Zone Blocking/Pass Protection

[Patler]

KY I suspect if you were looking at a Favre highlight film, they showed most of his deep drops and long passes for the whole season, and not a representative sample. How interesting would it be to see him throw 20 completions of five yards each in a highlight film?

Holmgren in the early years would call plays to have Favre throw 2 or 3 deep balls a game, and that was about all. Just enough to make the defense think about it. Favre wasn't good with deep throws then, and Holmgren just didn't trust him. By about his 3rd and 4th year, Hlomgren opened it up a bit simply because Favre has such a strong arm and can rifle a 20 yard throw that others can't. But this is also when it was recognized that Holmgren was developing his own variation of the WC offense.

MM has said he wants to return to the "true" WC offense. That is basically an offense in which a bunch of quick, short passes are used almost in place of a rushing attack. I didn't say we would do that to help the line, I said if MM does what he said he intends to do inadequacies in pass protection will not be as noticeable, because they will not have traditional pass protection requirements.

But, no matter. The Packers will find linemen who are great zone blockers AND pass protectors. (It's the off-season, I can dream, can't I?)

[KYPack]

KY I suspect if you were looking at a Favre highlight film, they showed most of his deep drops and long passes for the whole season, and not a representative sample. How interesting would it be to see him throw 20 completions of five yards each in a highlight film?

Holmgren in the early years would call plays to have Favre throw 2 or 3 deep balls a game, and that was about all. Just enough to make the defense think about it. Favre wasn't good with deep throws then, and Holmgren just didn't trust him. By about his 3rd and 4th year, Hlomgren opened it up a bit simply because Favre has such a strong arm and can rifle a 20 yard throw that others can't. But this is also when it was recognized that Holmgren was developing his own variation of the WC offense.

MM has said he wants to return to the "true" WC offense. That is basically an offense in which a bunch of quick, short passes are used almost in place of a rushing attack. I didn't say we would do that to help the line, I said if MM does what he said he intends to do inadequacies in pass protection will not be as noticeable, because they will not have traditional pass protection requirements.

But, no matter. The Packers will find linemen who are great zone blockers AND pass protectors. (It's the off-season, I can dream, can't I?)

Well I'll say this and then let it go. (So I don't go "Tank" and beat a dead nag to death)

The WCO never had a majority of it's pass plays with 3 step drops. Never happened. The WCO mixes the short pass and the run to cause the defense to cover, then takes the deep balls when the defense gives room for 'em. Bill Walsh mixed in the real quick 3 steppers and used 'em when few teams did. Mike H is a Walsh disciple and also implemented wuick passes, espec, quick slants to Sterling Sharpe.

But nobody ever ean a pro offense with a mqajority of 3 step plays, cause it can't be doen. There isn't enough you can run off those plays to base a whole offense on.

Nobody ever did it, and MM ain't gonna do it, either.

[ND72]

Nutz, i didn't mean for it to be a my D-2 vs. your D-3 situation. maybe it was because i understood run blocking better, but pass pro was a tough one. I know at the first school i coached at, we passed a lot, and getting HS kids to understand pass pro it a toughy. angles, and steps, not over stepping, not understepping etc. it's the same i guess for run blocking. but in run blocking YOU are in more in control of what is going on, than i pass pro where you are basically "playing defense" from keeping him away from your QB.

[pbmax]

OK, I'll give this a shot. In the original Walsh/Montana WCO, there were many three step drops. The offense Walsh developed was designed to defeat the basic Cover-2 of the day best exemplified by the Steelers Defense of the 70s. This is the defense Tony Dungy learned from Bud Carson.

A staple of that offense was to flood a zone horizontally with a RB, WR and TE. WR runs a slant or shallow cross. RB heads to the flat or runs a circle route and the TE heads downfield for the seam between safety and CB/LB.

If the CB jumps the slant, that means the quick toss to the RB is available as most RBs who could catch could outrun the OLB in those days. If the safety jumped up, the seam was open deep or to the corner side.

In the beginning, you had one WR (Clark), one RB (Cooper, Tyler or Craig) and a TE (Francis or Frank) leading the team in catches. Esp. Craig, who if memory serves, had more catches than Rice for a couple of years. You never saw receiver #2 near the top.

After defenses began to adjust, and as Holmgren and Shanahan were brought in as O Coords, and after they had Taylor to go with Rice, the offense opened up, went deeper and more frequently to the 2 WR.

The offense that Holmgren brought with him in GB in 91 had a lot of 3 step drops, but by then it had also morphed into a lot of five step drops and multiple receiver formations.

And Favre was a much different QB than Montana or Young. He had a cannon they didn't have, but he was not hyper accurate like they could be.

The bigger receiver deal was true in its time. Walsh like sized in his WR (see Clark or Rice or Taylor, all over 6 foot) but it wasn't Keyshawn or TO size. Mainly they were notable because at the time was a trend toward smurf receivers. It was considered a good quality because they had to defeat the CB in close quarters on a slant or frequently go over the middle.

Remember, however, that all this may be moot. McCarthy learned his WCO from Paul Hackett who learned in from Walsh in the early 80s. But Hackett left for Pitt before some of these changes were made. And I am not sure what changes he may have made.

Hope this post doesn't cover too much ground already covered.