On the backside, the LG & LT (-1 & -2) will take care of the Nose and Will (-1 & -2) and the QB will read (or boot) the BSDE (-3) to account for him in the blocking scheme. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time. He cannot get the linebacker until he gets there." (QB Position Guide), What is a Running Back in Football? Sure, some teams have chosen to man block the play, 73.8 percent of coaches still use a covered and uncovered principle when running the outside zone. If they lose sight of him even for a minute, itll delay their ability to pick him up on that second-level block. "We watch the inside foot pre-snap. In a follow-up to the inside zone report that X&O Labs published back in early March, we wanted to research the most productive ways coaches are teaching the outside zone and stretch concept to their players. The play side guard blocks down on the nose and the center pulls around the guards block and up on the backer. The center is 0, the play-side guard is 1, play-side tackle is 2, backside guard is -1, and the backside tackle is -2. 6. That can then open huge cutback lanes in the middle of the field for running backs to take advantage of. This is referred to as the second level of the defense. At the snap, the center is responsible for blocking the nose tackle lined up head-up on him. Tenopir used to call this the "play boy" scheme because it's a fold block with the center and play side guard. There is nobody in his play-side gap, so he helps the tackle overtake the block and then looks inside for exactly this type of flow from the linebackers. Iowa's outside zone is modeled after the Alex Gibbs/Terrell Davis philosophy of getting the defense to run on the front side just to cut on the backside. The only way an offensive There are two primary rules: covered and uncovered. For years, offensive linemen were given man blocking responsibilities. They designed whats called a slant and angle scheme that threw a big wrench in the man blocking approach. "When we put the lead foot where it is supposed to be, the rest of the body will come with you," said Tenopir. That tells the running back to adjust his track to be inside of those two defenders. The tackle would have to follow the end, based on his man blocking responsibilities. I believe that a player who thinks he can run fast will beat a player who thinks he is going to be running slow. . If any wrong color jersey crosses his face on that path, cut it. Stake - Technique used on BS of zone or both FS and BS of outside zone run plays "RTB" Prototypical Offensive Lineman Truth is, 80.8 percent of those that took our outside zone survey were high school coaches. NFL Offensive Lines: Alex Gibbs' Zone Blocking Scheme. It is used when lineman struggle with reaching the down defender in front of them, so help is needed by the next adjacent lineman. Uncovered: There is no first level defender (DLM) from my nose to the nose of the adjacent lineman play side. As you can see from the description and illustrations, the slant and angle defensive scheme posed a big problem for man blocking schemes. Third, the offensive linemen must keep their eyes on the linebacker. Last, the play-side tackle has one of the most important blocks in the entire play. Once his gap is secured, he will continue working up to the linebacker to cut off his angle. Vertical push on IZ (inside zone). The aiming point is to track the outside hip of the play side tackle (note: The aiming point of the back is chasing the outside hip of the tackle. In our example, the offense will have a fullback and running back in the backfield, a quarterback under center, and one tight end lined up to the right. OL = Outside Zone blocking. This helps eliminate some concerns especially if you are pulling a fast player over from defense to run the play. However, in the past few years under running game coordinator . The blocking has been simplified in the past twenty years with the advent of zone blocking rules, that enable several backfield plays to be run with the same blocking scheme. I found this excellent article that breaks it all down here. The PST kicks out the EMLOS. If I were going to run both schemes, it would be all I would do during inside run sessions. Stick your foot in the ground and making a slashing cut north and south. If he tries to pull and come around the back-side number of the tackle, he will never get it done. Blocking Calls / Rules. Make your splits work for your advantage. We call it a 'rip-to-reach' because we used to take the inside arm and rip it across the outside arm of the defender. Lean back if nothing is there - If there's nothing that shows immediately, lean back and get eyes on what's coming into your gap. For the zone blocking scheme to work properly, there are some keys that offensive linemen need to follow. The Outside Zone begins with a lateral step to the playside; this is essentially a side step. "We want the pulling guard (or whoever is uncovered) to get depth and distance on the pull. As that defensive tackle slants inside, the center leaves them because he knows his BSG is going to be on his 3-step track to overtake. As the name suggests, Zone Blocking Scheme is quite literally blocking a zone, or an area of the field, rather than man. This can be a great way to get the ball on the edge and utilize a WR who might not be getting a lot of passes thrown to him. The concept is that the Running Back will be coming downhill and taking a handoff deep in the backfield. "When you cut on the back-side of zone you knock off the rest of the offensive lineman that are trying to trail the play." Once the guard has slowed down the man in his gap and the center has overtaken him, he will then move to cut off the linebacker. He teaches his players to eye the outside armpit of the defender with the objective to always advance to the second level. In outside zone, offensive linemen will never step backside. This could ultimately lead to catastrophe. But if it's not a base scheme, we were curious to find out why coaches are spending the time implementing it. So when we started compiling the report, we've found that the most heated discussion is whether or not to full zone or man block the scheme. The guard and tackle on each side of the center will combine for the zone blocking double teams. The filled/unfilled system prioritizes their rules based on whether the play-side gap of an offensive lineman has a defender in it or not. The tackle would pick up the block, but it would knock the guard off course in the process. But here comes the beauty of the zone blocking scheme. This meant that if the lineman's assignment went to the left, hed be required to follow him and vice versa. It's basically the same principle X&O Labs uncovered back in March when we released our inside zone report. The Outside Zone Read is similar to the Inside Zone Read in the sense that it the Quarterback is Reading the Last man on the Line of Scrimmage and the Line is Zone Blocking. "If we don't get engagement by ripping to play side number, then we automatically climb to the second level," he said. The tackle would miss the block, forcing the guard to pick up the defensive end or allowing the end to quickly get in the backfield. Outside Zone Running Back Aiming Point Last, the running back needs to read the block of the play-side tackle. It's a curveball, so to speak, to keep defenses off balance and on its heels. stream As soon as they seal, he shifts his eyes one gap inside. If the defensive end goes to the inside (through the B gap), then the offensive guard will stay on him while the offensive tackle peels off to pick up the Mike. On the backside the shaded Nose = -1, the Will = -2 and the backside DE = -3. Outside zone forces defenses to run horizontally and puts more responsibility on the running back to make the blocking scheme of the offensive line effective. Better Know a Run Game- Crack Toss. 7 0 obj In the mid 90's, Alex Gibbs put in a zone blocking scheme for the Denver Broncos. Your email address will not be published. Subscribe for weekly recaps on analysis, insight, and articles. Outside zone plays follow the same basic rules listed above with a few general guidelines that should be followed. Although Ruel doesn't teach a bucket step for those uncovered offensive linemen, we've found that the majority of coaches, 32.8 percent, teach a bucket step for that uncovered lineman. This concept was made famous by the Denver Broncos and their legendary offensive line coach Alex Gibbs. One way to handle the handoff to the Jet man is by having the QB drop the ball down to him. GOD - Gap on Down; GOLD - Gap on LB Down; GOO - Gap on Outside (pass) 5 0 obj The backside hand goes to the sternum of the defender. Using outside zone as a base run play opens up other concepts like play-action plays (where you fake the outside zone handoff and throw it deep outside) or gap schemes. It was extremely difficult to figure out who was blitzing, who was dropping . Teams who run outside zone from under center typically require the running back to make a quicker decision, as the ball will be in the hands of the running back closer to the line of scrimmage. H Lead up, looking outside in Position Base Rules WRs Playside: Block the Most-Dangerous Man (MDM) Backside: Cutoff Stay alert for Bubble Tags or Audible OL Zone Combo - Covered / Uncovered Rules to Stack LB F A-Gap to A-Gap run Primary 1-back formation It's used against and eight man front. Yes, he did just say front side A gap. Ruel's Techniques of a Stretch Scoop (uncovered lineman): That last coaching point is the golden nugget. It started to become popular in the 1980s and in the 1990s with Alex Gibbs and Mike Shanahan. This takes some work and some practice, but they'll be able to easily pick it up over time. On most outside zone schemes, particularly ones run at the higher levels of football, offensive lineman would cut block defenders on the back-side of the play - regardless of whether that player was a first or second level defender. So when we started compiling the report, we've found that the most heated discussion is whether or not to full zone or man block the scheme. ", But against stunting first level defenders, keeping both shoulders squared becomes a difficult fundamental to accomplish. Due to the speed the runner is moving at he will not be reading the playside tackle and is automatically trying to get to the edge. That means the center will work to the backside linebacker and not the play-side linebacker (PSLB). The outside zone uses the same blocking rules as the inside zone. The benefit of cutting off defensive linemen is that it naturally opens up running lanes for the running back. endobj If that makes sense for you, great! We're talking full displacement of defenders. Identify your man. Zweifel will do this when he sees a C gap down defender to the play side. In this example, the count would begin with the 3t = 0, the Mike = 1 and the DE = 2. Think inside shoulder to outside shoulder. On this play, the offensive tackle would have man blocking responsibilities for the defensive end, while the offensive guard would have man blocking responsibilities on the Sam linebacker. Seal - Term used for blocking defender out to stop penetration of gap or to ensure edge pressure . Try to cut off the defensive end, so the running back can get to the edge, If the defensive end widens and youre not able to cut him off, then try to run him to the sideline. It keeps our shoulders pointed up field. The easiest example to see how this works is to talk about the defensive end. This was very similar to a man-to-man defense. Instead, each lineman is responsible to block an area . 8 0 obj His main job is to cut off the players gap toward the play side. The biggest one is that if the ball is dropped by the runner it is considered a forward pass and the play is dead. A primary goal of almost all offenses is to get the ball to a speedy player in space. Click here. How he blocks him can vary - some coaches prefer lead or angle step up field, whereas some tell their offensive lineman to bucket step. A core component of their ground game has been a zone-blocking scheme, which Ferentz brought to Iowa City over 16 years ago, and continues to be a critical aspect of their rushing offense. ZONE Effective blocking on inside zone provides cutback lanes for the ball carrier. The face goes to the play side defender's armpit. Rather than attacking upfield at the snap, the offensive linemen typically move at a 45-degree angle towards one of the sidelines, often leaving the backside defensive end unblocked to generate a . This made it very easy to teach, especially for younger football players who were just learning to play the game. endobj Aiming point is the outside leg of the ghost tight end (ghost means whether a tight end is actually in the formation or not), The running back reads outside in from the end man on the line of scrimmage to the defensive tackles, Essential to take a good track to force linebackers to flow over and set up easy blocks for the offensive linemen, If the running back has a lane outside, they must immediately take it, Attack the play-side end man on the line of scrimmage (EMLOS) with goal to seal outside, If the end man on the line of scrimmage is outside their frame and in a wide enough alignment that an overtake is not possible, they must kick out that player, When the EMLOS is possible to overtake and seal, the PST will take lateral steps (losing ground if needed) to win the outside, If the play-side guard is able to overtake the EMLOS, climb and look for play-side linebacker inside to prevent scrape, If the EMLOS is possible to overtake and seal, the PST will take lateral steps (losing ground if needed) to win the outside, Attack the play-side shoulder of the defender in your gap, Take three steps flat with goal to overtake for the offensive lineman to your play-side, If you cannot overtake or push over defender onto your play-side tackle, climb to first linebacker play-side, Attack 1 with same technique as filled/unfilled, Work through first level defenders that appear, Attack 0 with same technique as filled/unfilled, If you cannot overtake or push over defender onto your play-side tackle, climb to second linebacker play-side, Attack -1 with same technique as filled/unfilled, Attack -2 with same technique as filled/unfilled, Defensive players lined head-up are treated as players that can fill gaps to either side, Linebackers walked up in gaps are treated as filling those gaps and become priority assignments, A defender in your play-side gap overrides a defender that is head up. If that d-lineman comes straight ahead, his shoulders are square so he can force a cutback (which is detrimental to the outside zone scheme) or make the tackle. The TB chases the butt of the tight end on this. ", Milt Tenopir, the legendary offensive line coach under Tom Osbourne at Nebraska, believed in the same philosophy of having his covered offensive lineman really work to get to the second level. In this drill, we work with a shaded down defender and a stacked Linebacker (or whatever we will see that week). In both of these cases, the guard wouldn't be able to get to the Sam linebacker in time to make a successful block. *%nT]QnMLL**c&u%9l]+4Lj3ImEYJM!A3=bdG$Ui x|q<>;+U\l}2gB!mKl4U b;":#5Im!$y!M90JLEcSQ| . =l7*9s!-Oj8f9Du%hOg5LQen2tg[UvX t,3Ml8S9rlL dl*|MfLsFXJ$D9m+!R `)^+JPiXjU;uhpY` ip9adL3TMW#$8*nWx2#9~\|vp}ppa{m=Rkoxoi*+%7Vs?nK&+b?~DA3v[9NMO34Ndf78b,9\YT jO0:/D['e>=w8ZBq$ J 0^FOr@Dkoj364&aj$fD(OQ ;)g J'9XqDuxqD2I[}vmxmz0TV&3+OI=;@ D-PRLL*@EzfLs* <> x[[o6~GkPs(>t.MC&dI9$EHxn$CQ/."_F They must be taught through practice and game reps to get a feel for when the Tackle does not have his man sealed so they can turn it upfield to gain yards. While its a little more complicated to teach and learn than the man blocking scheme, it isn't too difficult that itd be hard for younger players to learn. It could help your offensive lineman with their footwork and open more holes for your running back to hit. Unlike a full zone principle, this scheme involves down blocks and pulls at the point of attack. Used for Outside Zone Blocking when covered and facing an OUTSIDE SHADE defender. Teams who run outside zone must have athletic linemen that can cut in front of the defensive lineman. The PST kicks out the end and Quentin Nelson is able to sustain his block long enough to allow the running back to shoot the gap. The key to running inside zone is the double teams that occur at the line of scrimmage from the lineman and the running back being patient. RB aligns behind the tackle to his side, five yards off the ball in gun so we can stretch the defense. Sweeney recalled a story during his ten year tenure as a center with the New York Jets when star running back Freeman McNeil used to come over and watch the linemen during their individual session in practice. Diagrams 8-10 (Keith Grabowski's RB reads on force defender) Can't see the diagram? Get our blocking diagrams to every defensive front Steps and Combos The next thing you need to study about the Inside Zone is Offensive Line Steps and Calling Combination Blocks. In a clinic setting, Coach Greatwood teaches the inside zone concepts of the devastating Duck ground attack. Outside zone is a play that aims to attack the edge of the defense but utilizes backside cutoffs. It's all doable depending on the path of the back which Zweifel explains. But besides that, the 2 plays are very different. Sure, some teams have chosen to man block the play, 73.8 percent of coaches still use a covered and uncovered principle when running the outside zone. We've found the structure the play (either in gun or under center) dictates how fast that ball can get to the edge. "He wants to get started up field because he is going to come off on the next level. If by the third step, the offensive lineman is not in a position to overtake the down lineman, he's up on the next path to cutoff whatever comes. 17 Bellstone Drive, Bellingham, MA, 02019. In fact, 64.9 percent of coaches believe that the uncovered vs. covered methodology is the most productive way of blocking the inside zone scheme. Inside Zone Run Blocking Rules Inside zone can be run at any level, whether youth, high school, college, or the NFL. Here is one last example of how the flow and horizontal pressure of outside zone can exploit defenses. Once the running back reads the tackle, he will bend it back toward the middle if he sees him pushing the defensive end to the sideline. Basic Zone Blocking Rules: Inside Gap (first rule is to protect inside gap) Head UP (head up is considered from inside shoulder to outside shoulder) Climb to LB. Outside zone is a running play on which offensive linemen focus their blocks on zones, or spaces on the field, as opposed to specific defenders (which is referred to as man-to-man blocking). If the defensive end stays to the outside (through the C gap), then the offensive tackle will stay on him while the offensive guard peels off to pick up the Mike. When we conducting our research, we've found there are three particular scenarios in which coaches are using the pin and pull technique. Zone blocking can most simply be described by saying that an offensive line is responsible for a specific zone instead of a specific man (as he would be in a man blocking scheme). This will allow them both to peel off successfully to the second level. What are the key pieces of a successful Zone Run Scheme? Next is the play side guard. Both ultimately accomplish the same thing. Herb Hand, Vanderbilt University (Bounce, Bang, Bend). The running back has three primary rules: bend, bang, and bounce. <> <> The zone blocking scheme is a great way to counter any defensive play that might be called. This play is diagramed against a 3-4 scheme. The idea is to "stretch" the entire defense the width of the field. Select an applicable Action of either Block, Legacy CAPTCHA, Managed Challenge, or JS challenge. Thats where the overtake comes into play. 2. We're here just to spark the debate and give you some fodder to decide how best to run your scheme. Chip and GO. Generally, offensive linemen are to attack downfield at a 45 angle instead of the more lateral step you see in outside zone. endobj The best part about the Outside Zone scheme is that it can be used in a multitude of different ways to attack the defense. endobj The backside tackle is looking to cut off the defensive lineman to his play-side gap. If you have an offensive lineman that can move and effectively cut off the defensive players, outside zone is a perfect install. Here, the end man on the line of scrimmage to the play-side jabs in on the snap which allows for left tackle David Bakhtiari to be able to seal him and give the Packers the outside. Sign up for our weekly recaps, informed analysis, and film breakdowns. The rules. It works great as a horizontal flow and is common to use on boot legs and play action. It's not as wide. The Running Back is still making the same read on the Tackle. The linemen still count their defenders to the play side when determining their responsibilities. The guard to the read side has to avoid the defensive linemen and go. It has become even more popular in the past few years with Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay basing their entire offenses around the scheme. -TTZ>{fclRPd7yY6)l,$]! Hand tells us the specifics of his ball carrier's path in outside zone from the shotgun formation. The wide-zone run scheme is a play based on horizontal movement. Peyton Manning was a true master of this where he would sell the fake so well that the defenders would come downhill to stop the run only to see Marvin Harrison or Reggie Wayne going streaking by them. If the defensive end has the play-side tackle in a stalemate, the running back will bang it next to their block to recoup some yards. I'll focus on the wide zone, because that's more iconic to what Gibbs . The 3 templates include: Last, the running back needs to read the block of the play-side tackle. If the Tackle is unable to seal his man the Running Back must plant with his playside foot and cut vertically upfield. In this article, were going to show you exactly how to run outside zone and how you can install it into your offensive system. We can't get a soft shoulder." O-Line: Blocking the Stretch/Outside Zone Scheme. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Its best used as a base play for your offense if youre running three wide receivers and a tight end or two wing-backs. These are the primary rules for outside zone. The login page will open in a new tab. Again, the zone blocking scheme will start with the offensive tackle and guards combining for a double team block at the line of scrimmage, followed by one of these linemen peeling off to block a second-level linebacker. Those numbers for the defense can adjust in real time with pre-snap motion and fakes that move defenders into different alignments. In fact, its the exact same as far as who the offensive linemen are blocking. In our Indy period on Offensive Line, we will work our 2 on 2 blocking for the the Outside Zone.