Game Planning vs. a 33 stack

We have found a lot of success with the inside zone v. 33 stack defenses that present a steady does of chaos. If we zoned right, right G/T would combo the stack over the tackle. The Center and Left guard would combo the stack over the center. And the Left tackle would rip through BSE and take one defender in that stack.

On the rip, if the End is crashing down hard, swing the hips and lock. If the backside End slants away from the rip, work up to the stack backer. Actually, we called it a sandbag technique (draw a line & protect the frontside from a potential flood from the backside stack).

The RB would taker a lap step, head down hill, read the combo with the nose, and then explode through.

We were getting steady doses of 5+ yards. What we found was a finesse defense, that when attacked at its core, was very vulnerable.

Rooster,

Go to www.americanfootballmonthly.com/Subaccess/Magazine/03sept/attacking.html to find an article by Michael Chavez, Offensive Line Coach, Southeast Missouri State University, "Attacking the 3-3 Defense with the Inside and Outside Zone". An article that may address your question and give you more insight.

Mike Britton
Head Coach
St. Lawrence Valley Trailblazers

Coach,

I read the article and printed it out. I thought it was very good, but it was interesting because the adjusments seem to me to be more conventional power-game stuff than zone stuff. Lots of guard pulling and FB lead blocking (which is what I'm used to anyway) for me to think of it as zone. I know that the playside diagrams are still showing a lot of double team movement from 1st to 2nd level, but it almost seems like the "zone" concept has to go backward to a "power" concept against the 3-3 (if you define "power" as double team blocking and adding an extra blocker to the POA.)

The cool thing is that we basically have these plays in our offense already. The IZ version with the wrap around backside G and leading FB is a staple play for us against many fronts. The OZ version with the two pulling guards is not much different than the Lombardi sweep, which is also the staple of our "Sweep Series."


Very interesting!

I think if it keeps that backside stack from making his run-fit when he reads the IZ, it's a good call! Especially effective if the divide action between the two backs freezes those stack backers for an extra split second and allows the zone scheme to push up to them more vertically.

That all depends on WHOSE 33 Stack vs WHOSE Oneback offense.

Do not know of many teams that ran it vs the Patriots 2 TE/2 WR/1 RB base formation!

I concur!

Coach Easton