Phokus

It's really hard to tell what blocking scheme from the sideline camera, but when they had the camera directly behind the offensive line on some replays it was obvious they were zone blocking on those replays... did we exclusively use zone blocking during the game?

zippo59

Breer makes it sound like they were using it quite a bit.

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Unofficial Kevin Faulk supporter.

Box_O_Rocks

Look for AllWorldTE's posts in this thread, he seems to have the best analysis to date...
http://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/sho...threadid=24631

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dryheat44

Zone blocking vs. Man Blocking is going to be very hard, if not impossible, to differentiate on camera in most cases.

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TripleOption

Not at all.

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dryheat44

Then you're much better an analyzing plays than I do. In the case of the Alex Gibbs scheme, it's obvious because the O-lineman are clipping the D-lineman, but, IMO, in the way the Patriots are going to play it, unless there's an obvious cut-back by the RB, I don't see how you're going to differentiate between the two. For example, on a run off-tackle, Mankins pulls left and takes out the Defensive End. Short of reading minds, I don't see how you know whether he's blocking the DE because that was his assigned man to block, or if that was the body who popped up in the zone he was responsible for.

I'd love an education fpr how to tell. I'm all for learning new things.

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When it's third and 10, you can have the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time. -- R.I.P. Max McGee

TripleOption

For Inside Zone, watch for the double teams and then the playside OL releasing up to the LB. The Outside Zone (Stretch) is very distinctive. Also, watch for the backside of the OL pushing the DL down (cutting or driving) to allow for the cutback lane.

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unoriginal

Brief illustrated tutorial on Zone vs. Man, part 1.


This is a man blocking play. Mankins lined up cheating half a step back from the line in order to pull left and get the end. At the snap of the ball you can see him opening up back and left to get around Light, who is looking at his responsibility, the playside linebacker.


Look where Light is in comparison to Mankins. He is blocking deep into the 2nd level on the linebacker in order to create the left side of the lane with Mankins and Koppen. The green lines above indicate where the lane is supposed to be. Evans is leading through there on the mike linebacker. Faulk is also distinctively pointed towards the hole called.


Man doesn't try to move the defense line down the field. Man blocking tries to open lanes in the front 7 of the defense. Here the lane has been collapsed. Good blocking from Caldwell, Mankins and Light, by the way.

unoriginal

Part 2.


This is a zone play. The entire line steps into the defensive line's left shoulder and pushes upfield. The green numbers indicate the playside responsibilities the double-team (Mankins, Koppen) have to work through. The Will linebacker is marked 3 because Welker will be cracking on him, while the Mike is free.



The orange line, as you probably guessed, is where the offensive line used to be. You can see how the initial double team on Hovan (1) creates the hole inside. Also note no one, save Welker, is heading for the 2nd level yet.

What the picture doesn't show is that Faulk walked into the handoff to give himself more time to read the line, another hallmark of a zone play.



Light makes an executive decision here to collapse his man inside, since his man is trying to close the hole. Zone blocking is loosey-goosey like that. Zone blocking doesn't care where the hole is, as long as the defensive line is moving downfield and there's a hat on every man. Faulk has to read it, make his cut, and get downfield.

Only now, with the mike linebacker stepping into the play, does Mankins come off 1 and head for 2.

This is the last you'll see of Welker on this play, btw.



And after Mankins rubs off onto the mike, Hovan goes past Koppen for the stop. Note how everyone except Koppen is three yards downfield, all in a line. That's a zone play.

PATRIOTS-80

unoriginal, this has got to be the post of the year!!!!!!! thank you so much. It is nice to have pics to go with the breakdown.

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According to Rodney Harrison, new wide-receiver Wes Welker was “a pain in the butt” to deal with when he was with the Dolphins. “We had to double-team him because no one could stick with him man-to-man,” Harrison said.