How Julius makes the O line look good (short vid)

[JDSmith]

OK, here is a clip from Monday's game. IMO it shows perfectly how Julius can make the linemen look good, even if they get beat. On the play the DE opposite Tucker stunts to the inside. The DT on Gurode takes an outside line and Gurode helps him along, I think he's assuming that Tucker will pick him up but I'm not positive. Tucker never gets any contact on the DE at all, and the guy comes behind his DT and gets inside of Gurode. Meanwhile Johnson has seen the DT moving away and he advances to the next level and takes on a LB. As a result, the DE is essentially untouched and completely fills the hole that Julius is supposed to run through. Gurode follows and continues to drive him, keeping him moving. Julius takes the ball, takes a step towards the hole, sees it close, plants and cuts back into the space originally occupied by the DT and then proceeds to turn it into a 20 yard gain. From the time Julius takes the ball to the point where he's planting and pivoting is about 2/3 of a second.

Now I'm no expert on blocking, but it seems to me that the original intent was for the play to follow LA, instead Julius ends up cutting it back for a huge gain when he could have easily been stopped for no gain on the play. I don't think we have another RB on the roster who would have turned this into positive yardage.

Anyone who knows more about blocking schemes please feel free to jump in and correct me if I'm reading this wrong, because as I said I'm no expert.



blocking vid - windows media player format

 

[TheHustler]

Completely agree. That was a very nice cutback.

 

[Portland Fanatic]

OK, here is a clip from Monday's game. IMO it shows perfectly how Julius can make the linemen look good, even if they get beat. On the play the DE opposite Tucker stunts to the inside. The DT on Gurode takes an outside line and Gurode helps him along, I think he's assuming that Tucker will pick him up but I'm not positive. Tucker never gets any contact on the DE at all, and the guy comes behind his DT and gets inside of Gurode. Meanwhile Johnson has seen the DT moving away and he advances to the next level and takes on a LB. As a result, the DE is essentially untouched and completely fills the hole that Julius is supposed to run through. Gurode follows and continues to drive him, keeping him moving. Julius takes the ball, takes a step towards the hole, sees it close, plants and cuts back into the space originally occupied by the DT and then proceeds to turn it into a 20 yard gain. From the time Julius takes the ball to the point where he's planting and pivoting is about 2/3 of a second.

Now I'm no expert on blocking, but it seems to me that the original intent was for the play to follow LA, instead Julius ends up cutting it back for a huge gain when he could have easily been stopped for no gain on the play. I don't think we have another RB on the roster who would have turned this into positive yardage.

Anyone who knows more about blocking schemes please feel free to jump in and correct me if I'm reading this wrong, because as I said I'm no expert.



blocking vid - windows media player format

JD...nice observation and post...I think this year the oline will be buying JJ suits instead of him buying them suits...

Not to take away they are doing a pretty good job overall...I think Big Al is a monster in some of this success this year. He has been putting some very nice blocks to spring JJ so far. Maybe he gets a suit.

As for LA and Flo...would cost JJ his entire bonus to buy all that material.

 

[JDSmith]

It's like Nate said one time about Emmitt when someone commented on how great his line was, to paraphrase, "before he got here I was just a big fat guy, now I'm a probowler." A great line can make a back look good, and a great back can make a line look good.

 

[StateCollegeCowboy]

Actually, to me it looks like it is designed to go up the middle. You notice Larry seal off the left side while Al tries to take out the LB. Gurode and Tucker completely dismiss anybody moving to their right and focus on making sure that middle is as clear as possible.

The only miss block would seem to be Tucker missing the DT that Gurode passed to him. It would be Tucker's fault on that play because it is a Stunt betwen the DE and DT and Tucker has to take the DT while Gurode takes the incoming DE.

Gurode made a good read, Tucker did not.

 

[Rick_Deckard]

Actually, to me it looks like it is designed to go up the middle. You notice Larry seal off the left side while Al tries to take out the LB. Gurode and Tucker completely dismiss anybody moving to their right and focus on making sure that middle is as clear as possible.

The only miss block would seem to be Tucker missing the DT that Gurode passed to him. It would be Tucker's fault on that play because it is a Stunt betwen the DE and DT and Tucker has to take the DT while Gurode takes the incoming DE.

Gurode made a good read, Tucker did not.

Actually, LA tripped over Flo. Otherwise he would have taken the linebacker out and JJ would have had the entire middle of the field open.

 

[JDSmith]

OK, here is the play that got called back because of holding on Morgan. It looks like it's designed to go through the same hole as the earlier play, or maybe the other one was the center guard gap and this is through the guard tackle gap, I'm not sure. On this one LA blocks right though and on the other he blocked left, so it's probably supposed to go off his left hip this time. LA just obliterates the DT, he and Johnson double team him and once the guy is face down on the ground LA moves on and blasts the LB too. Julius takes the ball and it looks like he's going up the gut for a nice gain, but Flozell loses his guy and the DE ends up falling to the ground right where Julius is looking to go. Julius bounces it outside Flozell, off his left hip, but sees the safety there. He then bounces it out around Morgan and the LB he's blocking, but sees the safety is still in pursuit and will fill the hole, so he bounces it outside AGAIN and then takes it to the house for a 16 yard TD. I showed it twice, once with my highlights and once without so you could get a feel for his quick decisions.

This is the replay of 06jjs in the Julius clips.

Julius bouncing it way outside - windows media encoded, 2 megs

 

[starfrombirth]

OK, here is the play that got called back because of holding on Morgan. It looks like it's designed to go through the same hole as the earlier play, or maybe the other one was the center guard gap and this is through the guard tackle gap, I'm not sure. On this one LA blocks right though and on the other he blocked left, so it's probably supposed to go off his left hip this time. LA just obliterates the DT, he and Johnson double team him and once the guy is face down on the ground LA moves on and blasts the LB too. Julius takes the ball and it looks like he's going up the gut for a nice gain, but Flozell loses his guy and the DE ends up falling to the ground right where Julius is looking to go. Julius bounces it outside Flozell, off his left hip, but sees the safety there. He then bounces it out around Morgan and the LB he's blocking, but sees the safety is still in pursuit and will fill the hole, so he bounces it outside AGAIN and then takes it to the house for a 16 yard TD. I showed it twice, once with my highlights and once without so you could get a feel for his quick decisions.

This is the replay of 06jjs in the Julius clips.

Julius bouncing it way outside - windows media encoded, 2 megs

These are phenomenal vids - keep em coming, I didn't realize that JJ had made that many cuts on that run...WOW!

 

[orange julius]

AWESOME clip right there JD, thanks a lot...I thought this was a great run to bounce it to the outside when I watched it live, but when you point out where the play was designed to go and how he bounces it three times it really shows off the skill this kid has....thanks again.

 

[JDSmith]

These are phenomenal vids - keep em coming, I didn't realize that JJ had made that many cuts on that run...WOW!

It happens so quickly that you really can't appreciate exactly what he's doing out there. You see him bounce one outside, but then you go and break it down and you can see where he's planting his feet and you know what he's looking at and you get a feel for how many quick decisions he's making and how fast he's got to be in order to pull that off. Most guys just couldn't break that run to the outside and be quick and fast enough to outrun the D.

 

[JDSmith]

And another thing, look at how close Julius is to the hole when the DE drops into it. The guy practically lands on Julius' feet, he has to actually take a hop step back to avoid him.

 

[starfrombirth]

all I can say is WOW again!

 

[Nightshade]

Thanks JD
These vids are great. A rare chance to be able to break down not only the ability of Jules but the O-line as well.

 

[Everlastingxxx]

Now I'm no expert on blocking, but it seems to me that the original intent was for the play to follow LA, instead Julius ends up cutting it back for a huge gain when he could have easily been stopped for no gain on the play. I don't think we have another RB on the roster who would have turned this into positive yardage.

Anyone who knows more about blocking schemes please feel free to jump in and correct me if I'm reading this wrong, because as I said I'm no

Hey, notice on that play that if Allen doesn't slip, Julius goes in for a TD. The side angle you can see it better, amazing only one missed block can cost the team. Also, looking at some other runs, Keyshawns is slow getting to his blocks costing the Cowboys possible scores.

 

[Nightshade]

Hey, notice on that play that if Allen doesn't slip, Julius goes in for a TD. The side angle you can see it better, amazing only one missed block can cost the team. Also, looking at some other runs, Keyshawns is slow getting to his blocks costing the Cowboys possible scores.

Considering Key's playing with an injury, I think his effort is pretty good.

 

[Everlastingxxx]

Considering Key's playing with an injury, I think his effort is pretty good.

Great, an already slow receiver slowed more by injury. Re-watch the clips, Keyshawn looks grossly slow on getting to his blocks.

 

[Oh_Canada]

Did u see LA and Al Johnson team up an obliterate the DT on that last run. That was scary!

 

[DeaconBlues]

Actually, LA tripped over Flo. Otherwise he would have taken the linebacker out and JJ would have had the entire middle of the field open.

Looking at both plays, Flo takes an enormously wide stance whenever he's about to block someone. I wonder if a great number of Allen's 'flops' are due to his tripping over Flo's feet, as in the first clip.

 

[TheDuke]

Did u see LA and Al Johnson team up an obliterate the DT on that last run. That was scary!

i noticed that...that was nice

 

[BringthePain]

Considering Key's playing with an injury, I think his effort is pretty good.

I agree. Watch that 53 yard run that Julius had on Monday night. Keyshawn comes from being lined up on the right side, crosses the field, and runs with Julius at near full speed trying to get another block. That really surprised me, that Keyshawn could even keep up with Julius. He does give great effort on every play.