The play-action pass is one of the most commonly used plays in all of football. It doesn’t matter if a team runs a pro-style, spread, triple-option, run-and-shoot, they have play-action pass plays in their playbook.
Perhaps no play in all of football has the potential to be consistently devastating for defenses. The offense gets their run game going, and then suddenly the quarterback fakes the handoff and throws the ball to a wide open receiver.
It’s such a major part of the sport that quarterbacks are judged on their ability to execute the fake hand-off believably. Many quarterbacks in college and the pro’s have been known for this ability.