Beating 44 stack with shotgun

If you have a QB that's pretty accurate and makes good decisions and have some kids that can catch the ball I think spreading them out is certainly worth a try. If they're playing man coverage just help your QB look for mismatches your offense can exploit. The flats are particularly vulnerable with most youth defenses. I would also utilize a sprint-out game if possible as it is narrows your QB's reads to half the field and is often times easier to protect from or throw hot against playside pressure.

Best of luck coach!

Dave Hartman
CYFL Coach

Quick dropback passes to WR's are GREAT vs that type defense. Hitch; Slant; etc. (breaking at 5 yds)! Also any WR screen!

On the OUTSIDE ZONE - be sure NOT to split over 18". Nebraska (in their "Golden Days" of the mid 1990's) cut their splits to 12". ALSO - aligning OFF the ball with their helmets on the Center's belt helps!!!!!

Here is how THEY taught it (under Milt Tenopir - O-Line Coach). They led the nation in rushing just about every year in the 1990's!

II. OUTSIDE ZONE BLOCKING (SPLITS NO MORE THAN 1 FOOT):

Our man objective on the outside zone play is to initially try to get the ball outside. With that in mind, we are trying to force a hook block on all down defenders.

All of our linemen that are covered with a down defender executes what we refer to as a “rip-reach block”.

To execute such a block, we have the covered linemen take a hard lateral stretch step to the call side. We want to out-flank the down defender on that first step.

On the second step, we allow our covered linemen to use a crossover step to the callside.

The next thing we have him do is rip his inside arm through the callside armpit of the defender, similar to the rip that a defensive lineman will sometimes use on a pass rush.

We want our covered lineman to lean on the defender after he rips through the armpit and force his stomach upfield. If he does not do this, then his stomach will be facing the sideline and he loses sight of the linebacker. He will now try to escape for the linebacker.

If the playside guard and tackle are both covered, the tackle would have his defender by himself. He would go through the stretch, crossover step and rip technique, and then lean on his man, not thinking about escaping for the linebacker.

The backside tackle, upon getting to the line of scrimmage, checks if the backside guard is covered. If he is, the tackle will work with the guard even if he is also covered.

The uncovered linemen use a technique that we refer to as “pull and ovetake”. Before we can overtake the down defender to the call, we first must get our helmet past him, then get on him and roll him upfield.

The pull must be a lateral pull. We want to gain depth and distance on our first step on the pull. The one foot split is essential if you are going to get the overtake.

There will be occasions when the covered linemen can’t get un-hooked from the covering defender. If this does happen, the pull and overtaking offensive lineman should keep pulling and at times will have to come all the way around for the linebacker.

As mentioned earlier, the backside tackle works with the guard if the guard is covered. This means he would pull and overtake the man on the guard.

Some teams use in-line stunts to try to disrupt our zone schemes. The secret offensively is technique. If two adjacent offensive linemen are covered and the proper stretch is taken on the first step, it will become natural to pick up slants and loop-arounds.

RB: Take a path at the original alignment of our tight end. The RB must get to the point of attack before he makes a decision to stay outside the tight end or skip-cut under his block.




PS: If you wish to talk about the play via phone - call me at 804-740-4479 (up to 10 PM/EDT)