How to Pass on 3rd and Short

We’ve all seen it before, your receiver runs the route you drew up, quarterback delivers it perfectly, and it’s a catch – well short of the first down line. Field awareness is an incredibly important part of route running, and you’ll notice very quickly that receivers with great field awareness quickly become favorite targets of their quarterbacks.

So I always teach my receivers that on third down, they should always extend their route however far they need to to make sure that it’s a first down on the catch. But there are some situations where your receivers will do everything right, but still need to fight for those last couple yards on the ground – here’s a great drill for getting that ever important first down!

Bubble Screen Drill

Whether it’s to  a big, strong, physical receiver, or a small, quick, slippery one, the bubble screen can be a great play to run on 3rd and short. If your not familiar with the bubble screen it’s a fairly simple play, and can also be a good confidence booster for your quarterback, getting them some easy yards.

Have your receiver setup on the line of scrimmage between 5-10 yards away from his quarterback. Now on the quarterback’s single, your receiver will begin to trot out towards the sideline, stepping slightly back at first, so that they can move forwards toward the ball as it approaches them.

You’ll want to start off without a defender, but once your players are comfortable, have them run this play with one blocker and one defender. You should also setup a first down marker, about 5 yards away from the line of scrimmage. They’ll have to learn how to read the block and choose to go either inside or outside. Once they’ve got that down, you can add a safety further back as well, and have your receiver and blocker try and get those last 5 yards!

Once of the other ways that route running and field awareness come in handy, is when it comes to finding soft spots in zone coverage. We’ve got that, as well as an entire archive of wide receiver drills that you should check out! And don’t forget to leave any questions or comments below!