A trips formation is an offensive
football formation, initially used by
Joe Gibbs
Joe Jackson Gibbs (born November 25, 1940) is an American auto racing team owner and former professional football coach. In football, he was head coach for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) from 1981 to 1992, and ...
and the
Washington Redskins
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
, in which three receivers line up on the same side of the field. The side is usually specified by the
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
calling "Trips right" or "Trips left" when he calls the play in the huddle.
There are multiple variables of the trips formation, and it may be combined with other types of formations. For example, the call "
Shotgun, trips right, slot left" formation would indicate that the tight end and two
wide receivers would line up on the right side of the field, while two receivers would line up on the left side of the field (one "wide", the other slightly off the
line of scrimmage
In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an imaginary transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end o ...
in the "slot"). The quarterback would line up at least five yards behind the
center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
.
The objective of a trips formation is to flood the defense on one side of the field in order to create and exploit holes in
zone pass coverage.
See also
*
American football strategy
Strategy forms a major part of American football. Both teams plan many aspects of their plays (offense) and response to plays (defense), such as what formations they take, who they put on the field, and the roles and instructions each player are ...
External links
*http://incolor.inebraska.com/mays/playcalling.htm
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American football formations
Canadian football terminology