Wide Zone

This is from the University of Nebraska when Tom Osborne was HFC (thru the late 1990's). They led the nation in rushing just about every year. They did a great job on the Outside Zone (I watched film on them & they gave LBers FITS). REMEMBER: On the OZ - you want the COVERED O-Lineman to come off on the LB UNLESS the DLM stretches quickly to the outside with him.

II. OUTSIDE ZONE BLOCKING (SPLITS NO MORE THAN 1 FOOT): NOTE: WE SPLIT 18" max & will close to 12" if necessary.

Our main 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 approximately 2 yards outside 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: WE run the play to the butt of the TE (as does Alex Gibbs) & have SLIGHTLY tighter aiming points for the blockers. If you WANT to try to get outside (we end up cutting it upfield at the original align of the TE frequently) & are having problems with getting LBers - take a look at Nebraska's method. There are lot of ways to do this.

BASICALLY - this is how WE teach it: Outside zone plays. Onside covered blocker will read the alignment of the DLM. If he is aligned on outside eye or shoulder - he will drive on the outside armpit with his near foot - stay ON HIM if he strethes. If he is aligned in a head up or inside shoulder alignment, take an outside release with the play side foot to the outside armpit – whip your inside arm and shoulder up into the defender – bump off by getting width on your next step and explode to second level to seal or drive block the scrape off linebacker. GENERALLY - our covered O-Lineman ends up on the DLM on his outside shoulder, & GENERALLY - he ends up on LBer if DLM head up or on his inside shoulder (as he climbs - basically it is STRAIGHT up field).

IF you need to discuss this further or want more DETAIL - PLEASE PHONE (not enough time in-season for online typing) me at 804-740-4479. If you wish to call today - phone between 10 AM & 12:30 PM/EDT. Tonight - between 5 PM & 9 PM/EDT if I can be of further assistance!

Newguy - email me at billmountjoy@yahoo.com & I'll send you some illustrations.

Great point!