we coach quarterbacks to run the zone read. If you run wide zone or outside zone to the left, every offensive lineman is hard-stepping left for the first three steps, the H-back is working the edge, and the running back is downhill fast. To the defense, that’s fast flow, the linebackers see uniform lateral movement and know they have to run with it or get gapped out of their run fits. That urgency is what you’re selling. If your line just pops up and sits back into pass sets, there’s no urgency, and the linebackers can sit, read crossers, and deepen instead of triggering downhill. The defense’s run/pass key, fast flow versus gap discipline, is exactly what decides whether your play action call actually opens anything up.
How Do You Coach Offensive Linemen To Sell Play Action?
Coach your offensive line to fire off the ball and hard-step the exact same launch points, depth, and pad level they use on the live run for the first three steps, then set for pass protection without drifting downfield. There should be no visible difference between your run play and your play action play through the first three steps, that’s the rule, not a suggestion.
If you’re pulling guards on a power scheme, pull them the same way in your play action protection. It should look identical to the run for as long as legally possible, remember, linemen can’t work more than a yard or so downfield or you’ll take an ineligible man downfield penalty, so sell it hard within that window and then set.
The mistake I see youth coaches make is treating play action as a quarterback drill in individual period and never touching it in team run install. If your O-line coach isn’t in the room when you install the fake, your linemen will pass-set soft on play action weeks before anyone notices why the ball isn’t getting open. Install the fake with your run scheme, not separate from it.
What Footwork Should A Quarterback Use On Play Action Fakes?
The quarterback’s job is to be the best actor on the field, and his footwork and ball placement have to match his real handoff mechanics exactly.
When I install this with my line and quarterback, the cue we use is simple: whatever hand you hand the ball off with on the live run, that hand goes up in the air the instant the ball is out. Every single run rep, every gap scheme, every zone rep, that hand goes skyward on the handoff. Then on the play action version, the quarterback tucks the ball into the opposite hand, throws that same hand up and out exactly like he just handed it off, and sells the ride before he ever turns to throw.
That consistency is what sells it to the backside defensive end or backside tackle, the guys reading the quarterback’s hands, not the running back. If your quarterback fakes differently every rep, that backside end reads pass and crashes the pocket instead of chasing the fake. One coaching note here: after the fake, the quarterback needs to get out of that fake with urgency, a slower quarterback lets that backside end disengage and get home. Sell the fake, then burst.
How Do You Get The Running Back To Sell Play Action?
The running back has to be as convincing an actor as the quarterback. He should run downhill at full run speed on the exact same track he’d take on the live run, ball or no ball, so that a linebacker watching only the running back genuinely cannot tell who has the football. That’s the standard, if a defender can identify the fake by watching the back’s speed or angle, the fake failed regardless of what the quarterback did.
When that sell is right, you get displacement. Linebackers step up, the tight end or H-back leaks late into the flat or crosses the field underneath, and there’s nobody sitting on him because everyone but the safeties and corners bit run. That underneath window, the area a single-high or two-high safety can’t help on, is what a good play action fake buys you.
Why Isn’t My Play Action Pass Creating Open Receivers?
If your play action isn’t creating open throws, the problem is almost always the sell, not the route concept. Check three things in order: is the offensive line hard-stepping the run track for three steps instead of soft-setting, is the running back running the fake at full speed on the correct track, and is the quarterback’s hand action identical to his live-run mechanics. Fix the weakest link first.
Defenses adjust too. Later in a game, you’ll see a linebacker who bit the fake early now split his run/pass key, one linebacker rides the run fit, the other sniffs the play action and matches the leaking tight end. When that happens, it doesn’t kill the play; it just moves the window. The receiver who was supposed to be covered by that second linebacker is now uncovered somewhere else, usually on the edge or over the middle. Good quarterbacks are coached to read that leverage change and take the open man instead of locking onto the original design.
Play Action Pass Vs. RPO: What’s The Difference?
| Play Action Pass | RPO (Run-Pass Option) | |
|---|---|---|
| Decision timing | Made in the play call, before the snap | Made post-snap, read live off a defender |
| Ball handling | Full fake, ball is never live to the back | Ball may actually be handed off |
| Who reads the defense | Quarterback reads coverage after the fake | Quarterback reads a specific defender’s leverage |
| Best against | Aggressive, fast-flow linebackers | Gap-disciplined, read-and-react linebackers |
Play action is a full commitment fake off a run you’ve already established, you’re selling a decision that’s already made. An RPO leaves the decision live, with the quarterback reading a defender’s run/pass conflict after the snap. Both attack the same conflict, the linebacker who has to choose between his run fit and his pass drop, but play action wins against defenses that fly downhill on run keys, while RPOs are built to beat linebackers who stay gap-disciplined and don’t bite. Learn more about installing run-pass conflict concepts in our OC University course.
On the other side of it, the defenders you are trying to hold are the same ones being taught the linebacker wall off technique.
Common Mistakes
Worth confirming with your officials: linemen downfield is the penalty that kills a play action pass, and the exact yardage allowance lives in the NFHS football rules.
Coaching Play Action (And How To Fix Them)
- Linemen soft-setting instead of firing off. Fix: install play action fakes in the same team run period as the live run, with your O-line coach coaching the launch steps, not just the QB coach running it separately.
- Running back “faking” at half speed. Fix: grade the fake on tape the same way you grade a run, track, pad level, speed, not just whether he sold the handoff.
- Quarterback’s hand action inconsistent rep to rep. Fix: use the same cue on every single run rep in practice (hand up on the handoff), so the fake becomes muscle memory instead of a separate move he has to remember.
- Calling play action off a run you haven’t established. Fix: sequence your call sheet, establish the run look, then hit the play action off it, ideally by the second or third quarter once linebackers are keying fast flow.
- Quarterback standing in the fake too long. Fix: coach the burst out of the fake with urgency so the backside end can’t disengage and collapse the pocket.
Coach’s Takeaway
Play action isn’t a quarterback trick, it’s a team install. Your offensive line sells it with their launch steps, your running back sells it with his track and speed, and your quarterback sells it by making his fake mechanically identical to his live handoff. Get all three matching, and the defense’s own run key is what opens the throw.
FAQ
How do you teach a quarterback to sell play action?
Coach the fake as an exact mirror of his live handoff mechanics, same hand action, same ball placement, while installing it inside your run period so the offensive line and running back sell the identical action.
What makes a play action pass look like a real run play?
The offensive line firing off with the same launch steps and pad level as the live run, for at least the first three steps, combined with a running back running the real track at full speed.
How do you coach offensive linemen to sell play action?
Have them hard-step the exact launch points and depth of the live run scheme before transitioning to their pass set, without drifting downfield past the legal limit.
What footwork should a QB use on play action fakes?
The same footwork and hand action he uses on the actual handoff, the ball-side hand goes up and out identically on both the run and the fake, so the backside defensive end can’t read the difference.
Why isn’t my play action pass creating open receivers?
Usually the offensive line is soft-setting instead of selling the run, or the running back’s fake is too slow, check both before changing the route concept.
What’s the difference between play action and RPO?
Play action is a full, predetermined fake off an established run; an RPO leaves the run-or-pass decision live for the quarterback to read after the snap.