Madden players have some rules that they swear by. One of them is that the halfback angle route is undefeated. There is some truth to that, both in the NFL and in the video game. Offensive coordinators swear by the weakside halfback option route, in a way to get running backs isolated on safeties or linebackers. Matthew Stafford found DeAndre Swift on one such design for the Detroit Lions’ first touchdown of the weekend:
Matthew Stafford finds @DAndreSwift for a @Lions TD!
📺: #NOvsDET on FOX
📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app: https://t.co/T1i6s2rIdv pic.twitter.com/phjGLd2qUZ— NFL (@NFL) October 4, 2020
As you can see, the strength of the offensive formation is to the right. That gets Swift isolated on linebacker Demario Davis. Swift reads the linebackers’ leverage, and when he sees Davis shading him to the outside, he cuts to the inside. Stafford hits him in stride, and the Lions are in the end zone.
Angle route for the win.
