Anatomy of a trick play: How Detroit Lions' through-the-legs snap came to be

When the Detroit Lions first sat down to install the between-the-legs snap they surprised the Carolina Panthers with last week, rookie offensive lineman Colby Sorsdal noticed someone interesting on the film breakdown of the play —himself.

Sorsdal was in his final season at William & Mary last year when the Tribe pulled off a between-the-legs snap in their homecoming game against rival Delaware that went for a touchdown.

One of William & Mary’s two quarterbacks lined up in a traditional shotgun formation, and the Tribe’s second quarterback — William & Mary played most of last season with two quarterbacks on the field — motioned from a slot receiver spot to under center.

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The center snapped the ball between the motioned quarterback’s legs to the second quarterback in the backfield, and the quarterback taking the snap ran an option play to the short side of the field while the one under center took off in the opposite direction.

It’s a modernized a version of the old fumblerooski play, in which the quarterback-center exchange is intentionally fumbled for another offensive player to recover. The play is now largely outlawed in pro and college football. And Sorsdal thought it was deviously constructed.

“It was an innovative offense,” Sorsdal told the Free Press on Wednesday. “So we get under center, act like we’re faking a sneak and he snapped it through his legs and we ran speed option the other way. We ran duo off this one (with the Lions), which was different than the William & Mary one, but the snap between the legs was real.”

The Lions used the same concept to pick up a key third-and-6 against the Panthers from the Carolina 14-yard line late in last week’s third quarter.

Jared Goff cuddled up snug behind center Frank Ragnow, who snapped the ball directly to running back David Montgomery, who ran up the middle behind a trio of blockers for a first down.

“It’s just duo is all we ran,” Goff said of the popular run game concept that’s a staple in the Lions playbook. “On third-and-6, are you ever going to run duo? I don’t know, you can. But we ran it with a little bit of a wrinkle on it, were able to pick up the first down based on something we saw in them in certain situations.”

The play came to have a place in the Lions playbook not from Sorsdal, but on a suggestion from assistant offensive line coach Steve Oliver.

Oliver first saw the play when watching scouting tape of Sorsdal ahead of April’s draft, and he presented it to offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as a possible play in one of the Lions’ gameplan meetings.

Johnson said his assistants have “a million ideas each week that they bring up … and maybe we only take two or three” to each game.

“All the young guys, obviously they’re a little bit more versed in the college game having been there most recently, and Steven Oliver played a critical role in that play coming up for us,” Johnson said. “We had noticed on tape — not to give away too much information, but whenever, if the quarterback would get up and give some movements, the (Panthers) defensive line might settle back or take a knee or something of that sort, so we were just looking to take advantage off that and drive off the ball. It wasn’t anything special about the play, but just the way to get to it was a good idea there by Steven.”

Goff set up the direct snap to Montgomery by hunching under center as if to take a snap from Ragnow, then standing tall and directing receiver Jameson Williams to motion across the formation.

Ragnow snapped the ball as Goff stood with his right hand in the air, and Goff capped the subterfuge by acting as if Ragnow had snapped the ball inadvertently and it was loose on the side.

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“We were snapping it on ‘Jamo, come on,’ like motioning him in, so when I said, ‘Jamo, come on,’ the ball got snapped,” Goff said. “There was a little bit of playaround with when we wanted to snap it and doing that (in practice), but no, we never hit it off my leg. It was good.”

Johnson said the Lions have a catalog of plays saved “that catch our eye, whether (from) the NFL or college, that goes back for years now.” Last week, the Lions also pulled off a reverse flea-flicker they last used when Johnson was the team’s tight ends coach under interim Darrell Bevell in 2020, and they had another trick play that Johnson culled from a 2007 game.

“It was fuzzy film and our guys were like looking at us sideways,” he said.

Asked about “stealing” plays Thursday, Johnson laughed at the term — “You said steal?” he said coyly — but acknowledged he and other coaches often repurpose concepts they see at lower levels of football or add “eye candy” to give familiar concepts a fresh look.

That applies defensively, too, as Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said he visits with at least one college coach every offseason — he and Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz are close — to discuss concepts prevalent in college football that are making their way to the NFL.

There are things that pop up every year when we evaluate the college prospects that, ‘Holy cow, that’s a great idea,’ ” Johnson said. “Chip Kelly, back when he was in New Hampshire, kind of used that as his laboratory as he came up with all these cool ideas that he was doing up there, and then as he went to Oregon, to (the Philadelphia Eagles), those things kind of blew up and took the league by storm if you will.

“There’s a million great ideas out there and sometimes the college game, I don’t want to say there’s less at stake, but there’s maybe not as much scrutiny if something goes wrong so you’ve got the green light to be a little bit more creative. And truthfully, that’s the wonderful thing about our head coach is he’s not afraid to do some things that maybe haven’t been done before in this league.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' trick run vs. Panthers got its start at William & Mary