The 3-Step Passing Game
"Three things can happen when you put a ball in the air -- and two of them are bad."
-- Duffy Daugherty
Well, I'd even say: "When you try to put the ball in the air, four things can happen, and three of them are bad": of course the completion is the only good outcome, the others are a sack, an incompletion or an interception. The art of the passing coordinators is now to adjust everything so the chances are mostly in favor for a completion.
That means you have to minimize the chances for the three bad outcomes.
- The sack: the shorter the time the quarterback holds the ball before he throws it the smaller the chances for any defender to beat the passblocker and get to the quarterback to sack him.
- The incompletion: the shorter the ball is thrown the smaller is the margin of error (the more precise the pass is in general) and the less time the defenders have to get into the passing lane to deflect or intercept the pass.
- The interception: the easier the reading progression for the quarterback the better. The chance to make the false decision rises with the complexity of the decision-process (the reading-progression).
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