Playbook: Smash

"Smash" is a very common two man route combination consisting of a short inward breaking route (or hitch) by #1 and a corner route (aka "flag", "7") by #2:

Ray Rice (#1; yellow) runs a shallow "in" route while slot receiver Marlon Brown (#2; red) runs a corner route

The "Smash" combination provides a "rub" element for the #1 receiver underneath while working to "Hi-Low" a "cloud" corner in Cover-2:

Against Cover-2, the corner playing the Smash combo is in a bind.  The #1 receiver is running through this corner's short zone but jumping the "in" route leaves the deep half safety chasing the corner route (red) from his inside landmark.  Coaches and quarterbacks refer to this bind as "High-Lowing" a corner.  Its the reasoning why Smash is still a standard Cover-2 beater at all levels.

To effectively play this combination as a corner, he must recognize that #1 is breaking shallow, pass him off to the hook/curl player (N/Nickel in the above image), and sink to "cushion" the corner route to give the quarterback a smaller window.

A variant on this playcall is the "smash switch" or "China" which refers to the outside receiver running the corner route and the inside player sitting in the flat.

Outside References

1) The Divide Route in the Multiple Smash Concept

2) The Universal Route that is Good versus any Coverage

3) Peyton Manning (and Tom Moore)'s Indianapolis Colts Offense: How a Handful of Plays led to a Decade of Success

4) Football Passing Play Series: The Smash Route or Smash Concept

5) The "smash" route against man coverage

6) The Smash Concept

7) Huff Analysis with All-22 film

8) Smash Passing Concept