Some of the best offenses in football history have been built around a simple idea: find a run you can hang your hat on, force the defense to stop it, and then build the passing game off the same action.
The 1990s Dallas Cowboys built their offense around Emmitt Smith and a dominant downhill running game. Defenses had to commit bodies to stopping Smith, which created opportunities for Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin through the air. In 1995, Irvin caught 111 passes for 1,603 yards and 10 touchdowns, including six receptions of 40-plus yards. With Smith demanding attention in the backfield, play action gave Dallas another way to create big plays downfield.
Mike Shanahan’s back-to-back Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos of 1997 and 1998 attacked defenses with a similar philosophy. Their bread-and-butter outside-zone running game with Terrell Davis forced linebackers and safeties to flow with the run. John Elway could then carry out the same initial action and attack the defense with play action.
That philosophy never disappeared. Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers and Sean McVay’s Rams are two of the clearest modern examples. Both have built offenses around families of plays that begin with the same picture. For the first few steps, the run and the play action off it can look almost identical to the defense.
That influence continues to spread around the league. Tampa Bay is worth watching in 2026 under new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson, who began his NFL coaching career under Sean McVay and spent five seasons on the Rams’ staff before becoming Atlanta’s offensive coordinator. Now in Tampa Bay, Robinson brings his background in McVay’s system to an offense expected to incorporate many of those same run and play-action principles.
The schemes and formations have changed, but the philosophy really has not.
Tarleton State provides a great example of that philosophy with its H-Iso package.
Old-School Pro-I Iso From Modern Personnel
H-Iso is a downhill run play that requires linebackers to fill their gap responsibilities with aggression. Ultimately, it comes down to who is tougher.
The H-back becomes the old-school fullback. He inserts through the hole as the lead blocker, and the running back follows him downhill. If you grew up around the I-formation, you have seen this play before. The formation may look different, but the basic idea is the same.
The offensive line handles the defensive front while the H-back isolates a second-level defender. The running back hits the hole with speed and looks for a two-way cut off the H-back’s lead block.
The physical nature of H-Iso is what makes everything built off it work. When the H-back inserts, the linebacker cannot wait around to find out whether the quarterback actually handed the football off. He has a gap to defend. The same is true for a safety involved in the run fit. If those defenders hesitate, Tarleton State can keep handing the ball off.
If they start attacking downhill, the play-action game comes into play.
Building the Pass Off H-Iso
Tarleton State’s H-Iso play action is interesting because, on film, it can look like an RPO. The quarterback rides the running back, the H-back shows the same insert action, and the routes attack the space around the run defenders.
It would be easy to assume the quarterback is reading a linebacker or safety, but I do not see enough evidence to say he is making a true post-snap run-pass read. To me, these look more like play-action passes designed to take advantage of how the defense is expected to react to H-Iso.
What I really like is the variety Tarleton State can build into that same play. The X receiver can be tagged on either a slant or a hitch without changing the H-Iso action in the backfield. The slant gives them an answer against man coverage or favorable inside access, while the hitch can take advantage of a corner playing with cushion or soft zone coverage. It gives Tarleton State two different ways to attack the coverage while presenting the defense with the exact same run action.
The slant fits naturally with H-Iso because it attacks the space being vacated by a linebacker fitting the run. The H-back inserts, the quarterback rides the running back, and as the linebacker works toward his gap, the slant can replace him in the space he just left.
The hitch attacks the defense differently. If the corner is playing with cushion, the X can simply settle into that space and give the quarterback an efficient completion.
Tarleton State can expand the package even further with concepts such as Hoss, pairing an outside hitch with a vertical seam from the slot. Now the same H-Iso action can create answers underneath, inside, and vertically.
The routes change. The picture in the backfield does not. You can use whatever routes fit into your system.
Creating the Conflict
The numbers are what tie the run and pass together.
If the safety stays deep, Tarleton State has favorable numbers to run H-Iso. Against an even front with six defenders in the box, six offensive blockers can account for all six defenders.
To get an extra defender involved against the run, the defense has to bring someone else into the fit. Often, that means the safety becomes the seventh defender.
That may help against H-Iso, but it also creates the conflict Tarleton State wants.
A linebacker attacking his gap can create space for the slant behind him. With no safety help over top, the corner tends to play with a cushion which can give the X access to the hitch. A safety becoming aggressive against H-Iso can open opportunities farther down the field.
That is what makes the package difficult to defend.
Stay back and Tarleton State has the numbers to run H-Iso. Add a defender to stop it and the play-action game attacks the space created by that commitment.
The slow ride between the quarterback and running back makes the conflict even harder.
Tarleton State does not rush the fake. The slow mesh allows the action to develop. At times, the running back is so patient that the play almost has the appearance of a draw.
That patience gives the second and third levels another moment to process what they are seeing.
For a safety involved in the run fit, that is a difficult position to be in. Stay deep and Tarleton State maintains favorable numbers to run H-Iso. Trigger downhill and the throwing windows begin to open behind you.
The better Tarleton State runs H-Iso, the harder that decision becomes.
Taking the Shot
The slant and hitch provide efficient answers underneath, but eventually the same H-Iso action can create opportunities downfield.
That is where the slot fade becomes dangerous.
As the defense becomes more aggressive fitting H-Iso, a safety with his eyes in the backfield can lose valuable ground the moment he reacts to the H-back. Instead of throwing into the space he vacated underneath, Tarleton State can attack over his head.
This is where the play action becomes a key breaker. Defenses spend all week teaching linebackers and safeties to read their keys. If the H-back has repeatedly led them to H-Iso, his movement begins to trigger a reaction. Play action gives the defender the same key, they fill allowing us to throw the deep ball.
The Classic Mantra: Build an Offense, Not a Collection of Plays
That is what I like most about Tarleton State’s H-Iso package. It gives the offense answers without constantly adding completely different plays.
Start with H-Iso and make the defense prove it can stop it. If the defense keeps the safety deep, run the football. If the linebackers start attacking downhill, throw behind them. If the X has favorable inside access, take the slant. If the corner gives him cushion, take the hitch. If the safety becomes too aggressive in the run fit, attack him vertically.
The answer changes, but the picture presented to the defense stays the same.
That is the same basic philosophy that has existed in great offenses for decades. The Cowboys built around Emmitt Smith and made defenses pay with Aikman and Irvin. Mike Shanahan’s Broncos built around the outside-zone game with Terrell Davis and married their passing game to it. The Shanahan and McVay coaching trees continue to use the same philosophy today.
Find the run you can hang your hat on. Make the defense stop it. Then make everything else look exactly like it.
Adam MaCauley is the face behind Simple Football Systems. If you’d like to read and watch more of Adam’s content subscribe to his YouTube page by clicking here.
