The End Around

Lore & Background

The Devil Bats built their identity on the principle that a team full of misfits can outthink a team full of athletes. The End Around embodies that philosophy perfectly. On the surface it is a route any tight end could run; in practice, it demands the kind of trust between the disguised signal-caller and the receiver that only comes from hundreds of reps on a muddy school field. The tight end sells the vertical read with his eyes and first three steps, lets the cornerback bite, and then makes the break with a shoulder check and a burst of speed that reads as a separate play entirely.

The play became a fixture of the Devil Bats' playbook as the team progressed through the Kanto league, evolving from a simple check-down into a more layered concept with double-moves and pre-snap motion. Opposing coordinators began stacking the box and taking the tight end out of the play, which in turn opened up the running game and the deep routes that the Devil Bats were equally dangerous with. In the narrative of the series, The End Around is less a single trick and more a statement: the Devil Bats will find the seam in your defense, no matter how many times you patch it.

For the tight end who owns the route, the play carries a quiet pride. He is not the flashiest target, not the one dashing in slow motion for the highlight reel. He is the one who makes the defense look foolish by being where they stopped looking, and that, in the Devil Bats' world, is its own kind of glory.

In Their Own Story

The stadium lights hummed overhead, painting the turf in bands of amber and shadow. The Devil Bats huddled in their blue-and-red jerseys, breath misting in the cool evening air. The tight end lined up on the left side, shoulder squared, eyes locked on the quarterback's facemask. Across the line, the opposing cornerback squared up, read the shoulders, and committed to the post. The snap. The tight end took three steps upfield, selling the vertical with a slight lean of the hips. The corner followed, a half-step behind, a half-step proud. Then the break—a sharp cut to the flat, a burst of speed that ate the space the corner had already left. The ball arrived at his fingertips like it had been waiting. He tucked it, hit the boundary, and the stadium erupted in a roar that shook the goalposts. The quarterback, still in his throwing motion, simply nodded. Next play.

Reader's Guide

The End Around is, at its core, a route-disguise play. The tight end lines up on the formation and takes his first three to four steps as though running a post or curl route—hips aligned vertically, eyes upfield. The cornerback, reading the vertical threat, mirrors those steps and begins his pursuit angle. The critical moment is the break: the tight end snaps his shoulders toward the sideline and accelerates into the flat, effectively running 'around' the end of the coverage the defender has already committed to. The quarterback must sell the deep read with his eyes and body, then deliver a tight, flat throw into the developing lane. Timing is everything; a throw a fraction too early meets the defender's outstretched arm, a throw a fraction too late finds the receiver already past the window.

The play was developed and refined by the Deimon Devil Bats coaching staff as part of their broader offensive philosophy of creating mismatches through route deception rather than raw speed. It became a decisive weapon in the team's league matches, particularly in situations where the defense stacked the box to stop the running game and left the tight end in one-on-one coverage. The physics of the play are simple but unforgiving: the cut must be sharp enough to change direction without losing momentum, the throw must be on a flat trajectory to beat the defender's reach, and the catch must be made in stride to preserve the receiver's forward momentum.

Opposing teams adapted by taking the tight end out of the play entirely—assigning a dedicated coverage man or shifting the zone to eliminate the flat. This, in turn, forced the Devil Bats to layer the concept with pre-snap motion, double-moves, and additional route combinations, turning a single-play trick into a full offensive principle that kept defenders guessing all game long.

Did You Know?

• The End Around is a route concept that exists in real American football as a standard tight-end or wide-receiver route, but in Eyeshield 21 it is elevated into a signature team identity play with layered disguises.
• The play's effectiveness in the series depends heavily on the disguised quarterback's ability to sell the deep read—a skill that fits the character of the Devil Bats' signal-caller, who is secretly a running back.
• In the manga's art by Yusuke Murata, route plays like this are drawn with exaggerated speed lines and dynamic body angles, making a simple flat break look like a full-body contortion mid-air.
• The Devil Bats' tendency to turn a single route into a multi-layered concept mirrors real football play-calling, where a base route is modified with pre-snap motion, double-moves, and hot-reads to create the same 'around