A cutback is a sudden change in direction by a ball carrier in
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
, usually against the flow of the play. One common type of cutback would be turning an
end run
In gridiron football, an end run is a running play in which the player carrying the ball tries to avoid being tackled by running outside the end (or flank) of the offensive line. It is distinct from a dive, which is a run "up the middle", or an o ...
into a run down the middle.
It is a common type of
juke and the basis of the
counter run In American football, a counter run is a running play that starts in one direction but ends in the other direction. Typically, the running back will take a step in the opposite direction of the play, only to get the handoff in the other direction. W ...
.
References
{{Gridiron football maneuvers
American football terminology