ilovetheoption
Helluva Engineer
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So, this has been on my mind lately for my own reasons, and with you guys playing Clemson, I thought you might find it interesting. Clemson played a large part in popularizing the zone read option at Clemson in the late 90's.
Modern zone read option is an INCREDIBLY multiple play, but really it's just kinda triple option with some bells and whistles on it. You have fewer blockers, and you have fewer defenders (if you run it out of 4 wide you're pretty much guarnteed to be running into a 6 man box). With 7 Blockers/ball carriers, and 6 defenders, you've got a man advantage.
Teams can't really throw a 7th man into the box or the "pitch" (in this instance generally a bubble screen to the flanker) is a 2/1 situation on the perimeter with a jitterbug with the ball, and that spells DISASTER, so teams will flex out to have 2/2.
So, if you're a DC, what are you to do? There are a million variations on how teams defend it, but most of the time you'll see one of three options (and really, no team will rely on JUST one of those options, they'll do all three to confuse the reads for the QB).
(Please excuse the rough language below, it is excerpted from an email exchange betwen my brother and I. I've tried to clean up all the cursing but may have missed some)
Concept: The offense has the numbers advantage, but the defense has the advantage of deciding where the ball is going to go. You decide whether the QB or the RB gets the ball, and you choose which direction the play goes.
So first, who is their smaller threat as a runner?
A: The QB isolated 1v1 on a linebacker
B: The RB with a 1/2 man advantage (we'll get to why he only has a 1/2 man advantage later)
You make your choice via DL alignment and LB assignments PRE-SNAP, and then once you have a predictable offensive play, you aggressively attack their predictable play.
You know what you're doing to do before they know what they're going to do, and so you have an initiative advantage.
Choices:
1) Force the pull, hit the f out of the QB. "Squeeze and Scrape"
Align your Defensive front to "STRONG": 3 Technique to QB side, Nose to RB side. Nose and DE slant down hard at the RB to give a pull read, QB-LB Scrapes off the DE's *** to prevent blockers getting to him and cleans the QB's clock. Non-QB Lb's rally hard to the ball after run is established.
(the Right one)
Advantages: Pounds the hell out of the QB, puts the ball in their least dangerous ball carrier's hands, Playside LB's don't have to be as aggressive in plugging gaps because they can expect a pull read, can be more responsible in coverage.
Disadvantages: teams will sometimes have the tackle kick out the weakside defensive end, and if the LB is scraping, they'll run the qb (called) through the vacated hole, like this:
2) Force the Give read and crash everybody into all the gaps. "Squat and Plug"
Align DL to "WEAK": Nose to QB, 3 Technique to RB side. Weakside/Read End squats and squeezes. Keeps his shoulders and hips upfield, but shuffles down with the weakside tackle (this way he gets both the QB and the RB cutback lane). LB's fly into the playside gaps and muck **** up for a 2 yard gain.
(the left one)
Advantages: They can't do the "block two guys with one guy" bs you get with the kickout block above , you sort of get an extra half defender, because that backside end is useful against both the QB (forcing the give read), and the RB (there for the cutback)
Disadvantages: QB operates with impunity (no hits for that SOB), their best ball carrier gets the ball, dangerous to send both LB's flying into the LOS if they've got any RPo (or their coach will call a quick slant)
3) Zone blitz it:
Playside end sells run, and then drops into "intercept the slant" range, Backside backers BOTH come on delayed scrape exchanges
Advantages: Gives pull read, prevents the "double blocking" above, attacks the **** out of the QB, and still keeps a guy back in coverage
Disadvantages: Team will just run Power (I KNOW IT'S NOT REALLY POWER UNLESS YOU HAVE A KICKER AND A WRAPPER, WORK WITH ME HERE) and devestate you at the point of attack.
Me, personally: I'd say run 1) until they prove to you that they can adjust, or that their QB can beat your LB 1v1 enough to hurt us. It's the most responsible in pass coverage. If they can't, run 2) once every 4 times or so just to keep them on their toes.
If they can, we start keeping them guessing by alternating calls, with the baseline assumtion that they'd prefer to flow to field whenever possible, and thus most of the time try to force them to boundry where our outside/back 3 can get involved quicker.
Modern zone read option is an INCREDIBLY multiple play, but really it's just kinda triple option with some bells and whistles on it. You have fewer blockers, and you have fewer defenders (if you run it out of 4 wide you're pretty much guarnteed to be running into a 6 man box). With 7 Blockers/ball carriers, and 6 defenders, you've got a man advantage.
Teams can't really throw a 7th man into the box or the "pitch" (in this instance generally a bubble screen to the flanker) is a 2/1 situation on the perimeter with a jitterbug with the ball, and that spells DISASTER, so teams will flex out to have 2/2.
So, if you're a DC, what are you to do? There are a million variations on how teams defend it, but most of the time you'll see one of three options (and really, no team will rely on JUST one of those options, they'll do all three to confuse the reads for the QB).
(Please excuse the rough language below, it is excerpted from an email exchange betwen my brother and I. I've tried to clean up all the cursing but may have missed some)
Concept: The offense has the numbers advantage, but the defense has the advantage of deciding where the ball is going to go. You decide whether the QB or the RB gets the ball, and you choose which direction the play goes.
So first, who is their smaller threat as a runner?
A: The QB isolated 1v1 on a linebacker
B: The RB with a 1/2 man advantage (we'll get to why he only has a 1/2 man advantage later)
You make your choice via DL alignment and LB assignments PRE-SNAP, and then once you have a predictable offensive play, you aggressively attack their predictable play.
You know what you're doing to do before they know what they're going to do, and so you have an initiative advantage.
Choices:
1) Force the pull, hit the f out of the QB. "Squeeze and Scrape"
Align your Defensive front to "STRONG": 3 Technique to QB side, Nose to RB side. Nose and DE slant down hard at the RB to give a pull read, QB-LB Scrapes off the DE's *** to prevent blockers getting to him and cleans the QB's clock. Non-QB Lb's rally hard to the ball after run is established.
(the Right one)
Advantages: Pounds the hell out of the QB, puts the ball in their least dangerous ball carrier's hands, Playside LB's don't have to be as aggressive in plugging gaps because they can expect a pull read, can be more responsible in coverage.
Disadvantages: teams will sometimes have the tackle kick out the weakside defensive end, and if the LB is scraping, they'll run the qb (called) through the vacated hole, like this:
2) Force the Give read and crash everybody into all the gaps. "Squat and Plug"
Align DL to "WEAK": Nose to QB, 3 Technique to RB side. Weakside/Read End squats and squeezes. Keeps his shoulders and hips upfield, but shuffles down with the weakside tackle (this way he gets both the QB and the RB cutback lane). LB's fly into the playside gaps and muck **** up for a 2 yard gain.
(the left one)
Advantages: They can't do the "block two guys with one guy" bs you get with the kickout block above , you sort of get an extra half defender, because that backside end is useful against both the QB (forcing the give read), and the RB (there for the cutback)
Disadvantages: QB operates with impunity (no hits for that SOB), their best ball carrier gets the ball, dangerous to send both LB's flying into the LOS if they've got any RPo (or their coach will call a quick slant)
3) Zone blitz it:
Playside end sells run, and then drops into "intercept the slant" range, Backside backers BOTH come on delayed scrape exchanges
Advantages: Gives pull read, prevents the "double blocking" above, attacks the **** out of the QB, and still keeps a guy back in coverage
Disadvantages: Team will just run Power (I KNOW IT'S NOT REALLY POWER UNLESS YOU HAVE A KICKER AND A WRAPPER, WORK WITH ME HERE) and devestate you at the point of attack.
Me, personally: I'd say run 1) until they prove to you that they can adjust, or that their QB can beat your LB 1v1 enough to hurt us. It's the most responsible in pass coverage. If they can't, run 2) once every 4 times or so just to keep them on their toes.
If they can, we start keeping them guessing by alternating calls, with the baseline assumtion that they'd prefer to flow to field whenever possible, and thus most of the time try to force them to boundry where our outside/back 3 can get involved quicker.
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