Football Fundamentals: I-Formation RB Pull Replace Plays

By -
This is a series post with lots of play diagrams. Where it lacks depth, it hopefully makes up for with breadth. The goal of this post is to demonstrate the many run game nuances that are at your disposal, outside the very basics that you can find almost anywhere. I will point out some key attributes for the plays, but for the most part the diagrams will stand alone outside a brief description. This post is limited (out of necessity) to strongside plays that are given directly to the RB. It does not include FB runs, or QB runs, or H-Back, Wing, TE, or WR runs. It also doesn't include option plays. Those are things for future posts.

Why did I select an I-formation, which is mostly going out of fashion, and how do I expect this information to be utilized? The I-Formation is a classic 2-back set that, by the time it was implemented, had the benefit of a lot of football history. It is also a highly adaptable run formation, along for offsets, for H-backs, and other aspects that allow essentially any run concept to be incorporated into its framework. And that's the important bit: you can look at an I-Formation run play and easily carry it forward to many modern formations. For instance, by altering footwork and possibly timing, any of these plays can be utilized in the following:
  • 2-Back Shotgun Runs (with the second back potentially being a FB, an H-Back, a Wing, or a Sniffer)
  • 1-Back Shotgun QB Runs (utilizing the RB as an added blocker)
  • 1-Back Shotgun Read Options (the read of a run-run option, run-pass option, or pass-run option take the place of the additional blocker).
Many of the best current offenses often circle back to old formations. In the NFL, along with the modern spread concepts, you see a lot of the best offenses utilizing Wing T concepts. This set of plays does the same where it can (though, again, recognize that the option packages and fake packages are not included in this post, so it is somewhat limited). Below, you will see each play blocked against the two fundamental Even Fronts (4-3 Over and Under).


 This article will focus on plays where pullers are replaced by Backs



Pull Replace
Backside Wham
Rather than a trap, the "trap" blocker comes from the backfield. Widen the alignment of the FB for a better angle.


Frontside Wham
Similar, but now aiming front side of the formation (or backside 1T to the next frontside player).


Influence Wham
Run Sweep or Pin and Pull? Utilize that influence with your blocking up front and them wham the backside open as the LBs flow with the pull.


Lead Crunch
Crunch widens the wham play to the playside, aiming for a playside 3-Technique. Note, if there is no playside 3-Technique, the TE will just act like an in-line blocker would and block down on the next defender. You can choose to run it with influence pulls vs an Over front (as seen above) or maintain simple gap scheme regardless.



Midline
A gap version of the midline play, here, you will utilize your FB to cut block the first DL 3-tech or outside and quickly hit up inside of it. A great quick hitting play that gets the OL to the second level and keeps the DL on its toes.



Influence Midline
Teams attacking your Down G game? Now influence them with a frontside pull and cut/seal the player over the puller.


Power F
Teams keying your OGs? Replace the pulling OG with a back. This gets a block to the frontside faster and prevents the backside of the play from keying through the guard.


Counter HF
If you can do it with Power then you can do it with Counter. Keep the OG home to prevent the backside 4-tech from chasing down the play and utilize backs to get extra blockers to the point of attack.



Split Wham 3
In this case, you always attack the 3-Tech. This utilizes two backs going opposite initial RB flow. If you don't wish to switch sides based on 3-Tech, an alternative is to adjust to Counter HF above.



Bounce Split Wham 3
This is a means of getting outside opposite the split flow action. Pull the defense with the backfield motion and get outside away from it. May struggle vs under without getting into 22 Personnel or adding the Z as an opposite side threat in order to maintain the 3 man surface.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Football Fundamentals: Twins Passing Concepts

By -
Image
In this post we will look at some of the standard route concepts run from a twins alignment. Obviously, these can be paired with other routes (some I'll show including a RB), but this is to get the fundamental understanding of the routes. I'll try to explain the concept briefly, as well as provide names for what you'll hear the concept called elsewhere at times (these things get lots of names, some people use the same names but have different meanings too, so it can get confusing). If a number is visible near the end of a route, that is the nominal yardage the route will be run to. For more information on specific routes, we took a look at the  route tree earlier . In this article I will not discuss routes that utilize rub concepts close to the LOS (such as a switch concept). I will have a later article dedicated to rub routes from a Twins set. Many of these are similar to the TE-Flanker Concepts discussed earlier.
Read more

Football Fundamentals: The Tite Front Defense

By -
Image
The defense du jour against modern spread attacks is what is commonly known as the “Tite” front. Over the past couple years, you’ve seen Big 12 teams run it increasingly often, and SEC and other teams start to incorporate variants of the look more often as well as they begin to deal with an increasing number of spread formations. But what exactly is the “Tite” front? Like any front, say, a 4-3 Under, it isn’t necessarily any one thing. You can have single-high, two-high, or even three-high safeties. You can attach your overhangs differently. And with Tite, it may even mean different box numbers. And of course, there are multiple techniques that can be employed along the way. This post is a primer to the Tite front. At the end, I’ll link some of the better articles that get into greater depth for those interested, but for now, we need to understand the basics, so that we can understand how to attack it.
Read more

Football Fundamentals: 2x2 and Mirrored Passing Concepts

By -
Image
We are going to continue our look at various passing concepts, this time with 2x2 and mirrored passing concepts. In this post we are going to trim out the concepts that are designed to attack the middle of the field and put those into a separate post. 2x2 concepts allow an offense to attack a defense based on post-snap looks and coverages via a simple read of the safety. Completely mirrored concepts, when the same concept is run on the both sides of the formation (such as all-hitches), is something of which I'm not a huge fan, but there are advantages to it. You look at something like all-hitches, which overloads underneath zones, and you see a viable option in the short passing game against zone heavy teams; similarly, completely mirrored concepts can allow you to pick on certain defenders or to a certain side of the field based on defensive look. We'll also look at "base" concepts, which see the outside receivers run the same route, and a third receiver work the mid
Read more