X's & O's: Packers' Zone Run Game

"Paul Ott Carruth", a former player and coach who wishes to remain anonymous, breaks down different aspects of the Packers from an X's and O's standpoint

Regular Cheesehead TV reader (and all-too-infrequent commenter) "Paul Ott Carruth", a former player and coach who wishes to remain anonymous, breaks down different aspects of the Packers from an X's and O's standpoint. Today he takes a look at the Packers' zone run game. 

Hello Packer fans. I wanted to talk some X’s and O’s and found this play from Sunday’s victory to be especially important as I believe it highlights the adjustments made in the zone run game and how subtle changes to a run scheme, such as the zone, can increase the success of play. This play is the first play from scrimmage on the final game winning drive by Green Bay. It is an inside zone run play run from the shotgun with James Starks. When we often think of zone runs we get this mental image of all the offensive linemen moving in the same direction, either left or right. While this is true much of the time, it isn’t written in stone. Linemen have calls that they make within a blocking structure to give them better blocking angles. On this play, you’ll see one of those adjustments and as I have done in the past, I will explain the basics of the zone run game to the frontside of the play and the role of the running back in making appropriate reads and cuts and staying true to the play itself. Enjoy.

Figure 1

The Packer offense lines up with 11 personnel in a 3 x 1 set (Trio/Trey) to the right with Quarless at the TE position. Starks is offset to the right of Rodgers. The formation is significant to the success of the play because Miami declares run strength to Quarless (TE side) by putting the 3 technique to that side. 

On the other side of the Miami defense is the shade (1 technique) and wide 5 (DE) and an overhang defender (#24). The Packers are running zone to the 1 technique and away from Wake. On the snap of the ball, Wake rushes hard up field, giving Quarless and easy seal block on the run away. Linsley, Sitton and Bakhtiari take zone steps to their left. Bakhtiari will zone step toward the DE while Linsley and Sitton will zone step and double team the shade. The interesting adjustment to this play is the “switch” adjustment between Bulaga and Lang. Normally, on a garden variety inside zone, the backside is responsible for cut-off by executing a scoop block or parallel short pull (cut). Due to the success of the penetrating interior of the Dolphins, cuts on the backside were difficult all day. The best way to disrupt zone blocking is to penetrate hard upfield and the Dolphins did that well all day. Later in the 2nd more specifically, on this drive, this little scheme wrinkle paid dividends. Lang turns out on the DT while Bulaga folds inside to pick up the backside linebacker. The front side linebacker (blue arrow) steps into the B gap area as he’s instructed to do.

Figure 2

On any zone play the back is making a dual read. Prior to receiving the ball from Rodgers, Starks is looking at his read key, in this case, the DE. The DE’s path will tell Starks where the ball will declare. In other words, before he even receives the ball, Starks can tell that he will be running the ball inside the DE due to the DE’s path. It’s almost like applying run n’ shoot principles to the run game.....”he’s out, I’m in, he’s in, I’m out.” Bulaga (green oval), has started his fold around Lang.

Figure 3

Starks is now receiving the ball from Rodgers and his eyes are on his cut key. This will tell him which area he needs to attack, either outside of Linsley or inside of Linsley. The DT has stayed hard inside of Linsley so this tells Starks to stay on a path outside of Linsley and follow up to Sitton who is giving a punch with his inside hand to steer the DT inside and help Linsley overtake him. Sitton’s eyes are on the strongside linebacker. At this point in the still frame it appears Starks could follow Bulaga through the backside A gap but that’s not what his read is telling him. Staying true to your read is important. You’ll know why in a minute.

Figure 4

Starks is taking his correct path outside of Linsley based on the movment and location of the DT, who is now pancaked by Linsley. Here is why following your read in the zone run game is important: It that DT had stayed on his feet he would have been in perfect position in that A gap which Bulaga ran through,to make a tackle or at least hold up Starks to a minimal gain had Starks vacated his cut key read. Also notice how the backside linebacker is at 4 yards depth from an initial depth of 5 yards. He didn’t move much before Bulaga was in great position to make the block. This is a win every time.

Figure 5

Starks has made his cut and the Packers have a hat on a hat. Now it’s up to Starks to make additional move downfield, which he does, cutting back against the grain behind Bulaga’s block. Notice the DT on the ground (blue square)? On his feet, this DT would have held this to a minimal gain had Starks not stayed true to his reads. I can’t stress how important this is. Not every block is going to be a pancake.

Figure 6

Here we see Starks making a cut 3 yards downfield on a run that picks up 13 yards on the first play of Green Bay’s game winning drive. 

This little adjustment in blocking (switch call) and use of formation got the Packer offense started off on the right foot. It’s certainly good to see the adjustment. Hopefully it continues moving forward. Better late than never right? Have a great day everyone!

 

 

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Comments (5)

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matthew_r_weir's picture

October 15, 2014 at 09:45 am

Love this kind of analysis. Thanks!

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packsmack's picture

October 15, 2014 at 10:15 am

You'll notice Bulaga got to the 2nd level and made a key block there. He was definitely not "bad" on Sunday.

POC, it looked to me like Lacy missed several possible cutbacks again, but then I'm not sure what the "cut keys" would have been on those plays, so I could be wrong. Did you see him making errors in that regard?

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Paul Ott Carruth's picture

October 15, 2014 at 11:43 am

Packsmack

Pass protection gets noticed more than run blocking and in the pass pro department Bulaga was bad. He had no answer for Wake, hence the formation adjustments with chip help from the TE.

As it relates to Lacy missing cutbacks I would say that had more to do with Miami's penetrating interior and how Green Bay blocked the backside cut-off responsibilities. For most of the game, any time Green Bay ran inside zone or stretch, the backside used short pulls or scoop (bucket steps) to cut off. That's pretty hard to execute against a strong upfield push. The best way to beat zone schemes is to push hard up-field and get penetration, especially on the backside. Now, some teams will try to keep the ball front side and let the force player and flowing inside backers clean up while other defenses will try to force the ball to cut back. The Dolphins forced the Packers to cut the ball back in to aggressive backside penetration and it worked for much of the time the Packers ran zone. However, in this case, the Packers schemed the backside cut off to take advantage of this aggressiveness. It's the ultimate in cat and mouse. While it worked to stop the zone quite well it left Miami susceptible to more gap blocking schemes. This fold block is a gap scheme. In fact, the Packers ran more gap blocked runs in the 2nd half. One appeared to be 17 Power or U Gap. On Power, the backside OG wraps to the front side to pick up the linebacker and the TE or U kicks out on the DE. On U Gap or F Gap as it is called, the backside guard kicks out and the U or F leads up on the linebacker. Over penetrating fronts are very susceptible to traps and kick outs because they are not playing a "picket fence" technique. In other words, creating a wall. This illustrates why having both Zone and Gap schemes and using both accordingly is important and why all 32 teams have both in the playbook.

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packsmack's picture

October 15, 2014 at 12:46 pm

Dude you're awesome, thank you. I did see Bulaga lose to Wake a few times thanks to Wake's unhuman bend ability, but I felt like they adjusted to having Bulaga just let Wake get up field and having Aaron step into the void with great results. It seemed like every 1-on-1 with Wake in the second half had Bulaga essentially GIVING Wake the inside rush if he wanted it at the snap, but Wake stubbornly continued to let Bulaga use his momentum against him around the edge time and time again.

As for the run game, that's very interesting that they switched to a gap scheme, because that would seem to favor Lacy over Starks, but Starks took advantage more. Weird how things like that work.

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TKWorldWide's picture

October 17, 2014 at 06:33 am

Thank you POC! I love this kind of stuff.
I have a slightly off topic question for you: bench press is always mentioned for offensive linemen. In run blocking, wouldn't some type of "squat" or variation be useful info? Doesn't drive blocking power come from the legs? Or is today's game too "upright" for that? (Pad level).
Or, does zone blocking rely more on quickness and agility and less on straight ahead power?
Thanks POC.
Post more often, please.

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