Luke Braun's Film Room: Kevin O'Connell's QB Sneak Debacle, Broken Down In Excruciating Detail

Or, Everything You Didn't Want to Know about the NFL's Most Effective Play

Photo by Jeff Dean/Getty Images

Editor’s Note: The story includes quotes from former Michigan Football player Logan Tuley-Tillman, who was dismissed from the program in 2015 for “conduct unacceptable for a Michigan student-athlete.” He later pleaded guilty to illegally capturing/distributing an image of an unclothed person and to committing a crime with a computer.

The QB sneak is enjoying its moment in the sun. Philadelphia’s Tush Push (I’m not calling it the Brotherly Shove, you corporate ghouls) dominates the narrative of every game they play. Other teams have tried, with much less success, to replicate this. Minnesota is one of those teams.

QB sneaks have increased in usage almost threefold in the last five years. That’s no accident - sneaks are the most successful play in short-yardage situations. Push sneaks have been slightly more successful per the linked research by NFL Operations. Whether pushing or not, sneaks should have more than an 80% chance to get a yard when you need it.

The Minnesota Vikings didn’t do that well. They converted two of their four QB sneaks in Saturday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, but the two failures came at the worst possible juncture. As the story goes, the Vikings faced a 3rd and 1 in Cincinnati territory in overtime. They hurried to the line to pull off a sneak, which caught the Bengals off-guard. Cincinnati had to call a timeout, nullifying the seemingly successful effort. 

After the timeout, Minnesota tried to sneak again, but this time with their own spin on Philly’s Tush Push. Brandon Powell started with jet motion, a common Vikings move in their traditional run game, only to stop and push Nick Mullens forward on the sneak. They were stuffed, though, it was close. 

Brian Flores urged Kevin O’Connell to take a timeout and give the officials more time to review, but the officials had already told O’Connell the review was complete. What’s more, they had the Bengals in base personnel instead of goal line personnel. O’Connell saw this as an opportunity, despite the Vikings having even lighter 11 personnel on the field, and hurried into the exact same play call. Stuffed again.

The Bengals took over, kicked a field goal, and won the game. To understand everything that went wrong in this sequence, we have to look at how QB sneaks are constructed, the source of O’Connell’s inspiration for the play, and where there is room for adjustment inside the structure of a sneak.

A Brief Ancestry Of The QB Sneak

The QB Sneak might be the closest thing we see in the modern NFL that a football viewer from 1919 might recognize. Parts of it even pre-date football, instead pulling from the even older tradition of a rugby scrum. The Eagles even have a rugby coach on staff to translate these concepts. To help understand these ancient secrets, I reached out to Logan Tuley-Tillman, an offensive line trainer who works with many NFL players, including Ed Ingram.

Tuley-Tillman pointed me in two directions: The aforementioned rugby scrum features several players locking arms, getting low and driving forward. Here’s a rugby team taking on a Formula 1 car head on.

He also pointed me to the Wing T. In Wing T blocking, they often use a “wedge” to break the defense in the middle. It’s only good for a couple of yards, which was enough by the standards of the 1920s as well as modern 3rd and 1 situations. Here is a Wing T coach teaching the wedge.

You can see the same techniques applied by the Vikings in their first possession of the game, a 2nd and 1 conversion in scoring territory. Watch left guard Dalton Risner, No. 66, in particular. He steps behind the center first, places his earhole at Garrett Bradbury’s hip, and crashes to the inside. This softens the defensive Tackle while Bradbury drives him back.

You’ll also note that the Vikings don’t have a traditional pusher, but Ty Chandler does run up to finish the job. Mullens had already converted by that point.

The quarterback’s responsibility on this is maddeningly simple. Take this instruction from an old Mike Martz playbook:

In fact, many youth and high school coaches won’t even bother to practice QB sneaks. They’re the simplest play possible. Just go forward.

Unless you are the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Tush Push Is More Than A Tush Push