I saw one play that really struck me odd. I know we have or seem to have a lot of passed knocked down by opposing d-linemen. On one particular play I saw, the d-lineman had kind of stopped his rush and was waiting and lining/timing up his attempt to block the pass. Since he was not advancing, I noticed the O-lineman was not really driving him or doing anything other than keeping one hand on him at arms length in what seemed just a way to keep track of him. We throw the pass, d-lineman jumps up, its gets batted down.
Now my question is, why wasn’t the O-lineman keeping the D-lineman engaged and busy. If someone is pushing on you, its damn hard to jump up to block a pass. Granted you can still get an arm up, but you can’t really jump up if your engaged. Is this how its normally done, if your guy is not advancing you just kinda keep an eye on him and on maybe other areas? Or was the lineman not executing or poor technique. I don’t know enough about blocking techniques to be able to really understand. I just know what I saw, and if the lineman had been still engaged I doubt the pass gets batted down.
Someone help me out here. Enlighten me about line play and techniques in that situation. Or is it solely the QBs fault for not finding an open pathway to throw the ball? I think its part on the Oline as well, but that just maybe my lack of understanding.
The two I saw knocked down were players who were spread at the snap, The interior OL guys do not normally breakout to block but those two DL guys were actually wide set.
When you say interior OL, I think centers and guards. The one I was watching was a tackle. Left Tackle actually. I didn’t specify position as I do not like to call out individual players really. So I generalized it to O-lineman.
What I taught all my OL was that on slants and quick passes we block below the waist I want you fire out(which makes the defense think run is coming) and and try to drive your head into his thighs which will make him get his hands down and you can quickly release the pass in the amount of time it takes the defender to get the OL off him.never ever had a pass batted down absolutely blows my mind that I don’t see us or anyone else for that matter doing it… the key is to fire “out” and not up which makes the defender bend over
As we all know Football is a game all about “ball security”… LMAO… So I guess Youda has a good point, you threaten them balls and that d-line is gonna put his hands down to make sure he is secure!! Ball Security is always #1. LMAO. Thanks Youda, I needed that good laugh this morning.
To Youdaman’s point (and thanks for the tutorial) at one point the rule was that OL could fire out and as long as the pass was behind the LOS it didn’t matter where the OL were at the time.
Is that still the case? Was it ever the case (if not, then I’ve lost my mind for a moment)??
You are allowed 2-3 yds the reason you don’t see them blocking low is it’s a no no in today’s game because of knee injuries.OL will do what they are taught to do. i wanted the defense / linebacker to think run and hopefully take a step up when they see us firing out and not popping up in pass pro.
Yep, though I do not know much about line play or much else about football, I can certainly see that if you can drive your helmet into his groin area, he certainly will not be able to jump very high to block a pass for some time. Seems like a good technique on run plays also, which might be why you always want to block lower than the guy in front of you. Good tutorial, Youda! (Was your o-line motto by any chance, “Put them in the soprano section of the choir!!”?)
In the RPO, the lineman does not know when the pass is going to be thrown. It’s RPO. So it’s hard to know when (or if) to block low. I think this is a system issue. If it’s a called slant, then you would know to drive lower.
If you do drive lower, the DL can push you to the ground and go over you. That’s not desired, either.
I suppose you are going to get some passes deflected. It seemed that some of the batted passes were from players who had popped clean of the linemen and were in the QB’s face. One was for sure against Alabama. There was definitely one who was still protected by a blocker.
One thing to worry about when you go low after a defensive linemen, if if there is anyone else with a hand on his shoulder in a double team. That is the definition of a chop block and illegal.
Yes RPO has changed it for sure.i was talking about called slants and quick out routes etc.The passes are so quick I just told them whoever is on you to get and to get their hands down…
when you fire out low and get into their thighs, they automatically put their hands down to get you off thier legs(they are not used to someone coming low on them and why teams like navy that run the option create huge problems for them because they all come out low and hard and its tough for them to get the OL off them.),and the second it takes to do that allows for the ball to be thrown over their head.
The only real challenge in blocking low when the DE are in what we call a wide 9 techinique which means he is not really close to the OT and he’s out that wide to create a better angle for pass rush and all you can do is fire out like its a run and when you are close enough you just cut block him at the knees.
Don’t know how old you are or if you are retired, although as I recall you are living in Atlanta. Why oh why aren’t you in Fayetteville teaching our offensive linemen how to block?? (Thanks for your continuing insight!)
