Zone Blocking Scheme: Manly Running

[pbmax]

Posters here tend to conflate the ZBS with weak and ineffective offensive line play.

Here is a take about how the ZBS can help an O line dominate on the LOS. As a bonus, it brings us back to the 1997 Super Bowl, cap cheating Denver Broncos.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/word-muth/2013/word-muth-church-outside-zone

The Outside Zone Run is the author's favorite play and he describes the basics of the play this way:

Helmets outside, press the edge, stretch the end, reach the playside tackle, and chop on the backside.

[bobblehead]

"This type of combination blocking takes a ton of practice time to pull off in game situations. If you want to run the zone stretch -- and I mean really run it worth a crap -- you probably need to devote around 65 percent of your individual offensive line practice time and 70 percent of your scripted runs in team drills to it. It’s a huge time investment.

On top of that, even when you invest the time and get decent at blocking it, it looks like crap in practice because you can’t cut on the backside. This makes everything look cluttered, and the running back never gets to see a clean cutback lane. That means the back never trusts the play in practice. "
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MM used to say that we can't really practice it properly because we don't want to cut our guys in practice. I would be pissed every year as our run game struggled out of the gates. Again, if you don't practice something, you are unlikely to be good at it.

[MadScientist]

Great article. The quotes about how much practice and coaching is needed to get it to work makes me think that is a good part of the problem in GB. We'll see if the new RB's can make a difference.

[bobblehead]

It just occurred to me that ZBS could be part of the reason that MM swapped both sitton and bulaga. You have to work together and be comfortable with what the other guy is doing, and keeping them together could help that learning curve.

[pbmax]

MM used to say that we can't really practice it properly because we don't want to cut our guys in practice. I would be pissed every year as our run game struggled out of the gates. Again, if you don't practice something, you are unlikely to be good at it.

Nice catch. But I wonder if there is something else here as well. The Packers got away from cutting the backside as the Tackles at the time (Clifton and Tauscher) could not do it. I am not sure they ever brought this back.

[woodbuck27]

"This type of combination blocking takes a ton of practice time to pull off in game situations. If you want to run the zone stretch -- and I mean really run it worth a crap -- you probably need to devote around 65 percent of your individual offensive line practice time and 70 percent of your scripted runs in team drills to it. It’s a huge time investment.

On top of that, even when you invest the time and get decent at blocking it, it looks like crap in practice because you can’t cut on the backside. This makes everything look cluttered, and the running back never gets to see a clean cutback lane. That means the back never trusts the play in practice. "
=============================

MM used to say that we can't really practice it properly because we don't want to cut our guys in practice. I would be pissed every year as our run game struggled out of the gates. Again, if you don't practice something, you are unlikely to be good at it.

Words or talk Vs service to commitment.

RESULTS seen.