The Eagles and the outside zone

Right.

Today I want to look at a run play that the Eagles used time and again against the Cowboys to pick up big yards. There are several reasons why this play interests me;

- We're always told that you can't run the same play twice in the NFL, because if you do, the defense will figure it out and be ready next time. Plainly that's not the case (and to be honest, never really has been),
- It follows on well from the posts I did about zone running, specifically the article that covered the play-pass off of the outside zone run,
- The tactical battle between the defense and the offense,

The last point is one that I really want to focus in on. Now without having sat in the meeting rooms during the week I can't say the following for certain - but it struck me that the Cowboys had set out their defense to take away the inside trap running that the Eagles are fond of. With the added threat of Mike Vick breaking out of the pocket and running up the middle, it made some sense for the Cowboys to protect the middle of their defense.

But there's protecting the middle and then there's loading so many guys up the middle that you leave the edge of your defensive front vulnerable. Lets take a look at the layout ahead of a 21-yard run by LeSean McCoy;

As you can see, the Cowboys have set their defense strongly to the right, with plenty of coverage against the run up the middle as well. The Eagles have brought a second tight end into the game, who is aligned just behind the starting tight end, and they're going to use that player to expose the weakness of the Cowboys defense to the left.

What they're going to do is run an outside zone to the right, caving down on a defense that has already been bunched up somewhat in the middle. The Will linebacker "W" (DeMarcus Ware) is going to be left unblocked by the offensive line, instead leaving the second tight end to come across the back of the play and make the block.

Now when Ware sees the left tackle blocking down and away from him, his job is to slant hard inside and fill the vacant hole on the backside of the play, to stuff any chance of a cut back run. He needs to keep his head up and his eyes open for that second tight end coming hard down the line to block him, and he really needs to defeat that block.

He doesn't.

DeMarcus Ware being DeMarcus Ware, he's looking for the potential sack on a pass play (he had four in the game), so he charges hard down field. The second tight end comes across and cuts at his feet, doing just enough to keep Ware out of the play and opening a huge hole to the backside. McCoy starts his run to the right, but seeing the penetration of the defensive tackles up the middle, cuts it back left and finds a hole so big you could drive an SUV through it;

Of note is the weak safety, who actually comes flying down hill, possibly worried about that second tight end leaking out of the backside of the play and into the flat, as described in my article of the play-pass off the outside zone. McCoy is able to cut inside of him and rumble for the 21 yard gain.

Right about now the cat is out of the bag. The Eagles now know that when they run the outside zone away from Ware, that Ware will come too far down hill because of his pass rush instincts. The next time the Eagles ran this play, Ware had a safety blitzing outside of him, but still didn't react quick enough to the left tackle blocking down. When he finally did turn inside to take on that tight end coming across the formation, he got his head stuck on the wrong side of the man and was blocked out of the play.

To be fair to Ware, his nearest defensive end didn't do him any favours on the second play, slanting so hard inwards as a reaction to the run action right that he ended up leaving a massive hole between him and Ware. One of the great advantages that the Packers, Ravens and Steelers have had against the run in recent years has been the discipline and stoutness of their defensive linemen against the run, occupying blockers and playing two gaps in order to free up their linebackers to make more of the plays.

I just thought I'd bring this play up because it rounds off the series of articles on zone plays nicely, showing the use of the second tight end to block the backside instead of a fullback. I also like the fact that once the Eagles had spotted a weakness that they went back to the play again and again, knowing that McCoy could make the read and cut back through that big gap. Often it's the ability or failure to spot these little things and make adjustments during the game (without the benefit of replays like me ;) ) that often separate some of the more successful coaches from their peers.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'm planning to put down my crazy idea for an NFL alternative, in honor of the UFL potentially playing its last season. Till then, enjoy your day.

Play-pass off the outside zone

In a follow up to my previous posts about the inside zone run and the outside zone run, next up is to take a quick look at some of the possibilities that extend from them in terms of play-action passing.

Now the first thing to address is that this is going to be but a brief look. Obviously, like any passing game, the number of different routes that can be run down field, the number of route combinations that can be put together and the number of formations from which to run such plays is pretty huge. Thus really we're just going to look at some of the more basic concepts and ideas which form the foundation upon which the grand house of a play-action passing game can be built.

The first thing to look at is the basic design of how many NFL teams put together their zone schemes, including the favoured formations. One of the preferred choices for running the outside zone is to have a full back offset to the weak side. This full back can cut off the backside defensive lineman, as demonstrated below. Please note that these diagrams are not necessarily to scale, and that drawing representative alignments in Powerpoint is anything but a precise art! Also, you can enlarge any of the pictures simply by clicking on them.

In reality that defensive tackle ("T") next to the center would be a little more to the right from our perspective, as would the defensive end ("E") on the tight end side, but I've found that just complicates the drawing process. Maybe one day I'll figure out a convenient way to diagram it all, but for now... tough.

What's of interest is that offset fullback, whose path is marked with the dotted line.

The reason for this is the potential that exists for slipping that guy out of the backside of the play. With the heavy run action to the right the entire front seven will be drawn across to stop the outside zone run. The "Will" linebacker gets pulled across and becomes more concerned with filling any potential cut back lane. Meanwhile we're left with a defensive end matched up against the fullback.

Now from a blocking perspective on a run play, that match up favours the defensive end. In all fairness the fullback should be considered to have done a good job if he can just delay the end for long enough to get the running back to the line of scrimmage. But when it comes to the play-pass, now the match up favours the offense. A 6 foot, 6 inch, 270lbs defensive end is not going to pivot on the spot and keep pace with a 5 foot 10, 230lbs fullback in the open field.

With the quarterback 'boot legging' or 'waggling' (depending on your preferred choice of terminology) away from the flow of the run, we can now create a situation where you have the quarterback running out towards a wide open space, with the fullback down field at about a 4-5 yard depth, plus whatever other routes the offensive coordinator has in place.

Let's put this up in a diagram so we know where we stand;

I've cut the line off at the center because we're not overly interested right now in what's taking place past that point. The only two things of note on that side would be the tight end running across the back of the linebackers to get open and the opposite side receiver running downfield to draw off the safety coverage.

What concerns us immediately is the dynamic between the quarterback and the fullback. They've now put the defensive end in a bind, because one man can't cover two players. If he tries to drop off and cover the fullback he leaves the quarterback free to set up and thrown downfield, or even to run it, using the fullback to throw a block on the end. If the end comes charging down after the QB then he leaves the quarterback with the option of a little dump off pass to the fullback, who can then turn up field and potentially turn a 5 yard gain into something much bigger.

It's certainly not an enviable position to find yourself in.

And that's the real advantage to throwing play-action off the outside zone. The amount of lateral movement by the defense required to cover the run leaves the backside wide open. Even a slower quarterback can gain perhaps 5-10 yards himself. Someone like a Michael Vick can bust that thing open for a huge gain. Or if the defense reacts well and starts to close in, the QB can take the little dump off pass to the fullback and get himself a few yards. On first down that sets you up in a nice and convertible short yardage situation. On third and short it gets you a first down. And in the red zone that small gain could be worth 6 points.

The only real way for the defense to compensate for this play-pass is to have the defensive end and the "Will" linebacker 'stay home', that is to play very cautiously and not pursue across the field when they see the outside zone action going away from them. This of course is precisely what the offense is looking for. Such caution only makes it easier to block the end and the linebacker when the offense legitimately runs the outside zone, or what your TV commentators will describe as "keeping the defense honest" (maybe a future title for a sister blog perhaps?).

And (I must stop starting sentences with 'And') while we're talking about red zone potential and bringing up the running ability of Mike Vick, two subjects that were combined into a post a while back, there is another version of this play-pass that's worth looking at because a number of NFL teams use it when they get down into those "1st and goal" situations, while others still will use it in the open field. It's certainly common enough to be worth taking a look at. Maybe Andy Reid could take some notes?

The basic difference in this next variation of the play is in who the offense uses to block the backside, and in the case of the play-pass, who it is that slides out of the back door. Basically what you do is to put a second tight end into the game as a replacement for the fullback, then line this guy up behind either the strongside offensive tackle or the original tight end. Many teams refer to this player as an 'H-back', for reasons I've never been entirely sure of, especially when the running back in most schemes is labelled as 'H' for halfback already.

Regardless, you line this second tight end up on the strong side and when the ball is snapped he now takes over the blocking responsibility of the fullback, running back across the formation to make the block on the backside defensive end. Or in the case of the play-pass, he fakes the block on the end (maybe gives him a shove, depending on how strong/brave your tight end is) and then runs for the open ground in the backside flat. Here's a rough look at it;

First of all, I accept that the defense probably wouldn't be quite so generous as to use the above front for their goal line/close to goal line setup, but just roll with it for now. The important point is that we have a tight end running clean out the back of the play.

The primary difference between this and the fullback, is that the tight end is usually a bit quicker and more often than not has better hands. That means he's more likely to run free from any backside defenders and if the ball is thrown to him, he's more likely to catch it, which is always a bonus. The secondary effect is that the path of the tight end/H-back can pull the "Sam" linebacker across a little, or at the very least cause him to hesitate, making it slightly easier for the starting tight end to get up and block him inside.

Another slight variation of this is to send the second tight end/H-back in motion prior to the snap, to line up behind the left tackle, where he is much better placed to get the block on the end or to sneak out the back door on the play-pass, though this negates somewhat the surprise effect of him coming across the back of the line. The positioning of this second tight end on the right side can also add a further variation to the outside zone, where instead of coming across the play he simply drives upfield, perhaps chipping the "Sam" backer on the way, and goes up to get the strong safety.

Finally, to finish we'll take a quick look at a play-pass by the Houston Texans from Sunday's game against the Titans, which ended with running back Arian Foster bagging a 78-yd catch and run. Here's the video of the play for those interested, and we start with the diagram below showing the pres-snap alignment of the offense and defense;

This diagram is as accurate as I could make it. With the Texans playing a heavy run set, the Titans naturally clamp down, especially on the strong side. They seem worried that the Texans are going to run to the strong side and thus have brought the numbers down heavily to defend it, but in actual fact they're going to get an outside zone to the left.

The split receiver on the left side will go hard downfield and come across the middle, with the tight end on the right side slipping out between the strong safety and the 'Mike' linebacker in order to head downfield and then break right to the sideline. The fullback is going to press towards the line initially, then he too is going to peel off to the right and try and slip out into the flat.

The defense starts by going with the zone run to the left, then as soon as they read pass they all start to flock back to the right in order to cover the various receivers headed in that direction. What they don't see is Foster coming up through the line and sneaking out to the left. As Schaub waggles out to the right he sees his receivers reasonably well covered, all that is except Foster. So he pulls up, turns and fires one out to the left.

For Foster it's a simple case of catch and run, cutting inside one would be tackler and then letting his speed do the rest. I've drawn up the final play here;

On a side note about the above play, I've noticed the Texans are really fond lately of these heavy sets, bringing an additional tight end into the game to replace one of the receivers. I'm not sure if they were doing this before the injury to Andre Johnson or not, but it's worked out well for them. They lead the league in rushing attempts which has led to the fourth most total rushing yards. They had two 100-yd rushers in the game against the Titans.

Which has sparked up a question I've long thought about; what if more teams used heavy, goal line style sets in the open field? This may strike people as me yearning for the old "three yards and a cloud of dust" mentality, but one thing I've noticed is the amount of times down by the goal line that a team will get their back through untouched and on his feet. Obviously in the end zone he has nowhere else to run, but in the open field he'd be clean through and off to the races. Interesting...

Well that's your lot for today. Tomorrow I'm planning to have a quick look at a group of players who I think are grossly under appreciated and have a huge impact on contemporary 3-4 defenses; the 3-4 defensive end.

See you tomorrow.

The Outside Zone

Yes, so, diagrams.

Yesterday I promised a little diagrammatic adventure and then got sidetracked, so today I'd better make up for it and break out my elite PowerPoint skills..... stop laughing, they're not that bad.

So for my 600th post (what a waste of life) I'm going to have a look at the Texans running game. Or more specifically, one play from the Texans running game. In fact, to be even more specific, one play, out of one formation, (because Blogger is stingy about the amount of pictures they'll let you upload) from the Texans running game; the outside zone.

The reason why I've chosen this play is because it is actually a very widely used play. Practically every team in the NFL right now runs it, though not all teams do it well, as you might expect. I could have chosen pretty much any team and stuck their name at the top, but I went with the Texans for two reasons; 1) they run it a lot, especially out of the two tight end formation and 2) they run it really well, probably better than most teams in the NFL.

Just understand that I've had to take some liberties with the defensive front and that the arrows are more representative of who blocks who, as opposed to precise pathways taken by the offensive line;

So there you have the basic jumble of men and arrows. But what does it all mean?

Well the key to the outside zone is movement. At the snap of the ball the entire offensive line is stepping to the playside (in this case the right). The goal is to get the defense on the move, get on your blocks, and then let the running back make simple reads on the reactions of the defense (more on this later).

The other big advantage of this play is that it is a multi-front beating run. That is to say that while many run plays undergo changes - sometimes significant changes - in the blocking scheme depending on what front the defense presents, the outside zone doesn't. The blocking rules remain the same pretty much regardless of what the defense does, making it much easier for the offensive line to cope with the variety of modern defenses. It also reduces the number of plays that have to be practised since this play, along with the inside zone and a few others, can cope with so many different defensive looks. And practice makes (closer to) perfect.

So what are the rules for the offensive linemen? It all comes down to whether the linemen is covered or uncovered. If he has a defensive linemen "over" him (any part of the defensive linemen aligned opposite any part of the offensive linemen) then you're covered. If you don't have a defensive linemen "over" you then you are uncovered.

The uncovered linemen, like the center in the diagram above, works towards the playside and helps the man next to him (the right guard in this case). A covered linemen, like the right guard in the diagram above, has to check the man to the backside of him (in this case the center). If that man is uncovered then he will help you with your block (as in the diagram). If he's covered, then you're on your own!

What you're trying to achieve is as many double teams at the line of scrimmage as possible, with the offensive linemen then working together so one of them can slip off the block of the D-linemen and work up to the linebacker. The decision about which offensive linemen goes up to the next level and grabs the linebacker depends heavily on what the D-linemen does in response to being blocked, which in turn is often heavily dependent on how he lines up in the first place.

In the diagram above (I'm starting to get Deja vu writing that), if the defensive tackle were to line up on the inside (left) shoulder of the right guard, then the chances are that the Center will end up taking over that block and the right guard will end up working to the next level and grabbing the "Mike" linebacker. If the D-tackle aligns head up over the right guard then it's probably an evens bet who will end up sustaining the block on him, and much will depend on whether he tries to drive inside and split the double team, or whether he goes outside and tries to cut off the running backs lateral movement. If the tackle lines up on the outside (right) shoulder of the right guard, the likely hood is the right guard will end up staying on him, with the center moving up directly to get the "Mike" linebacker.

This process is repeated up and down the line of scrimmage as the offensive linemen work as a unit to get all the D-linemen blocked first, before moving up to knock those linebackers out of the way. Before we move on to the running back and his reads, it's worth quickly examining the blocks of the wide receivers. The "X" receiver on the left side will simply run up, ignoring the corner to his side and go get the free safety. The "Z" receiver, who is lined up on the right (in the direction we're running the play) will have to make a decision as to who he blocks.

A variety of factors come into play, such as how deep the corner and the strong safety are, and how wide the receiver is split. Normally the receiver will come off the line at full speed, aiming at the inside shoulder of the corner and trying to get him to back pedal (due to the threat of play action). The receiver can then make the decision whether to turn out on the corner, or whether to cut inside and get the strong safety at an angle, with a good shot of knocking the blindsided safety clean off his feet (if your name is Andre Johnson for example. Not so much if your name is Randy Moss).

Sometimes the coach might dictate that the receiver always block a certain player, in which case it will almost always be the safety. There are two main reasons for this; 1) due to the way the play is run, and as we shall see when we get to the running backs read, the safety has a much better chance of influencing the play by making the tackle, and 2) let's be honest, corners are not renowned for their tackling, even when given the clear opportunity to. Someone like Antonio Cromartie of the Jets will often see a fake step to the outside by the running back as an opportunity to give up on the play.

So now that we've covered all the blocking assignments, we can get down to the nitty gritty detail of the backs reads. The outside zone is often described by TV pundits as a "one cut" system, which indeed it is. The back makes a series of simple "yes/no" "inside/outside" type reads, makes his cut and then bolts upfield to get as much yardage as he can before being brought down or reaching the endzone, whichever happens first.

Basically what the running back does is to read the actions of two players, starting with the second defensive linemen across from the center towards the playside (in this case the right). It's worth noting that a "nose" tackle who has aligned on the playside (right) shoulder of the center does not count and the back should ignore him. The back should also ignore any linebackers lined up well off the line of scrimmage. He is only interested in down linemen. If all this getting a bit confusing then fear not, another diagram is coming shortly.

In fact it's here;

Now the chances of an NFL back facing the above situation, with 3 defensive tackles lined up that close, is extremely rare outside of very short yardage (on third down), short yardage situations around the goaline, or the Jets playing Buddy Ryan's old "Bear" front. In the course of normal open field play the Nose tackle wouldn't be there (more likely he'd be on the other shoulder of the Center) but I've stuck him in there for the convenience of showing that the back will ignore a player aligned in such a way.

The people that the running back is interested in are "E" and "T" (keep the 'phone home' jokes to yourself please). "E" is the second down lineman to the playside of the center, so the back reads him first, hence why I've put a little number one over his head. What this defender does will dictate whether or not the back needs to bother reading number two ("T").

If the backs first read, "E", goes inside of the man blocking him (the right tackle) then the back will simply bounce the play to the outside. Normally the tight end, "Y", will help his tackle out, then go up to grab "S" which is the "Sam" linebacker. Typically the tight end will block that guy inside to out, pushing him towards the sideline and creating a running lane inside for the back. This would send the back towards the strong safety, which helps explain why it is preferable for the "Z" receiver to block the safety and not the corner (told you we'd get back to that eventually).

If the backs first read, "E", works hard to try and get outside of the right tackle (as shown in the diagram) then the back now switches to his second read, which is "T". He has two options now. If "T" goes to the outside as well (as he does in the diagram), then the running back will cut inside of him, looking for the center to get up and onto the "Mike" linebacker.

If "T" goes hard inside, trying to split the double team between the right guard and the center, then the center will take over that block and the right guard will go up to get the "Mike" backer. That will leave a large hole between "T" and "E", into which the running back cuts.

There is another option which I'm not going to diagram here and that's the possibility that if both "T" and "E" go outside and the running back then cuts back inside, that the left guard will have pushed his man all the way across as well, filling the gap vacated by the center which the running back was planning to cut into. In this case the running back just keeps working to the backside, cutting behind the block of the left guard. Ray Rice of the Ravens and Adrian Peterson of the Vikings are particularly adept at this (Rice is basically the master of the cut back run).

One thing that should be noted here is that when a back does cut back inside, often he is not actually making a huge cut. This is because when the play starts everyone is running to the right; O-line, D-line, quarterback, running back, everyone. The running backs aiming point when he starts running is actually the original starting point of the tight end. In most "huge cutback" runs that you see in games, the back is actually only making a small cut to the backside, due to the fact that everyone has shifted over so much. That's just an interesting little tidbit for you to keep an eye out for.

So there you are, the outside zone play described in full. It can of course be run from pretty much any formation you can think of, with favourites among the NFL teams being the I-formation, often with the fullback offset to the weak side or line up in the weakside slot. You can use motion to put a receiver in a better blocking position. And it can also be run to the weakside, providing you're using an unbalanced set. There are also many compliments to this play, such as the inside zone and the QB keeper. Maybe one day, possibly even next week (short of something else more interesting coming up over the weekend) I'll cover the inside zone as well, in full diagrammatic glory.

For now though, two things.

Firstly, I forgot to put up the results of my weekly picks, a reoccurring problem these days not at all related to the fact that they haven't exactly gone well. This week I was 8-5 in large part thanks to the miraculous (and bloody inconveniently timed) resurgence of Matt Cassel and Dwayne Bowe in Kansas, the complete ineptitude of the Bears, the inability of the Jets to shut down Wes Welker, the miraculous (and bloody inconveniently timed) resurgence of Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh, and the inability of the Giants to go more than one game in a row without turning the ball over five times.

That means I'm now 45-32 for the season. I hate Eli Manning...

Which makes it all the more fun that tomorrow I'm going to use screen shots of him getting sacked and fumbling the ball to make a point about TV broadcasts, as well as looking at something about cornerback play that really bugs me and that I've been harping on about for a long while now, especially this season; bump and run. With emphasis on the bump. (Quick, go back and italicise 'bump' to show the emphasis. They'll never know that you didn't think of it until the editing stage, unless of course you end up writing down what you're thinking like a complete fool.... hello there).

Then on Friday Night (*cough, Saturday Morning), I'll be back again to do my picks for week 6, which at first glance is looking like it's going to be a tough one.

In the meantime spread the word, hit ye Facebook share button, leave a comment, or even just e-mail me at;

keepingthechainsmoving@live.co.uk

Or don't. See if I care.