Eleven

ELEVEN [Note from Dave: Please welcome a new guest writer for this site - Bob Pentland. Bob has agreed to write a regular (more or less) feature here on Dave Sez where he discusses the finer points of football, points the average viewer and announcer miss. Bob is a great writer and is as comfortable discussing Shakespeare as he is the 3-4. For our purposes here though, we'll probably stick to gridiron talk. In Bob's first piece below, he introduces himself and his feature. He also asks for some specific questions to get things rolling. Feel free to ask anything, no matter how arcane it seems. Want to know how to properly defend a power-I formation out of a base 4-3? Curious about the difference between a nickel and dime package and when to use either? Don't understand the difference between a counter and a trap? Just ask in the comments section. Bob will hook you up. By the way, I'm pretty giddy about this. Bob knows his football and I'm excited to learn and share that with ya'll.]

-------------------------------This is the first in what will hopefully be a weekly feature. I say hopefully as it's highly likely that two of the following will happen in the up-coming football seasons: a) I will forget during the week, leaving it to be done during the weekend, only to get blasted watching games with friends both Saturday and Sunday, thus forgetting yet again, or b) Dave will be barraged with hate mail wondering why he let such irreputable trash sully his fantastic site. Either way, this is my virgin effort, so I humbly beg your patience and ask you to save your salvos for when I really stink things up. As I'm an engineer by trade, and have little of what could be called 'writing ability' paired with even less creativity, I'm gonna do a little question and answer session to get this thing rolling. If it gets a little vain, I'm sorry, but I promise It's only X's and O's for the rest of the year: So what is Eleven? Dave has asked me tend lend some knowledge of the finer aspects of my favorite sport, football. It's called Eleven as it's the greatest number ever worn (by me, of course), and refers to that aspect of the game which I love the most - every single play, offensive and defensive, requires eleven men to do their job if it is to succeed. What's the format? Uhmmm, evolving? Does that count? That fact is, I'm not sure yet. I might spend one week talking defensive fronts, the next I might cover a single play from both sides of the ball. I might breakdown one of the 'hot topic' schemes that the talking heads are babbling about. I hate to say it, but there's a good chance that there will be one or two bits in which I get a little philosophical

about the game and what it means to me. And yes, there will always be talk about my UW Cowboys, the mid-major everyone should love. Why you? Like many former QB's, I am the son of a high school football coach. From as early as I can remember, my Augusts through Novembers were spent lining practice fields, handing out second-rate gear, and collating playbooks. By the time I was twelve, I knew the ins and outs of my father's offense better than his starting eleven. My weekends were simple - Friday night watch Dad, Saturday go to a college game, Sunday break down film from Friday and then watch NFL. My father was a fantastic QB coach, producing a string of kids who went on to play college and has one protégé in the NFL and another poised to make the leap after this year. My own high school career, while successful on an individual level and full of undeserved accolades, did not suffice to garner any real interest from DI schools. This wasn't all that surprising or disappointing (Few Wyoming kids get any looks at all). I did get asked to walk on UW, but decided I'd rather focus on my education and go the small school route. It's a decision I've never regretted. I got to see the field from the second quarter of my very first college game, all the way through to the tear soaked mud of my last game as a senior. I started my career as a QB, got pt in every game as a freshman, and then was splitting halves with another kid my sophomore year. After our fourth game of that year, our secondary had lost its third starter to a season ending injury. That evening, the HC asked me if I'd be willing to play some FS. As the choice was keep sharing time at QB, or play every snap at FS, I said yes in a heartbeat. I was tired of getting blindsided and wanted to dish out some fury of my own. It was a revelation, and as a college athlete I was reborn. From my QB experience, I could see plays develop at the snap, and was blessed with a massive chip on my shoulder from suffering so many rough tackles. In week eight of that year, the QB I formerly split time with snapped his collarbone midway through the second quarter, which left me playing both QB and FS. Now, that's not a big deal, as a lot of kids play both ways through high school, but take my word on this - you don't want to do it in college. I had to do it for two and a half games, during which I suffered a career's worth of cheap-shots, a rib cage that was black and blue on both sides, and a wonderful episode of hypothermia. Fortunately, that was the last time I had to do that, and stuck on the defensive side of the ball for the rest of

my career. My junior and senior years, I was honored by my teammates and selected as a defensive captain, and had the added onus of calling all of our coverages at the LOS. My experience at QB was a tremendous asset, and made me look much better than I really was. As football was fall, and fall was football, once my eligibility was up it was a given that I was going to stay for grad school and help coach for a couple of years. I coached both running backs and wide outs in season, and worked with the DB's in the off season. Unfortunately, I was not a big fan of our offensive system or the madness (there was little to no method) behind it, so spent a good portion of both seasons frustrated. That frustration led to me saying good bye to my coaching career (kinda - I still work a camp or two) and reverting to full-time armchair quarterbacking. For the first time since then, at least outside of arguing at the bar and ruling on playstation, I'm hoping to use some of that knowledge. One disclaimer I insist of giving, one law that must be laid down - Football terminology is different wherever you go, so don't get your panties in a twist if I call something different than the way they do on TV.

So that's that for this one. If you have comments, suggestions, or better yet, scheme-based questions, please give them. -- Bob Pentland Eleven Archives

DAVE SEZ ACC sports and more

Email me « Fantasy Football League? | Main | Opening Weekend » September 02, 2005 ELEVEN - 2 - THE ZONE BLITZ Bob Pentland is back for his first lengthy football piece, where he discusses the trendy zone blitz. As expected, Bob is dropping some serious knowledge here.

Your assignment is to read this and see if you can't spot the real thing this weekend as the college season kicks off. Maybe you can impress your buddies with some insider knowledge! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Eleven It happens so often in blitzing situations anymore that we don't even flinch when a 300 pound defensive lineman drops into pass coverage. It often seems silly to take a guy who normally on passing downs has underwear stained dreams of unprotected QB spines, only to flip things and make him do something he has practiced only a handful of times. How has the game evolved to a point that the sharpest defensive minds will try to execute something that seems so askew to traditional thought? In the following morass, I'm going to try and explain exactly what a zone blitz is, and why teams are so willing to use the concept. My knowledge of football history is not as strong as others, so I won't claim to know who did what first and when. I do, however, have a good working understanding of hot routes, how and why teams use them, and how the zone blitz is a natural evolutionary concept to counter offensive pre-snap reads. To make this whole thing easier I'm going to create a standard situation in which to expect a passing situation. Let's say it's third and six on the +45 and the ball is on the left hash. Normal time to expect either a pass or something else based off of a pass look (screen/draw). For simplicities sake we'll use the following formation and routes, which are both packages that every college team in the country runs and I will probably use frequently for examples:

This is a standard cover three beater, as it tries to high low the free safety, and simple crossing routes are used to try and widen out the LB's to create a passing seam to the dig route (X) or post (Z). It's also an effective play against a cover 1 as the dig is one of the toughest covers 1 on 1. Depending on protection schemes, the TB's responsibility will change, for this example, we will assume he flares to the right (more field, and more likely a Sam LB if we are expecting cover three). We're assuming from the start by our play selection that the defense is running a cover three, so that's what kind of look we'll use for this example. Basically, the offensive coordinator has reason to expect the D to run a cover three in this situation. We'll also assume a standard 4-3 to keep it simple:

OK, as I said in the last segment, terminology changes wherever you go, so I'll give a quick run-down of the one I'm using today:

E - Quick-side/weak-side end N - Nose guard. Normally plays a shade on the center or even head up 3 - 3 technique. Key guy in stopping the run as he's double-teamed a ton B - Bull end, just another name for strong side end W - Will/weak-side LB M - Mike/middle LB S - Sam/strong-side LB DB's are same as always, Corners and then strong and free safeties

As this discussion is about zone blitzes, I should explain a bit about them before we get too far. Defense is all about numbers. You want things to be balanced on both sides of the ball for run protection, and you always want to have enough guys around to cover all of the eligible receivers. Used to be, if an offense was getting killed by the blitz they'd just keep as many guys in for protection as possible, and count on their receivers ability to beat the defenses DB's. Fortunately, someone realized that if a defender was blitzing, then we know for a fact that there is going to be a hole in the spot he vacated. So they started coaching QB's and WR's that when they see an LB blitzing, instead of running the route planned, make a sight adjust and run to the empty spot. So rather than keeping extra guys in for protection, the new thought was to spread the D out as far as possible, and then if they tried to blitz with someone and you could recognize it, you could exploit that open spot in a defense with the nearest receiver. I'll never forget the first time we got this to work in high school and I hit our running back on a quick release as two LB's ran by him on the blitz. Ten yard pass that went for sixty and six on the board; yes I got laid later that night, and no, it didn't feel as good as that play. As I said earlier, defense is all about numbers. Therefore, conventional wisdom dictated that it was very dangerous to run a zone behind a 6 man pass rush. It would leave you with five men covering five potential receivers in a lot of open shared space. It was considered better to run cover zero, where your remaining defenders would all be manned up on a receiver. If you have the athletes, you can roll the dice like this, but if the pass rush doesn't get to the QB, you're asking for

trouble. At some point, some brilliant DC realized that the threat of a DL's rush could occupy an OL, and still allow a rushing LB the space needed to get serious pressure. After the development of the hot route, another DQ realized that if you could trick a QB into reading the blitz in one area, even though that LB does come, you could drop a DL into that same vacated area, hopefully taking away that option, while still getting pressure on the QB. It then became possible to still run zone coverage behind a pass rush involving two athletic and fast LB's. I'll draw a scenario up below:

This is still a 4-3 with a cover 3 look, but it obviously looks as if the W and M are coming. We also see that the FS is walked up and covering up our H a bit, but we know that if we get the ball to the H immediately, we should have 5 yards, with the possibility of more. In a perfect world, the H will recognize the blitz and realize that instead of running the short drag the play calls for, he should look for the ball quickly and expect it in the spot vacated by the W and M. If you look at the way the DB's are aligned, it's easy to imagine a cover zero - C on X, FS on H, S on the TB, SS on Y, and the other corner on Z. This is well and good, if you can get to the QB quickly. But there is a lot of space out there, and a decent WR should always be able to get a bit of space quickly, against even good man coverage. But what if we just drop the E into the spot we expect that H to look for the hot route? At the snap it will look like the same as above, but imagine a cover 3 behind it and see how it changes right after the snap (I'll leave the original position in parentheses):

Looks a little confusing, but with some imagination, you can imagine how it will look real-time. Responsibilities being: E - hook to flats - meaning he drops looking for an immediate threat behind him (H on a hot route) and then looks for a man moving towards the flats (outside of the T to the sideline) N - rushing lane 3 - rushing lane B - rushing lane W - rush/outside contain (no one out of the back field gets wider than him) M - rushing lane S - middle of the formation pass drop SS - hook to flats on the strong side C's - outside thirds FS - deep middle third The trick is to convince the QB and WR's that both W and M are coming, which shouldn't be hard as they ARE coming. It's also important the that the DL doesn't tip things off by being in a different stance, or lined up further from the LOS than normal. Then you should be able to expect the O to sight adjust their routes. As far as pass protection goes, you make it very hard on the left tackle and left guard. As far as they are concerned, they have to respect the immediate threat. Meaning, if the D aligns like above, the guard is expecting center help on the Nose and the right guard to pick up the Mike so he can take care of the End and the Tackle can

get the Will. That's expecting a lot of communication to be executed properly, and expecting tough blocks out of both the center and right guard (in this situation you would expect the right tackle to step down and get the three technique while the tailback should either stay in and block the Bull, or hold him with his swing route). Even though the end doesn't come, it's likely the o-line will lose a step on one of the rushers before they react to the end not coming, and everyone from the left guard right has to switch their responsibilities a man to right. Seeing stuff like this will make you understand why those in the know feel that offensive line is one of the toughest positions in all of sports. It's much like chess or war, feints on feints on feints. Convince the other guy beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are doing A, so you expect him to do B, all the while really running C. This is the stuff that I truly love about the sport, and is why coaches that can read their opponents are tremendously successful. So that's a real quick and extremely dirty look at the zone blitz. As always, you got questions, drop 'em and I'll give them my best. „ Bob Pentland

DAVE SEZ ACC sports and more

Email me « Fantasy Football League? | Main | Opening Weekend » September 02, 2005 ELEVEN - 2 - THE ZONE BLITZ Bob Pentland is back for his first lengthy football piece, where he discusses the trendy zone blitz. As expected, Bob is dropping some serious knowledge here. Your assignment is to read this and see if you can't spot the real thing this weekend as the college season kicks off. Maybe you can impress your buddies with some insider knowledge!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Eleven It happens so often in blitzing situations anymore that we don't even flinch when a 300 pound defensive lineman drops into pass coverage. It often seems silly to take a guy who normally on passing downs has underwear stained dreams of unprotected QB spines, only to flip things and make him do something he has practiced only a handful of times. How has the game evolved to a point that the sharpest defensive minds will try to execute something that seems so askew to traditional thought? In the following morass, I'm going to try and explain exactly what a zone blitz is, and why teams are so willing to use the concept. My knowledge of football history is not as strong as others, so I won't claim to know who did what first and when. I do, however, have a good working understanding of hot routes, how and why teams use them, and how the zone blitz is a natural evolutionary concept to counter offensive pre-snap reads. To make this whole thing easier I'm going to create a standard situation in which to expect a passing situation. Let's say it's third and six on the +45 and the ball is on the left hash. Normal time to expect either a pass or something else based off of a pass look (screen/draw). For simplicities sake we'll use the following formation and routes, which are both packages that every college team in the country runs and I will probably use frequently for examples:

This is a standard cover three beater, as it tries to high low the free safety, and simple crossing routes are used to try and widen out the LB's to create a passing seam to the dig route (X) or post (Z). It's also an effective play against a cover 1 as the dig is one of the toughest covers 1 on 1. Depending on protection schemes, the TB's responsibility will change, for this example, we will assume he flares to the right (more field, and more likely a Sam LB if we are expecting cover three). We're assuming from the start by our play selection that the defense is running a cover three, so that's what kind of look we'll use for this example. Basically, the offensive coordinator has reason to expect the D to run a cover three in this situation. We'll also assume a standard 4-3 to keep it simple:

OK, as I said in the last segment, terminology changes wherever you go, so I'll give a quick run-down of the one I'm using today: E - Quick-side/weak-side end N - Nose guard. Normally plays a shade on the center or even head up 3 - 3 technique. Key guy in stopping the run as he's double-teamed a ton B - Bull end, just another name for strong side end W - Will/weak-side LB M - Mike/middle LB S - Sam/strong-side LB DB's are same as always, Corners and then strong and free safeties

As this discussion is about zone blitzes, I should explain a bit about them before we get too far. Defense is all about numbers. You want things to be balanced on both sides of the ball for run protection, and you always want to have enough guys around to cover all of the eligible receivers. Used to be, if an offense was getting killed by the blitz they'd just keep as many guys in for protection as possible, and count on their receivers ability to beat the defenses DB's. Fortunately, someone realized that if a defender was blitzing, then we know for a fact that there is going to be a hole in the spot he vacated. So they started coaching QB's and WR's that when they see an LB blitzing, instead of running the route planned, make a sight adjust and run to the empty spot. So rather than keeping extra guys in for protection, the new thought was to spread the D out as far as possible, and then if they tried to blitz with someone and you could recognize it, you could exploit that open spot in a defense with the nearest receiver. I'll never forget the first time we got this to work in high school and I hit our running back on a quick release as two LB's ran by him on the blitz. Ten yard pass that went for sixty and six on the board; yes I got laid later that night, and no, it didn't feel as good as that play. As I said earlier, defense is all about numbers. Therefore, conventional wisdom dictated that it was very dangerous to run a zone behind a 6 man pass rush. It would leave you with five men covering five potential receivers in a lot of open shared space. It was considered better to run cover zero, where your remaining defenders would all be manned up on a receiver. If you have the athletes, you can roll the dice like this, but if the pass rush doesn't get to the QB, you're asking for trouble. At some point, some brilliant DC realized that the threat of a DL's rush could occupy an OL, and still allow a rushing LB the space needed to get serious pressure. After the development of the hot route, another DQ realized that if you could trick a QB into reading the blitz in one area, even though that LB does come, you could drop a DL into that same vacated area, hopefully taking away that option, while still getting pressure on the QB. It then became possible to still run zone coverage behind a pass rush involving two athletic and fast LB's. I'll draw a scenario up below:

This is still a 4-3 with a cover 3 look, but it obviously looks as if the W and M are coming. We also see that the FS is walked up and covering up our H a bit, but we know that if we get the ball to the H immediately, we should have 5 yards, with the possibility of more. In a perfect world, the H will recognize the blitz and realize that instead of running the short drag the play calls for, he should look for the ball quickly and expect it in the spot vacated by the W and M. If you look at the way the DB's are aligned, it's easy to imagine a cover zero - C on X, FS on H, S on the TB, SS on Y, and the other corner on Z. This is well and good, if you can get to the QB quickly. But there is a lot of space out there, and a decent WR should always be able to get a bit of space quickly, against even good man coverage. But what if we just drop the E into the spot we expect that H to look for the hot route? At the snap it will look like the same as above, but imagine a cover 3 behind it and see how it changes right after the snap (I'll leave the original position in parentheses):

Looks a little confusing, but with some imagination, you can imagine how it will look real-time. Responsibilities being: E - hook to flats - meaning he drops looking for an immediate threat behind him (H on a hot route) and then looks for a man moving towards the flats (outside of the T to the sideline) N - rushing lane 3 - rushing lane B - rushing lane W - rush/outside contain (no one out of the back field gets wider than him) M - rushing lane S - middle of the formation pass drop SS - hook to flats on the strong side C's - outside thirds FS - deep middle third The trick is to convince the QB and WR's that both W and M are coming, which shouldn't be hard as they ARE coming. It's also important the that the DL doesn't tip things off by being in a different stance, or lined up further from the LOS than normal. Then you should be able to expect the O to sight adjust their routes. As far as pass protection goes, you make it very hard on the left tackle and left guard. As far as they are concerned, they have to respect the immediate threat. Meaning, if the D aligns like above, the guard is expecting center help on the Nose and the right guard to pick up the Mike so he can take care of the End and the Tackle can get the Will. That's expecting a lot of communication to be executed properly, and expecting tough blocks out of both the center and right guard (in this situation you would expect the right tackle to step down and get the three technique while the tailback should either stay in and block the Bull, or hold him with his swing route). Even though the end doesn't come, it's likely the o-line will lose a step on one of the rushers before they react to the end not coming, and everyone from the left guard right has to switch their responsibilities a man to right. Seeing stuff like this will make you understand why those in the know feel that offensive line is one of the toughest positions in all of sports.

It's much like chess or war, feints on feints on feints. Convince the other guy beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are doing A, so you expect him to do B, all the while really running C. This is the stuff that I truly love about the sport, and is why coaches that can read their opponents are tremendously successful. So that's a real quick and extremely dirty look at the zone blitz. As always, you got questions, drop 'em and I'll give them my best. „ Bob Pentland ELEVEN - 3 - THE COVER TWO This week's edition of Eleven concerns the Cover Two, a base defense that was mentioned in last week's zone blitz article. Once again, Bob has a lot of great information for you, so read slowly (something that should come easily for you Virginia Tech fans... I keed, I keed!) By the way, if you have any suggestions for future articles, leave a comment. Bob knows all. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Eleven Last week, we talked a bit about the zone blitz, and as an example I used a collection of routes that I called a cover three beater. Well, that's well and good, but why would you call it a cover three beater? Would the zone blitz not work as well against a cover two? What about cover four? Really, what's the difference between cover two and cover four? What? Why? ? ? ? OK, I hope you get the point. Lots of questions to be asked about different coverages. Due to the difficulty in drawing this stuff in Word, and in fitting it into a manageable space, I'm going to focus on only one - Cover two. Now, I hope everyone knows what a cover two is, but to make sure, I'll draw it up and explain it below. For diversity's sake, I'll use a different formation from last week. For simplicity's sake as well, we'll forget about field position, assume the ball is in the

middle of the field, and assume a vanilla front (no twists, slants, blitzes - just a straight up 4-3 cover two).

Basic Rundown: E: Run responsibility - outside contain, Pass - outside contain of QB N: Run - weak A gap (between G and C), Pass - collapse the pocket 3: Run - strong B, Pass - collapse the pocket B: Run - C gap (T and Y), Pass - contain W: Run - weak B, Pass - Hook to curl M: Run - Strong A, Pass - hole S: Run - Contain, Pass - hook to curl C: Run - strong outside force (i.e. force any outside run play to have to turn back up field. Anyone gets outside of you - you die), Pass - Flats, support deep FS/SS: Run - support late, Pass - deep outside halves OK, 3 things about alignment 1) Which safety is where is kind of a toss-up against this formation. Your SS is normally stronger against the run, while the FS is normally a better coverage guy, but the pass strength and run strength are the same in this formation. When I played, I preferred to align as above for two reasons: A) With only one real threat for the weak side corner (X), he can give a lot of support in coverage to the SS and he can play the run a little tougher, and B) you will see a lot of LB flow to the strong side, often leaving you vulnerable to the cutback - therefore it's nice to have a SS filling that cutback lane to rattle some teeth.

2) As we talked about zone blitzes and sight adjusted routes last week, if S doesn't widen (he stays inside or right on top of the Y) the H is gonna catch a lot of balls. Therefore he needs to adjust his alignment to take away the immediate throw to the H. Furthermore, since he has quite a few immediate threats to his zone (Y, H and Z) it makes more sense to get to where he can cover any of the three when they come to his area. Really though, you shouldn't have to tell him to get there more than once, because if he doesn't on the first outside run play he's gonna get crack-backed so hard by the H that his mom will shit her pants. Both M and W should bump a little to balance the formation. 3) Notice the alignment of the corners. They should always be outside of the WR's, and should never let them get a clean release outside of them. A lot of coaches even have them play at a tilt with their ass to the sideline. I'll explain why later.

OK, OK, we got that cleared up, and hopefully understand where everyone should be aligned, and roughly what their responsibility is. So the question now is, why? Why run a cover two? First things first - if you have corners that can play, it can be very tough against the run. For teams that like to try and get the ball to the edge on a toss or stretch, a good run-support corner in two can wreak havoc. If he plays it right, it essentially eliminates the edge, as he should always make the ball carrier turn up field, or right back into the pursuit. Also, when the corners take away the edge, it constricts the amount of space that the DL and LBs are responsible for, making things much easier for them. When you condense that space, it makes it much harder for the offensive line to generate seams for the ball carrier to slip through. Having the corners wide does take away some support from the safeties, but you still have quite a few men in the box. Secondly - a well run cover two is very strong against a short- to mid-range passing attack. You have five men, all responsible for underneath coverage, and since the LBs don't have to try and get to the flats, they don't have to turn and run nearly as much as they will in a cover 3 or any man. Since they don't have to run

as much horizontally, it's more likely they will get good depth on their pass drops and help clog up some of the mid-range passing lanes. It gives them a good chance to sit on crossing routes and light up anybody who tries to come across the middle. Another benefit - if you have safeties who can run, it should make you less vulnerable to the BIG passing play; they only have one responsibility in the passing game - don't let anyone deeper than you. So then, how do you beat a cover two? As I said earlier, the corner can never let the WR in front of him get an outside release. Here's why:

OK, the corner on the left has done his job and forced X to an inside release, making it easy for the SS to get on top. The corner on the right though let his guy get outside of him, which makes FS have to cover a lot of ground in getting on top of both H and Z. A good QB, when he reads two, will be looking to get the ball to Z in what's called the void. The void is the no-man's land just behind the corner along the sideline (about twelve to twenty yards down field). Too deep and the FS can get there, too shallow and the corner might still be able to break on the ball and make a play. Also, as soon as that Z gets behind the corner, he has no idea where Z is, as his eyes should be towards the field. Therefore he needs to learn from his buddy on the other side and keep Z in front of him so he can see him along with the rest of his threats. Let's assume he DID his job this time:

Makes a huge difference. Can Z still get to the void? Yes, but that's as difficult of a timing throw as there is, even on a clean release. By doing what he did, he forced that receiver to change his timing, and he also squeezed down the spot that the QB can throw to. OK, now that we got people doing their jobs, let's talk responsibilities: Left Corner: Pre-Snap threats - X, T. Assignment - force X into an inside release, if X sits in zone, stay on him, if he runs, stay on his hip, but get eyes on number 2 (T), if 2 shows (which he does in this case), release X to SS (Talking to him as you do), and rally up to the tailback. SS: Pre-Snap threats - X, Y, T. Assignment - Need to be wide enough to stay on top of X, but not so wide that you can't help the FS down the middle of the field. Get depth and then break on the ball when it's thrown. FS: Pre-Snap threats - Z, Y, and H are all immediate threats, so the FS needs to be in a position to get on top of all three. This does NOT mean right in the middle of all three. It takes the ball a lot longer to get to Z down the sideline then it does to get to Y right down the seam, so play accordingly. Since he has three threats, at the snap he should get immediate depth, keep his eyes on the QB, all while talking with his SS and C. Must be very vocal to not only help himself, but to allow his underneath coverage to help him. Right Corner: Pre-Snap threats - Z, H, Y. Assignment - force Z into an inside release, if he sits you sit, if he runs you keep on his outside hip but eyes go immediately to number 2 (H). If 2 breaks outside, asshole him or take the pick for

six, if 2 disappears (meaning he goes deep or crosses the formation), eyes go right to three (Y), where the same rules apply. If all three disappear, keep sinking to help the FS on anything in the void. W: Pre-Snap threats - X, Y, T. Assignment - get into a zone drop and get some width to get in the passing lane if X tries come inside. Look for the crossing route from Y, or a hook from the tailback. M: Pre-Snap threats - Y, H, T. Assignment - Get a little depth, look to cause a collision with any crossing routes. The longer the QB holds the ball, the deeper you should sink. S: Pre-Snap threats - H, Y, Z, T, Assignment - Look to clog passing lanes to both H and Z, and if Y shows in his face, collision him. When I say collision, I mean collision. LBs should never let a man get across their face or the formation without any contact. Not only does it create confusion, but it changes timing and doesn't let the routes get as deep. This is very important. The corners can also adjust the way they play. What if the WRs for the opposing team are pretty speedy? Maybe get right up in their face so they don't get a clean release, or maybe sit back a bit and try and bait the QB to throw a quick one (think Deion before people wised up), but what ever you do, don't let him get outside of you. If he tries to go outside, you push him all the way out of bounds.

Clear as water? Clear as mud? Sorry, it's tough to describe this stuff without being on the field. When I prioritize threats above, that's just what each player should do before the snap, in his head. In all reality, defenses don't really care what positions are called. They care about eligible receivers, and that's about it. You do have to communicate though, so I'll explain the systems I grew up in, which should clarify what I mean by 1, 2, and 3. We always counted from the outside in, so the formation above would look like this in defensive jargon (minus the big boys, no offense meant):

For the left corner his number 2 is T, but the tailback is not really an immediate threat. That's why he should give the SS solid support on the X. For the SS, his number 2 will be the Y, but like for the corner, Y isn't an immediate threat. On the flip side, the FS really needs to be chatting up his corner about numbers 2 and 3, especially if 1 is going deep. The corner should really stay on 1 until either 2 or 3 show in the flats. So that's roughly how a cover two works. Now the question is how do we beat it? As always in football, there are a number of ways, but they aren't guaranteed. It's all about putting your guys in a position where they can make a play, and if a defender screws up, they can make a big play. I already demonstrated one route package that makes it very tough on the FS. But in the following I'll show a couple of different things. One thing you will often hear people talk about is combination routes. Combos can be effective against any coverage, but I'll just show a couple that can cause problems for a cover two. Combo routes can be any number of receivers, but to keep things simple I'm just going to use 2 v 2:

1 runs a short stop route to hold the corner while 2 runs a corner route over the top. This combo will often include a number 3 receiver attacking the middle of the field to hold the FS. A good free should always be able to get there, but it can be a long run at times. A good corner should be ready to sag and break on the ball as well.

2 runs off the FS while 1 runs a square in. Yes, you should have LBs to clog the passing lane to 1, but since 2 disappeared, the corner has to stay with 1 unless another receiver shows in the flat. Very tough cover. If you watched the South Carolina - Central Florida game the other day, you may have seen this particular combo as Spurrier runs it a bunch. They actually missed a big play when the FS got confused and let 2 run right by him.

The 1 blocks the corner while the 2 takes one step and then gets a quick pass. It's plays like this that require the LB on that side to widen out. A good variation to run off of this, if you've completed the quick screen once or twice is to have the 1

block for a second, and then run up the sideline. Hopefully the FS will be rallying up to help on the screen, while the corner is trying to fight off the pseudo block. Those are just a few combo routes that I remember disliking in my DB cover two days. The trick in beating any zone (in any sport, really) is to stretch it and then create seams. With a cover two, you try to stretch the safeties horizontally. With a cover three you try to stretch it vertically and attack underneath. Route running is very important in doing any of this. OCs send receivers to certain spots for a reason, namely to occupy certain defenders. A good receiver should also be able to recognize a hole in a zone and know when to sit in one and when to keep stretching, but that's something that takes a long time to learn. Some people, including coaches, never learn it. One staff I worked on coached the WRs to always sit in holes and never had people that kept running. They could never understand why we weren't able to open things up like they expected. But that's a story for another time. Check back with ya next week. -- Bob Pentland ELEVEN - 4 - ZONE BLOCKING The fourth chapter in Bobby P's playbook concerns zone blocking. You hear the term on the weekends and you nod your head, but you have no idea what they're talking about. In fairness, the talking heads probably don't know either. Read this and you will know. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Eleven Is there anything more beautiful than seeing an offensive line move in concert, washing a defensive front to one side, and then out of the mass of confusion, seeing a running back cut back against the grain through a massive hole that seems to appear out of nowhere? Most football purists would agree with you. Well if you ask me, I'd have to say seeing a wily free safety fill that cutback lane with some serious authority is a much prettier sight, but I am a little biased.

The running game in football used to be pretty simple. The most complex things you would see for line play were some pulling guards to run sweeps or traps. But then several years ago you began to hear the word zone get thrown around more and more frequently until it's about all you hear anymore. Now, I don't know all the ins and outs of how a zone should be blocked, so I won't pretend to be an expert, but I will try to go through the basics to simplify things a bit. In the offense you and I grew up in, most of the time the running back had a specific point to try to run through, and the OL tried to create a seam right in that spot. With zone, you don't tell the running back exactly where to go. You direct his first couple of steps, and the point at which he gets the hand-off from the QB, but from there it's his responsibility to find a seam. There are a couple different kinds of zone, two of the most common being the inside zone and the zone stretch. The inside zone is more of a downhill attack, and is more likely to produce the cutback lane. The zone stretch does just what it sounds like - runs more towards the edge, trying to get defensive flow horizontally so a vertical seam can be created for the back to dart through. Blocking the zone is where it really helps to have linemen who can move horizontally. In fact, the OL must be able to move horizontally, all while keeping their shoulders square to the LOS (line of scrimmage) and while engaging the defense. If they open up their shoulders at all, at can create a seam for the defense to get penetration and disrupt the play before it starts. Their first step (the coaches I worked with called it a bucket step) is incredibly important. In most instances it's going to be a very short (6 inches), very quick step directly to the side in which the play is running (in a zone to the right it will to the right with the right foot and vise versa). It should be almost directly horizontal. The reason the first step is so important is it allows them to keep a solid base, and ensures they stay squared to the line. To start off we'll talk about the inside zone to the strong side against a basic 4-3 front out of an I set with one TE:

In a traditional iso play, everyone would block the man in front of them while the fullback picked up the Mike and the TB followed him through the hole. This works fine, but if the defense runs any twists or slants, it can really affect the results of the play. That's the primary reason for running a zone type scheme; instead of being responsible for an individual, you have to work with the guy next to you to block whoever shows. I'll draw it below, blown up a little more than usual to make it a little bit easier:

As you can see, I've drawn them blocking in pairs, with a bold line denoting the first responsibility and the dotted line denoting second level responsibility. There is only one dotted line for each second level player because the two blockers have to work together and pick him up depending on which side he shows. You can see why the first step would be very important for them. If the Center takes too big of a step, he'll leave a large gap allowing the Nose to crash down on him, disrupting the entire play. If he takes too little of a step, he can't induce any flow (LBs read

the OL's steps and will slide the same direction to maintain their position) from the Mike making it much more difficult for him and the guard to pick him up. Looking at this, is it clear why guys who are good in the 3 technique are so valuable to a defense? He's going to be facing an immediate double team on almost any running play, and if he can force his hand on those offensive linemen, his LBs are going to LOVE him as they will make a TFL (tackle for loss) after TFL. It's also very clear to see why and where that cutback lane is going to be (right off the left hip of the left guard). It's very important that the left guard and center don't lose any ground to the nose - if he gets any penetration whatsoever, the potential cutback lane disappears. You should also be able to visualize why you don't need to cutback all the time. There should be running space in both the A and B gaps on the strong side. In fact, we tried to work with our RBs to pound it on the strong side a couple of times to try and develop quicker defensive flow to the strong side, thusly making the cutback an even better option later. For the QB, it's very important that he gets the ball the running back as deep and as quickly as possible. Again, the quicker and deeper you get the tailback the ball, the better angle he has at the cutback lane. In my eyes, the best thing to do with the QB after a play like this where he didn't have to get too lateral to make the handoff is to boot back to the weak side (fake the handoff and then turn his back to the LOS and loop back to the opposite side). The boot does two things here that a straight drop won't do for you: A) helps hold the defensive end from crashing down, B) keeps the Will LB honest for the same reasons, and C) it gives you more options offensively for the play action. What about in a different set though? What if you don't have the FB? Well a lot of that depends on what formation are you in, and how the defense generally lines up against that formation. I'll show you one case below:

In this situation, Will should widen out a bit (as explained in a previous article) pre-snap for pass reasons. Because his position is a bit different, Mike and Sam have to adjust a bit as well. This does two things to the offense, it makes the block on Will much more difficult, thus making the cutback a bit of a riskier proposition (unless you've done your job as an OC and made him nervous about the boot and passes into the flat, thus making him a little slow on his run fills). And it also changes the route to the Mike, again making the cutback seam a little tougher to create. As a benefit though, it should make the defense much softer on the strong side of the ball. You can clearly see how some times a ball carrier will take the inside zone and, rather than cutting back, bounce the play outside to the strong side. These are the kind of things a RB should come to recognize through repetition in practice. Now for the stretch zone:

The stretch is obviously much different, and has entirely different aims than the inside zone. Rather than trying to get flow that you can seal off and cut behind, you're trying to force the defensive front to flow and to stretch horizontally so you can create seams. There are options with what you want to do blocking as well. If you have a speedy tailback, you don't always even have to block the weak side end, letting the tackle go immediately to the second level. However, if that end is good, you may want to keep the tackle on him, hoping that congestion will make it tough for the Will to make a play (it usually does). Again, the bulk of the OL is going to be working as a team trying to get a body onto the defenders in the second level. This time, the fullback is working as a lead blocker, hopefully picking up the first body that shows, and chipping the outside shoulder of the bull end if he needs to help the Y seal that edge. The tailback is taking a much more aggressive outside path, forcing the QB to hustle to get him the ball. Again, you want the hand-off as deep as possible so the tailback has better angles on any potential lanes. Since the Bull is taught to keep his outside free, he will often press upfield as much as he can. In this instance, a lot of teams will teach the Y to let him go that way, but force him WELL outside. That way the FB and TB can cut underneath him and run right off the block of the RT on Sam. As the QB has to work so hard to get the TB the ball, it makes much more sense to have the QB plant his right foot after the hand-off and sink into a pocket behind the original strong B gap. Here's how it looks in the other formation:

In this situation, a lot hinges on the ability of both the Bull and your Y. If the Bull is quick, the Y should try and get him to commit up field and then seal off a lane for the TB to run through. If he's strong, just try and keep him in the same place and let the TB bounce the play outside. The H/FB shouldn't worry too much about getting to Will. He should try, but if Will disappears quickly then he needs to work to the secondary and hope to get a body on the FS. It's always very important for the TB to stay patient and let the zone develop, but it's also necessary that as soon as he sees a crease - accelerate through it. These types of plays take a lot of repetition in practice to run well, and the reps will help the TBs understand when and where to expect those creases to open up. The zone is a fantastic play, but can be greatly disrupted by one or two talented defensive linemen. Inside penetration kills the play, as does a failure to communicate among the offensive line. Well, that's that. Next week I'll talk about the play action look off of the zone, and explain why the boot is my favorite play of all time. - Bob Pentland ELEVEN - 5 - THE BOOTLEG For Bobby P's fifth Eleven entry, he breaks down his favorite offensive maneuver, the quarterback bootleg. You're certain to see a bunch of these this weekend, so read up and impress your friends with talk of progressions and third options. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Eleven I know it's been a long time, and to be honest, it's all Dave's fault. See, he'd promised my pick of the ladies, at least one for every piece. I'd decided it was finally time to cash in, found myself a honey, and said "I pick you, Dave said it was cool." Well, I guess Dave's abilities aren't as far reaching as he'd like us all to believe, nor as far reaching as the slap she tossed my way. So I did some thinking

and decided I didn't want to work for 'favors' or anything else. So, much like Disco Stu, from now on, Bobby P works pro bono. Did you watch that beautiful dismantling of the defending Super Bowl champions by the Denver Broncos? Yeah, the Pats came back a bit at the end, but that was all by design; you do know that Shanahan's a genius, right? But if you did watch, in the second and third quarters when Denver built that 28-3 lead, you saw them use the combination of their running game threat and Plummer's mobility and ability outside the pocket to dismantle the Pats. In my last piece, I explained the basics of two different zone-blocking plays, and mentioned the bootleg (also known as the waggle) play action you can run off of one of them. Here and now we'll diagram and discuss the boot. To make the connection with the run action clearer, we'll start with one of the formations that were used last time to show an inside zone. First things first play action is only as good as the run fake it starts with. The whole point of play action is to freeze both the LBs and safeties and hopefully cause them to lose crucial seconds in establishing their position for pass coverage. The first thing everyone sees is the ball fake by the QB. We're fortunate now in that we get to watch one of the best ever at this in action in Peyton Manning. Watch him next chance you get and see how his first couple of steps and action with his head and the ball are exactly the same as when he hands the ball off. It's beautiful to watch. However, that should only work against the defensive linemen, as a good LB should not be reading the QB, but rather the O-line. Because of this, a lesser known aspect of good play action involves the O-line. The quickest pass/run indicator for defensive players is when right at the snap, you see all of the Olinemen sit back in the chair to pass block. Because of this, many good play action teams school their O-line to fire out at the snap as if they are run blocking. They can't, of course, go downfield, but they have a yard or two in which to work. Not only does this greatly improve the run fake, but it will also keep the D-line's hands down, making it MUCH easier for the QB if he has to get rid of the ball quickly (the pass can't get batted down). Now on to the play:

Position instructions: X: On the run play, he should be working on a direct route at the safety, hoping to get a downfield block for his TB if he springs the run. For that reason, he should take the same initial path on the play action, breaking back to the outside at about the same time as his QB, aiming for a spot about twenty yards downfield along the sideline. Not a first choice, but a definite big play threat. Y: He has a couple of choices on his release. If the guy on the end of the line is to his outside, he should take at least one outside step, and possibly even make a little contact, but not work all the way to an outside release. If the man is head-up or a bit inside, then he should try to get an outside release as it will induce LB flow to the run fake side. After clearing the DL, he needs to try and avoid LB contact, and run towards a spot ten to twelve yards downfield. A very likely target. Z: The backside post. He has to work back towards the middle of the field, because if he doesn't, the number of QBs who could even get him the ball is one or two. Ever. It's a long throw and the QB is moving the wrong direction to even throw it. He's not a real threat initially, but is more of what we would call a booth read. Meaning, the QB won't usually look there, but the offensive coaches in the

press box will watch and see if the safety in the middle of the field is overcommitting to the play side. If you do get the booth read to go here, this can be a HUGE play (think Easy Ed McCaffrey and some of the long balls he used to catch from Elway on the back side of plays). F: The keystone to the whole deal. On his release, he has to engage the outside shoulder of the end. If he goes inside of the end or misses him on the outside, he can give the end a free up-field release and allow him to potentially kill the QB. Making solid contact with the end will also make him 'disappear' to the LB on his side (it's a natural reaction by a defender to lose track of a pass threat that goes to block someone at the LOS). It's also crucial to the timing of the play. If he gets too far in front of the QB, it makes the throw ten times more difficult, as the angle of the throw is much more severe. It will also stop him from running out of room at the sideline. The depth on his route can be anywhere from a yard behind the LOS to no deeper than 3 or 4 yards downfield. Too deep and he runs into where the TE's route is going. Spacing is crucial to an effective passing attack. TB: His job is simple: either get tackled, or punish one of those D-linemen who have been twisting his ankle in the bottom of piles all game. Getting tackled is preferred as it will cause a cluster in the middle, and can help hide the ball. QB: There are three things that are crucial for a QB to understand about the bootleg. The first is to be patient, but not slow. I know, I know, it sounds a bit like an oxymoron, but if he bails on the run-fake too quickly, it ruins the effectiveness of the play. So he needs to be quick to the running back, slow on the fake, and then quick again when he boots back around. That brings us to the second important concept; get depth early so you can attack downhill. The rule we followed was to get to at least seven or eight yards deep from the LOS and then as you are making the corner, run right at your target. Too many QBs have the tendency to drift sideways towards the sideline on the boot, making their throws less accurate and not allowing them to get the same velocity on the ball. The third part of running the boot effectively as a QB is to ALWAYS read low to high. Unless it's third and long, where you need to get the ball to a certain spot, you should never pass up an open receiver to make a more difficult throw. His read progression should always go 1, 2, 3, and then 4 only if given the green light by a

coach (except for at the top level. They should be able to make that read on the fly.). As always, he also has the run option, which can also help to freeze the defense (think when Vick is out of the pocket). If you have a good running QB, coaches will sometimes even call the play with the run being the first option, telling the receivers to block for the QB. The run option is also much better if the QB did his job initially and got depth. To get around the containment of the D, if the QB is too close to the line of scrimmage, he has to run at an angle much closer to parallel with the LOS. If he got proper depth initially, the angle he needs to get around the contain is much less acute, allowing him to pick up more yards quickly if he decides to run the ball. This waggle is a great example of a three level route, which is a common theme in offensive systems as it really simplifies the read progression. It's also a great play to get creative. You can run it out of all sorts of different formations, and still get the same result in the end, but you always want to have a target at each of the following: the LOS, ten yards deep, and twenty yards deep (although you can run it as a two man route as well). So let's get creative: Same formation, different responsibilities-

Doesn't change things too much, but a simple change if the safety has been jumping the X's route a bit. If you have a TE that can run, you might be able to sneak him behind and get a big gain. Or you might want to work the X and try to get him matched up with an LB and try the same thing. Now let's look at the same formation, but with the run fake to the weak side, rather than the strong:

This variation can work well against a cover two, as you send two guys at the corner in the flat, which won't allow him to provide any deep support for the safety on the Y's corner route. If you froze the safety with a good play fake, or even better - got him to commit to the run, the Y can be hit for a long gain. I also like this variation from about the twenty going in. You have the Y going to the deep corner, the Z working the front pylon, and if you get the ball to the fullback, you have both the Z and the Y to provide potential downfield blocks.

One more variation, from a two TE, one RB formation with motion from the Z receiver:

You will see this variation when teams will frequently use motion to help get their wideouts into the box to help block for the running game. It can be very effective, as they tend to get lost in the traffic inside, and then, assuming zone coverage, allow you to work a WR on either a SS or an LB. It it's man, by putting the Z in motion the Corner either has to follow him which can cause confusion inside, or bump responsibilities, which also let's you work the LB or SS with a WR. As you can see, there are millions of options. It's this diversity and the fact that it allows the QB to get outside and be an athlete, which makes the waggle/boot such an effective play. In my playing days, it was always my favorite. I loved the deception aspect of it both with the hidden ball trick and the footwork. I thought the trick was to get to the RB quick, and then as I carried out the fake, to make sure I was slow, I would force myself to switch my weight from my back leg to my front, and to watch the back of the RB for just a second. I loved the thrill of knowing I'd turned my back on a player who wanted to crush me, and it was up to my ability to convince him we were running the ball to protect me (we ran a lot of naked, where we either didn't have the fullback to chip the end, or he went to the same side as the RB for the play fake on an iso look). I loved finally ripping my eyes back around, seeing the end crash inside out of the corner of my eye, and then seeing all that open grass in front of me. I loved the simplicity of the reads, allowing me to do nothing more complicated than play. I loved hitting my

fullback, and then sprinting downfield, hoping to pick up a block. I loved setting my feet, coming back against the grain, and waiting for my tight end from the backside to fill the wide-open second level. I loved it when my backside post would come up to me on the sideline and tell me we have it, the two of us asking the coach if we can go to it, getting the green light, and then getting six. I loved it because no offensive play better exemplifies the fact that it takes all eleven men to do their job, all the time. The play doesn't work if you can't run the ball. The play doesn't work if the O-line doesn't sell the run. The play doesn't work if either the QB or the FB gets in a hurry. The play doesn't work if the QB gets greedy. But for all that, it's still a simple play and is effective at every level of play. That's the beauty of football. - Bob Pentland

editor's note: I'm not sure how Bob struck out while invoking my name. He must have had a booger on his nose. ELEVEN - 6 - EXTRA POINTS AND FIELD GOALS In what should be the final Eleven (this year), the Great Bobby P pulls the curtain back on one of the most common, but overlooked plays in football - the kick for points. Nowhere else will you read a technical football article that includes references to both Shakespeare and Hoosiers! Enjoy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" I open this second-to-last installment with a quote from Richard IIIfor several reasons. The first of these is that I have been much like the stooped, lustful, grasping regent over the last several weeks. Dave offered me a simple task, a periodic column on the X's and O's of football. It seemed simple enough, but I warned him early on that my schedule is often hectic, so that I had doubts about

my reliability. Well-founded doubts, obviously. I've been about as reliable as coke-fiend. This was for no malicious intent, although from Dave's angle, that doesn't really matter. He was hoping for columns that he didn't get. He even added a well timed prod or two to get me going, which alas, missed their mark. Sorry Dave. If we do this next season, assuming you would have me back, I promise a better effort. [Ed: Come on man, its a blog, not the New York Times. No worries.] The second reason I selected the quote above is that it seems at times of our greatest need, the simplest things can be the hardest to come by. There is no simpler play in football than the field goal/extra point. This simplicity though, is countered by the fact that every single time the kicking unit is on the field, points are there to be had. The game is played to score more points than the other team, so it's only common sense that teams would spend plenty of time on plays in which you score points, correct? If only the world was that simple. Fact is, many, many, many teams at the college level (and sometimes even at the pro) take these simple plays for granted, which translates to poor technique and lost points. As you well know, lost points are costly. So herein, I will discuss the simple extra point, compare different formations, discuss fakes, and what to do when things go wrong. If this seems overly simple to you, and something of no consequence, then I say you can never again complain when a kick by your team is blocked or a snap is fumbled. We'll start with the basic kicking formation:

Alignment rules:

C: Over the ball (duh) TE's, T's, and G's: Nothing can get inside you, so you obviously take a tight split. No more 4" from the outside leg of the guy inside of you. You do want to have a slightly wider base than normal, but not so wide that you are easily knocked backwards. W's: at a 45 degree tilt, with the toes of the inside leg no more than six inches behind the outside foot of the TE H: If playing outside on the grass, you let the kicker pick his spot, but make sure its at least seven yards deep from the line of scrimmage (LOS). I prefer seven and a half, as the half yard can mean the world when it comes to getting the kick blocked at the LOS. When you kneel down, the first rule is to keep your knee facing the LOS on the ground and have your back knee up. This is a point of contention with some coaches. They feel that if you have the LOS knee up, you can use it as a stop for your arm when placing the ball for the kick, thus being able to return it right where the kicker wanted it. These coaches never held. When the LOS knee is up, all it takes is an over exuberant block attempt by a defender to blow out your knee and tear the piss out of your groin. Not a good thing. Keep the front knee down and the back one out of the kicker's way. The toes on the down leg should be curled underneath you so if you have to spring up to catch a bad snap, you can do it that much quicker. K: Wherever he wants to be. But he should take as few steps as possible for the kick. Getting the ball out as quickly as possible is the key. Now for the assignments: The snap - This is the most widely screwed up aspect of the play, and it should be the simplest. There should never be a snap count, as it just gives the rush something to key on. Instead, there is a simple progression to ensure the ball isn't snapped until all are ready. First, the holder should count the squad and make sure there are eleven guys on the field, and then make sure everyone is where they should be. Then he places himself at the spot where the kicker wants the ball

placed. He lets the kicker get positioned, and then verbally asks him if he's ready. Once the kicker gives his assent, the holder first raises his arm closest to the LOS, while keeping the fingers of the other hand right on the spot where the ball is to be placed. When he is ready for the snap, he raises the other hand. Once the holder has both hands up, the center snaps the ball as soon as he is ready, and no earlier. Two things that often get screwed up are that some teams will snap the ball when the holder's down hand is still down. Stupid, stupid, stupid. How can you expect him to grab a wild snap if he's not perfectly ready to catch the ball? The second thing is that centers will want to snap the ball as soon as that hand comes up. Again - stupid, stupid,stupid. I used to love seeing teams that would do this on film because I knew I had a chance to block a kick in the next game. As a rusher, all I had to watch was the holder's down hand and know that I could go as soon as he lifted it. Looked like Dwight Freeney coming off the edge, man. The reason that progression is important to follow is that it ensures the ball isn't snapped until all are ready, and it doesn't allow the defense to anticipate the snap. After the snap C: You have one responsibility a crisp snap. Nothing else. The rest of the line will do the blocking, you just need to snap the ball and then take up space. G's, T's, and TE's: At the snap, they all quickly pick up their inside leg (which is no more than 4" outside the outside leg of the man inside them) and quickly plant it over and in front of the outside leg of the man inside of them. At the same time, they should punch with their hands and try to establish contact with the defense as far from the kick as possible without moving forward. They have three rules to follow. 1) No man slips between you and the man inside of you. Your efforts are to the inside. 2) Do not give ground under any circumstances. 3) Any defender who tries to jump to block the kick should be short of breath when he comes back down - meaning, you punch them in the stomach. It sounds dirty, but it's something everybody teaches. Make that guy think twice about exposing his ribs.

W: At the snap he takes a quick jab step with his inside leg to seal off the gap between him and the TE. The outside leg should not move under any circumstances. He has the same rules as the line, but it is crucial that no one can slip between him and the TE. He should make himself as wide as possible (we liked to have long-armed players here) and make sure to get a hand and shove on any player that tries to go outside of him. If he positions himself properly, doesn't move that outside foot, and can get a hand on him, it should take the outside rusher too long to get to the kick to block it. H: Simple - get the ball down. Worry less about the laces than getting the ball right where the kicker wants it and positioned how he wants it. When placing the ball, you should always use the LOS side hand to hold the top of the ball, and the kicker side hand to position it. That way, if you don't pull the positioning/spinhand out of the way in time, the kicker can still kick the ball (and your hand) and hopefully make it. Do it the other way around and you block the kicker's kick before it leaves his foot. Don't be that guy. Also it should go without saying, but don't be the guy that flinches and pulls his hand at the last minute. I used to hold the point with the first knuckle of my index and second finger, and stare right through them at a point on the ground until the kick was well away. That way I was always sure of my hold. K: Kickers do what kickers do. Just don't pull a Grammatica.

That's the basics of getting a kick off, so let's look at some variations in the formation: The most commonly-seen variation of the normal formation is the unbalanced double wing. Sounds tricky, but it's not:

The thought behind this formation is that by staggering the wings on the one side (the side of the kicking leg) you create enough depth that it would be impossible to go around the edge and block the kick. Conversely, on the other side, it makes the distance that the edge rusher has to go farther, thus making the protection stronger on both sides. Theoretically, that is. I've never been a big fan of this one, as in my eyes it's susceptible to pressure at the wings. It gives the defense space to build up a head of steam and possibly drive the wing back into the kick, or drive him up field letting a man slip inside. It does, however give you a little more creative license when it comes to fakes. The other alternative formation I'll discuss is the classic swinging gate. Yeah, yeah, people hear swinging gate and they start thinking of short gold shorts and Indiana basketball. Well this is one version of the football edition:

Looks crazy, right? I agree, but here's why teams will do it. First off, if a team hasn't prepared for it, you can surprise them into a time-out or an easy two-point conversion. Just looking at this, the eligible receivers are all over the place (the outside TE, both W's, the C, H, and K are all eligible receivers).Secondly, if the kicker is an athlete, they spread the defense out like this they can snap the ball right too him and he can follow the C and H into the end zone. Thirdly, if the defense is significantly out-numbered on the left, the center can throw the ball

sideways to the W who has six blockers in front of him. I've seen teams run the option with the holder and the kicker. 'Ive even seen the center throw the ball left to the W, who in turn dumps a little pass to a wide open TE. The whole idea is surprise and outnumbering the defense. What usually happens though, is that the defense is ready, and before the play clock expires, everybody trots back to a normal position and the ball is snapped. So again, why do it? Well when a defense is running around deciding who has whom, they can't really set up a block, can they? It's a gimmicky play, but one that works. Now, let's look back at the original formation and talk about fakes, and what to do when everything goes wrong.

Fakes:

This is the simplest, and can be effective if you have a good, strong runner in the Wing, and a TE who can seal the edge. At the snap the wing runs behind the LOS and once receiving the ball, looks for a seam to dive into. The holder catches the snap and then flips the ball to the Wing. The right Wing has to try and force his man up field, or failing that, help the TE seal the edge. My alma mater used this behind the line flip to beat our rivals in OT two years ago.

OK, this looks complex, but it's not really. The left Wing takes a similar route that he took on the previous one, but his time, rather than flip the ball to him, the H runs an option to the left with the kicker. If nobody picks him up, he sprints for the pylon, if he gets pressure, he immediately flips the ball to the kicker who can either run it or dump the ball over the top to the TE.

In this one, the holder does a little bit of the Charlie Brown and pulls the ball before the kick. It's imperative that he does an actual roll-out so he gets enough depth to get around the corner. By that I mean that when he picks up the ball, he turns his back to the LOS by turning his head to his left shoulder and reversing around. He has to get out of there quick, as no one on the outside is being blocked, but they will be working inside to get to the expected kick. The kicker also has to sell the kick to make the play work. The Wing on the left is the only player who has a specific spot that he sits, and that is right under the left corner of the upright. He's the safety valve if everyone is covered, and the holder is

taught to turn and throw the ball at a target just below that corner of the goal post. In the case of a bad or fumbled snap on any kicking occasion, the holder will shout "Fire!" as loud as he can, and everyone who hears will execute this same play. It doesn't always work, but through practice, your Wings and TE's should be able to hear the call and get out into their routes. (Note of trivia - my little brother (a WR) threw a TD off a botched snap in a high school game eighteen hours before I did the same thing in a college game. Bizzare.) Now you probably know more than you ever thought you would about one of the simplest plays in football. But like I said, points are the name of the game, so these plays should be taken very seriously. They are easy to execute, as long as the unit works together, but as always, it takes eleven to get the job done. - Bob Pentland