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Zone blocking?

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Bamaglory

1st Team
Dec 8, 2005
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Per Don Kauslers chat online yesterday, he thinks the new O line coach is teaching this technique. Just wanted to get opinions on what people think about this. I seem to recall Mods here and others not liking a technique former coach, Bob Connelly taught at Bama.
 
I would call Connelly's technique No Blocking. Without question the worst lines I've ever seen at Alabama.

I personally don't like Zone blocking at the college level as a primary technique. I do believe we have employed some zone blocking but we have mixed it with the standard power game. I suspect we will continue doing that. The zone blocking tends to fail in short yardage and goal line work so you can't just use it all the time.
 
Bamaglory said:
Per Don Kauslers chat online yesterday, he thinks the new O line coach is teaching this technique. Just wanted to get opinions on what people think about this. I seem to recall Mods here and others not liking a technique former coach, Bob Connelly taught at Bama.
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Our run game has been built off of zone blocking/running game principles since Saban has been here. bamaslammer is right though we do run some power/gap scheme. We run a pro style offense and the NFL is just about 95% zone running game.. if not more.

If you have any questions about zone running just ask.
 
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From what I do know about zone blocking, for it to work the OL has to know what they're doing (which I guess you could say that about any scheme) and be working in sync with each other or it can be a disaster. But again, that can be said about any scheme. It is a more complex scheme than just "man on man" blocking.
 
zone blocking can be as simple as knowing these rules: inside, on, off. the first rule is always block the man in the inside gap IF he is on the los....even if there is a man headup. second rule is IF there is no one in the inside gap, block head-up if there is a man there. if not, block the first man off the los to the inside.
of course there are defensive blitz schemes that can alter things....such as a stacked linebacker, safety, etc. that's where a running back/h-back comes into the equation.
we did it quite well back in the high school coaching days. it was a simple concept but the OL has to be thinking all the time.
 
Bob Connelly's zone blocking technique was very passive. It was about letting the defender make a move and then trying to use his momentum against him to force him out of the play. It failed miserably because the SEC is not a passive league like the Pac 10 (Connelly and Price came from Washington State, of course).

Zone blocking can be an aggressive scheme that knocks the Dline back off the line of scrimmage. At its basic level, two lineman fire off the ball and engage a zone, not a specific defender. Whatever defender that is in that zone gets blocked, and once he is blocked by one of the Olinemen, the other continues on to the next level to engage the LB. When it's done right, it is a thing of beauty. The RB gets up the field quickly and makes a quick cut when he sees a seam open in the line. Of course, any good offense will hammer the D with a zone scheme and then when the D begins to cheat the gaps, the O will hit them with a power man blocking play. It's the pro-style offense at it's finest. Every play has a play off of it to keep the defense honest.

Never worry about anything close to Bob Connelly getting near an Alabama offense as long as Nick Saban is in charge.
 
TideEngineer08 said:
Bob Connelly's zone blocking technique was very passive. It was about letting the defender make a move and then trying to use his momentum against him to force him out of the play. It failed miserably because the SEC is not a passive league like the Pac 10 (Connelly and Price came from Washington State, of course).

Zone blocking can be an aggressive scheme that knocks the Dline back off the line of scrimmage. At its basic level, two lineman fire off the ball and engage a zone, not a specific defender. Whatever defender that is in that zone gets blocked, and once he is blocked by one of the Olinemen, the other continues on to the next level to engage the LB. When it's done right, it is a thing of beauty. The RB gets up the field quickly and makes a quick cut when he sees a seam open in the line. Of course, any good offense will hammer the D with a zone scheme and then when the D begins to cheat the gaps, the O will hit them with a power man blocking play. It's the pro-style offense at it's finest. Every play has a play off of it to keep the defense honest.

Never worry about anything close to Bob Connelly getting near an Alabama offense as long as Nick Saban is in charge.
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YouTube - Zone Blocking with Double Teams
 
One interesting thing I've read about zone blocking is that for optimal success it requires smaller more agile linemen. Big, bulky OL tend to not do well in a zone blocking scheme. I wouldn't consider our OL "smaller". So it ought to be interesting to see how this plays out.
 
Bamaglory said:
Funny that you say that because I believe I have heard that Stoutland likes bigger O linemen.
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I googled zone blocking and randomly picked two to three links that were articles or "writings" about zone blocking vs man blocking. It was mentioned that nfl teams who use a pure zone blocking technique get smaller and more agile players because bigger players tend to be to slow and not as agile. So, I don't know. We'll see.
 
Its true about more athletic linemen being ideal. But we've been doing zone blocking since Coach Saban has been here. Coach Pendry had an extensive NFL background with it. But we mixed it up with man blocking. I'm sure that will continue.
 
TideEngineer08 said:
Its true about more athletic linemen being ideal. But we've been doing zone blocking since Coach Saban has been here. Coach Pendry had an extensive NFL background with it. But we mixed it up with man blocking. I'm sure that will continue.
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You are correct. I read three articles about it and there are/were only three teams (at the time the article was written) in the NFL that run/ran a "pure zone blocking" and a "pure man blocking" scheme. Denver (zone), Atlanta (zone) and Pittsburgh (man). Everyone else ran aspects of both, depending on the situation.
 
bamaslammer said:
I would call Connelly's technique No Blocking. Without question the worst lines I've ever seen at Alabama.

I personally don't like Zone blocking at the college level as a primary technique. I do believe we have employed some zone blocking but we have mixed it with the standard power game. I suspect we will continue doing that. The zone blocking tends to fail in short yardage and goal line work so you can't just use it all the time.
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Another thing I remember about Connelly's O-Lines was how physically weak they were..I cringed everytime we had to get 1yrd to pickup a 1st down..Cause our Boys would get manhandled at the LOS..I'm glad that Era of Bama Football is a thing of the past..
 
TideMan09 said:
Another thing I remember about Connelly's O-Lines was how physically weak they were..I cringed everytime we had to get 1yrd to pickup a 1st down..Cause our Boys would get manhandled at the LOS..I'm glad that Era of Bama Football is a thing of the past..
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Not to blame someone else because Connelly was not very good, but the strength of this OL goes to a certain other coach... Cochran.
 
I think we've become more zone-based each year since 2008. With Smith, Caldwell, and Davis we saw a good bit more man block plays like power with a pulling guard. We didn't run much power in 2010.
 
I've been calling for a return to the zone scheme Pendry ran during the NC year. For whatever reason, perhaps bigger OL, we went primarily to a gap/man scheme last year. It led to less dominance IMHO. I like the zone scheme's ability to create double teams on nearly every DL, it also handles twist and stunts very well, it can be very physical.

I believe Connley taught the "bucket step" technique, hence the nick name "bucket step Bob". He also has been quoted on this forum as stating that "nobody bull rushes anymore" which is pure crap.

There is a raging debate among Zone OL coaches regarding bucket step vs. a power step. The bucket step employs a "give ground in order to gain ground" philosophy. This is sacrilege to most OL coaches who have carried over an "impose your will" attitude from the old man/drive blocking schemes. Instead of a "bucket step" they tell the OL to simply pick their foot up and take a small 6" power step toward the outside number of the defender, with the next step spliting the crotch of the OL. The only exception to this is the Outside zone/stretch play, where the OL is taught to take a 45 degree "bucket step" with the intention of running paralell to the line of scrimmage and stretching the defensive run fits horizontally.

When run properly with smart athletic linemen whhave "gelled" as a unit, the scheme is near unstopable. Look at the Denver Broncos of the late 90's and early 2000's. You could plug in just about any RB and have a 2000 yd rusher.

Also regarding the Power play, where the backside guard pulls and lead playside behind a FB kickout on the DE/OLB, the zone scheme can actually be employed here as well. The OL simply runs an Inside zone rules away from the called run direction, only instead of the C and BSG doubling a DT to LB, the Center down blocks and the BSG pulls to lead. So even though you appear to have a true man scheme going due to the pulling guard, the rest of the OL are actually blocking zone away from the point of attack. There is many ways to skin a cat in this game. (well, skin a tiger anyway)
 
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