Rolling Thunder - Be efficient in the 'compressed' Red Zone.

No matter what your base offense is, you will find it necessary to make adjustments in what I call the compressed red zone; that is, from the three in. Adapting your base personnel, formations, and plays can be costly in terms of time and confusing to your players, who try to relate schemes and techniques used in the open field to this unique situation. Adopting a “Thunder Offense” can give you a personnel, formation, and play package that is specific to the compressed red zone. When your players hear “Thunder” they don’t have to remember the entire offense, thus focusing their thinking and allowing other position players to contribute without learning the entire offense.Attacking the DefenseThe base formation immediately puts pressure on the defense because it is an overload (Diagram 1). If the defense aligns to the Z, you can simply motion him before the snap and run either