Even more Zone Read…
You can’t talk about the zone read offense enough when discussing the modern brand of offensive football. I think I provided a pretty good introduction to the concept in my earlier posts, but I would like to get a little bit more specific here, in particular, the way in which the play is actually executed.
First and foremost, this is a zone running play – a handoff to a running back who is running behind offensive lineman blocking zone principles. This mean the each offensive lineman steps in a direction (let’s say right) and on an angle (let’s say 45 degrees), then blocks whatever defender shows on that path. This creates a flow of both blockers and defenders to the right, allowing the running back to find where any crease develops between defenders. Generally, we say there are two kinds of zone runs – inside and outside zone. Inside zone (or “IZ”) attacks the A gaps, while outside zone (“OZ”) attacks the C to D gaps (but again, that is really just the running back’s direction, the play is rarely run to a particular whole – instead the running back runs whatever hole develops in reaction to the defenders).
Now I want to talk about the mesh. For the purposes of this post, let’s just assume we’re running IZ to the right, with a read. This means our offensive linemen are all stepping at an angle to their right, blocking whatever shows in their path, and that we are leaving the backside defensive end (our left) unblocked. We are in a shotgun formation, with the QB five yards behind the center and the back about six yard deeps, splitting the outside leg of the left guard. On the snap, the QB catches the ball and pivots his feet so that his body is square to the read key (the name for the backside defensive end) and extends the ball straight in front of him. The RB takes one step with his right foot aiming at the right tackle then comes downhill, aiming for a point somewhere on the center (this varies from team to team). The RB goes very slowly here, to allow time for the read – on IZ or OZ read, RB’s are always taught “slow to the hole, fast through the hole.” The RB on his first steps makes a wide pocket for the ball and bites over it – unlike conventional running plays, it is the RB’s job to get over the ball, not the QB’s to get it in his stomach. As the RB begins to bite over the ball, the Qb begins to make his decision – If he needs more time, he can lean with the RB to prolong the “mesh period” (time when both the QB and RB appear to have the ball) – this is called “riding” the back. When the QB has made his decision, he simply lets it go in the back’s stomach, or with two hands removes it and gets out as quickly as possible.
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