Fun Bunch Friday: NFL Week 17, 2023

Wide Zone galore, Play Action, and some classics show up in this week's article!

19 WEAK

It doesn’t get much more old school than this: I Formation Weak-Side Wide Zone Iso vs. the 4-3 Defense. The goal of the Wide Zone is to stretch the front side and cut off the back-side of the defensive front, and this is one of my favorite ways to get it done because we have the extra blocker for the lone defender left in that alley. This allows the C/G combo to focus more on “building the wall” than “running off the ball.” The 1T is playing a lag technique, which allows the LG to get vertical and meet the target LB where he is going. I remember watching an Alex Gibbs Wide Zone clinic, and he said, “Good linebackers always run underneath.” The LB runs underneath here, and the LG simply takes him where he wants to go, shielding him away from the RB. The C executes a fantastic Reach on the 1T as well, taking the back-side hand to the play-side number and walking around the block to seal him off.

On the back-side, the RG is going to make sure that if the wall didn’t get built by the play-side combo, the RB still had the cutback lane. He stabs the play-side shoulder of the 3T and follows it up with a beautiful gallop to the second level, making sure he doesn’t overrun the LB. I love the depth the RT gets on his back-side Reach. On the front-side, I wouldn’t be as big of a fan because we want eyes on the LB to make sure he doesn’t fall back if the zone gets cut off. On the back-side, however, it’s not as important because there isn’t anything to fall back to.

For more on Wide Zone technique, be sure to watch my YouTube video.

19 ZORRO CAT

Miami had two explosive runs off of Zorro Cat in their first 10 plays against Baltimore, and I love the effect of the Spirit motion on the play. Traditionally, the Fullback will come from the backfield to combo with the TE, but the Spirit motion gets him on the run into the block to create more momentum into it. This is especially helpful with the added “Cat” tag focusing more on the horizontal displacement of the EDGE defender, where that momentum is already headed from the Spirit motion. I believe that momentum is what gets the EDGE defender on the ground and keeps him from forcing the ball back to the rest of the defensive front. The support player blitzes off the edge here, so the WR gets an easy crack to seal it, and once the EDGE is blocked, the perimeter is wide open because that support player is no longer a factor.

It's a good thing that this ball didn’t get forced back inside because I think the motion caused some second-level target issues for the OL. This is how I think it should have been blocked up. The motion causes the LBs to bump over a gap, but the OL doesn’t account for it, leaving Roquan Smith completely unblocked. Using my second level targeting system that I cover in my CoachTube course, the motion would have only impacted the RT. Smith  (0) would have been the identified Mike, and that’s where the C’s combo would have worked, pre or post motion. The RT is the only player that would have been impacted because #40 would be what we would call the -1, or the first off-ball defender back-side of the Mike. If he doesn’t back off the ball with the motion, the RT would still man the DE because the -1 is out of the box. Once he shows in the box, the RT would climb to him and let the QB’s boot action be responsible for holding the DE.

18 WANDA VIRGIN

The Vikings are lucky they didn’t give up a 90 yard house call on this play. If you pause the play at the snap of the ball, you will see 5 defenders on the back-side for only 3 offensive players (LG, LT, Y), and 6 defenders for 6 offensive players on the front-side, but the Wide Receivers mess up the blocking assignments.

Instead of letting the OL handle the box, #80 becomes the second man blocking the MLB. 2-on-1 blocks are one of my least favorite things as a Run Game Coordinator because if we have 2-on-1, that means the defense has somebody completely unaccounted for, and that is the case here. The Nickel goes unblocked, and I would argue that out of the 3 defenders on the perimeter (Ni, CB, FS), the Nickel is the one that is most important to block. #18 stalks toward the Nickel then climbs to the FS, and #83 on the Cheat motion has too much momentum to throttle down and block the Nickel. The Nickel forces the run back inside where all the extra defenders that were overloaded on the back-side can now be a factor in the play from pursuit.

This is how I would have blocked it up. Let the blocking surface handle the box, and let Receivers block the perimeter. If all 3 of the perimeter players are blocked, this is 90 yards to the house, probably without any contact on the RB. He still hits the run through A gap, but instead of having to cut back, he could cut out to the play-side, away from the back-side defensive pursuit.

FLOOD

This is a neat way to get to Flood by the 49ers by running their “Tree” concept with the #2 and #3 receivers and a Snag from #1. Typically, a Flood concept is going to include a Go or Post by the #1 receiver with the #2 and #3 occupying the flat and outside-intermediate range in various ways. However, the #1 receiver on the Snag route occupies the flat here. The Snag is great for this because it times out well. A Hitch would be run too quickly to occupy the space effectively in relation to the other routes in the concept.

The Commanders run a simulated pressure behind Cover 3 Fire Zone (3 under 3 deep), presenting a Double Mug blitz, dropping both ILBs, and bringing the Nickel, putting the Strong Safety in the Curl-Flat. The Snag is going to pull the Strong Safety down, the Widen Go by the #2 receiver is going to take the Deep 1/3 CB, and that leaves nobody in the intermediate window to cover the Tree route, breaking away from the inside leverage of the Hook-Curl LB and the Deep Middle Safety.

TUNNEL SCREEN

We haven’t dove much into screens this season, but I really like this way to get to a Tunnel screen from Miami. It starts off with a play on their Cheat motion, and look what it does to the second and third level defenders. #41 shifts from inside of the slot receiver to outside, but that just helps the tunnel action even more because now the slot receiver just pins him out to create that tunnel for the HB to run underneath.

The Safety is supposed to be the one to come and clean this up, but he takes a horrible path. I believe this is likely a reaction to the motion because the Cheat motion generally ends up with the motion man running up the sideline. In total, 4 players (including the ILB) end up overrunning the ballcarrier and getting pinned out.

One thing I would like to see a little different as an OL coach myself is the LT being a bit more physical with the DE. The swim move doesn’t do much to knock him off balance, so he almost recovers to make this play. I teach my OL to engage the DL fully with a hand in each chestplate and try to throw them out of the way from there like a shock & shed drill. We don’t want to put them on the ground for fear of a holding call, but we do want to get them off balance to prevent them from chasing the screen down or getting a hand in the way of the throw.

PA COMBO BEATER

The Packers hit an explosive play off of shotgun play action. With a 4 man surface and a stacked Twins flank, this formation is a bear to defend. The Vikings opt for a 6 man pressure, playing Combo coverage over the stacked Twins. In Combo coverage, the defense has 2 players for 2 eligible receivers. The inside defender has the first inside-breaking route, and the outside defender has the first outside-breaking route, with each taking the second route that breaks in the opposite direction. The Packers exploit these rules to perfection.

The outside defender (#21) has to play the stack with outside leverage, and vice versa for the inside defender (#20). The release stem of the routes toys with the defender’s rules. When #18 crosses underneath #80, he becomes the inside receiver, and #80 becomes the outside receiver, each picked up by their respective defenders. The simple brilliance of the concept is that while #18 stems inside at the snap, #80 is running vertically down the field. The Cornerback responsible for the outside receiver in the coverage is now out-leveraged to the post, and because the defense is playing to stop the run to the 4 man surface, he has no Safety help. Once he breaks to the post, it’s over.

Again, don’t forget to watch my YouTube video on Wide Zone blocking technique, but we aren’t done talking about it yet! Paid subscribers have one more Wide Zone play to break down and an explosive play action pass off of that action in addition to cutups of every explosive run and pass from Week 17.