"Endzone!" doesn't need to mean "vert stack"
Let's have a greater diversity of endzone offenses
Here's another pet peeve of mine to add to the list: why does it sometimes seem like every team runs the same endzone offense, consisting of a vertical stack with cuts coming from the front of the stack? Some teams I've been on would even switch to this offense after having run horizontal stack the rest of the way down the field.
Yes, the principles of offense adjust slightly when closer to the endzone—the defense doesn't have to worry about a deep throw and can adjust accordingly. NFL teams adjust their offense as they get closer to the endzone. But that doesn't mean every single team needs to run the same exact endzone offense. Try something new!
San Francisco Fury (who, again, is the winning-est club team of all time) doesn't switch out of their horizontal-stack-inspired setup when they’re near the endzone. Below, we'll take a look at some of their endzone possessions from 2024 US Nationals, to give you a feel for what endzone offense looks like when it’s not “cut from the front vert stack” offense.
During the semifinal, announcer Katie Killebrew brought up an important point in this discussion—if you run the same offense as every other team, it's easier for defenses to stop it because they've had lots of practice against it. As she puts it:
You can see from that point that Fury is having to throw into non-traditional spaces because of the defensive pressure that Molly Brown is putting on. And there are some very close ones because they're having to throw, you know, inside forehands, elevator backhands, lefties into that leading upfield space past the poaching defenders. And it's a testament to what Nancy Sun was saying that they've been practicing those throws all season. They've been practicing throwing into those unconventional spaces because it1 is so predictable a lot of times, with a hard force, and stopping the upline, and then the buttonhook cut, etc etc.
I slightly disagree with her analysis — Fury throws those leading passes because it's a core part of their offense, not because of Molly Brown's defensive pressure (more on this below). But I agree wholeheartedly that it works for them partly because it's unconventional—it's effective because they're not doing the same exact thing every other endzone offense in the division is doing.
I feel a little goofy having mentioned Fury in so many posts lately. But with how much Fury wins, I also think the rest of you should feel goofy that more teams haven't copied their strategies. Everybody runs the same endzone offense, except the team that wins the most? If you're all gonna run the same endzone offense as someone else, why isn't it Fury's offense you're copying?
I don't intend for this to be a full breakdown of Fury's endzone strategies, but here are a few ideas that stood out watching Fury's last-15-yards offense at 2024 Nationals:
2v2
Fury's success rate was quite good when they ended up playing 2v2 near the endzone. Anna Thompson leads the 2v2 action in this first example:
Carolyn Finney also looked to keep the disc between her and one teammate on a few occasions:
Attack from the back
The "lead pass to a cutting handler running straight down the field" is a constant part of Fury's offense, whether they're near the endzone or not.
We already saw it once in the first video above. Thompson is ~5 yards behind Shayla Harris when Harris releases the throw, and ends up catching the disc for a ~10 yard gain:
Here's a possession that features two lead passes in a row. This time it’s Harris who catches the first one. Then when no options are available downfield, she throws a second lead pass to Finney who immediately throws an assist:
It might be a bit of a stretch to call this last example "endzone" offense, but here Magon Liu gets in on the action as well, throwing the lead pass to Carolyn Finney who once again immediately throws an assist:
Here's one more where Shayla Harris uses the rarely-seen forehand lead pass. Johnston is behind Harris when the pass is released but ends up catching a goal on a ~10 yard gain:
Leaving space open
I've said before that Putting your whole offense in the endzone is bad, actually, and Fury are experts at leaving space open in the endzone. While you might generally say their offense looks like a "ho stack", they're often happy to have only three or even just two cutters downfield when they're near the endzone.
This first example is from their 2023 semifinal game against Boston Brute Squad. Coming out of a stoppage about 5 yards from the endzone, they complete two short passes and end up in the situation shown in the screenshot below. Two Fury offensive players are so far behind the disc they're not even in the screenshot. Only two Fury players are downfield of the disc, and one of them is 30+ yards away on the opposite sideline. The result is an easy score.
[Funny side note: please ignore the announcer claiming that "both teams are playing a similar style of offense favoring their vertical stack". Not sure where that idea came from.]
Fury's first score in their 2024 semifinal against Molly Brown provides another great example of spacing. The drone replay really highlights how much space Fury is leaving downfield. In the NBA they talk about running the 5-Out offense; here Fury is running the 6-out:
One of the Carolyn Finney 2v2 scores we looked at above is another good example of spacing. I like this as a third example because it highlights how, even at the moments when Fury's shape is very "ho stack-y", they're perfectly happy to only have three players downfield. Here's their shape when Finney catches a pass:
But Fury isn't rushing to have 4 players downfield — it takes nearly 6 seconds before there's a fourth player deeper than the disc. And even when that does happen, two of them are hugging the sideline to keep the middle of the field free:
Medium-length scores
My impression from watching these games is that because of the way they keep the endzone space open, Fury has an easier time than most teams in scoring on medium-length throws. A lot of their scores come on throws from 10-20 yards out or so. These mid-length throws are harder when there are more defenders in the endzone who could get a block. But Fury’s use of space leaves more open spaces in the endzone to attack and more open passing lanes to get the disc there. I didn’t record any statistics on this but it feels true based on the film I’ve watched.
Slash from the breakside
A few Fury scores involved:
a completion to the middle of the field
followed immediately by a cutter slashing across the field horizontally from the breakside to the open side for a score
I'm not sure if this is something they intentionally look for, or just a pattern that arises naturally from their offensive principles, but it showed up a few times:
One example was the "6 out" drone shot that we already looked at. The possession ends with 10-yard pass from the breakside handler space to the center of the field, followed by a pass to a cutter in the endzone cutting across from the breakside:
The clip above was Fury's first score in the semifinal. Their first score of the championship came on a very similar motion:
The Magon Liu lead pass we already looked at above was a third example of a cut coming across from the breakside. In this case, two players both decided to slash across from the breakside. It worked out alright for Fury though:
Just play frisbee
You might think from all the examples above that San Francisco Fury has this highly-schemed, perfectly-practiced endzone offense. I'm not so sure that's the case. I think, as much as anything, they are willing to just play frisbee. They trust themselves. They trust their teammates. And all seven players on the field feel empowered to look for the opportunities & open spaces the defense is giving them.
Fury converts this endzone opportunity without too much trouble:
But look at their arrangement on the field just before the goal is scored. All seven Fury players are on the same half, nearly even the same third, of the field:
Another play we've already looked at involves five Fury players ending up near the same sideline:
And no, they were not using a side stack—as you can see in the replay of the moments before the above screenshot:
Sure, sometimes things get a little congested. But it works because people are actually trying to do things. Yes, it can happen that two people decide they like their chances and both head for the same spot at once. But, in my opinion, teams worry way too much about "double cutting", and what they end up with instead is players who aren't even trying to get open. (On a recent Pod Practice episode, the hosts make a similar point—paraphrasing slightly: “people get mad at practice about double cutting, but it happens even on the best teams…I’d rather two people attack that space than no one”). Fury lets their players do things, and that makes it hard on the defense, even on points where things get a little congested.
[Update 2025-02-19] This YouTube video—released a few weeks after my post—does a great job of highlighting how PoNY in the open division also spreads out in the endzone: Frisbee Teams Should Steal PoNY’s Endzone Strat! by Ulti Von
by "it", I believe she means "a standard endzone offense & the defensive response"
You mentioned this, but it's very common where I play for teams to run ho and then transition to a vert EZ offense. Can you think of any especially good reasons to do this? What you're arguing for is very compelling, but I anticipate pushback...