Time for Midline Madness

[AE 87]

One of the reasons I like the mid-line is that it confuses the playside DLs. The DE, who has been left unblocked much of the time, starts to feel like he can run free and read plays. Then, all of a sudden, on the mid-line, he has a face full of OT by surprise and gets driven out of the play more than he normally would otherwise. By the same token, the DT, who has been doubled much of the time (with one in his face and other guys chipping and releasing), all of a sudden gets turned loose and can't control himself with his unexpected freedom.

If you watch the vids closely, the play where JT turns it up into the hole for a TD on the interior highlights why experience matters at AB. Watch Bostic, who was the playside AB. When he fills the gap as a lead blocker, it would have been real easy to chip the DE, who was engaged with our OT in pretty much a stalemate, and plug things up a little. Instead, he read the play really well, slipped through, and picked up the LB at the second level who was kind of hidden from his line of sight. That cut block on the interior sprung the play. (my apologies if this was was already covered by Longest Day verbally. When I watched the film I had the volume off and couldn't listen)

Fwiw, Bostic was backside ABack, not playside

 

[Boomergump]

Fwiw, Bostic was backside ABack, not playside

Correct, sorry. Good catch.

 

[YJMD]

I think CPJ wants to keep the big guys from crushing JT in the hole. Major injuries are often in the open field or getting rolled up with guys. That said, JT has played with minor injuries a lot and it does hamper him. Part of the reason why be turned so many heads in the OB was his recovery. I suspect Byerly in the red zone was as much to protect JT when we needed more inside running. Now we have Jordan to fill that role, and maybe we'll push JT harder in his last year.

 

[takethepoints]

On last tape do you think someone like MM would have scored a touchdown or is there still enough traffic that a slower but stronger B-back is what makes this play work?

Great job as always.

The BB in the last film was Laskey who was and is every bit as fast as MM (see his pro combine results), especially to the mesh. He was and is a better traffic runner as well. If MM ran like he did last year, he would have been down as soon as he hit the trash.

MM has improved, however, and would have down about as well as Laskey on this run, imho. We'll see if I'm right directly.

And, yes, thanks again to LD for his great videos. You can learn a lot about why we did so well in 2014 and so poorly in 2015 by watching his films.

 

[SidewalkJacket]

The BB in the last film was Laskey who was and is every bit as fast as MM (see his pro combine results), especially to the mesh.

Nope. Except for what you said about the mesh.