Reach Block in Pictures

Dre11

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Awwwwwww, Dre still struggling to process the reality that his favorite head coach is now an assistant in NYC.

and you think...lol what's funny is just what I said is coming to fruition right in front of your eyes, different regime and the same talk is being spewed by coaches and players, execution, mistakes, slow starts being blamed...lol
 

MapleLeaf

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Once Callahan departed we saw less and less of the clever type run blocking and more run block that was guaranteed to fail if all blockers didn't get a perfect angle.

IMO this is singularly the greatest loss the organization had in the Romo era. Losing Callahan was a blow to our offensive lines during Romo's time.

I didn't necessarily agree with his being the OC, but his ability to coach OL and put together good blocking schemes was more than capable.
 

America's Cowboy

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DLinemen can shift before the snap and OLinemen can't.
- The OC can change the blocking assignments but they can't do it every time a DL shifts.
- When DLinemen shift and the Center does not change the blocking assignments, some designed blocks can't be made.

If you thought the LG failed on this play, then you didn't have the full picture.

image 1: DL aligned over LG.

image 2: DL shifts to aligned on left shoulder of OC after TE motioned to the right side.

image 3: The run is to the right. LG can't reach block a DL that has 3/4" of a gap advantage.
- Notice that the scheme had a "backup plan" built in with the TE coming inside to block.
- Unfortunately the TE went to the next gap outside and didn't block the immediate threat.




A very well coached and smart Oline, along with the TEs, would know what to do and change their blocks (block down while the backside guard or tackle pulls and takes any available opponent depending which gap the run is dictated to run through) whenever a Dline shifts at the last second before the hike of the ball.
 

Corso

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and you think...lol what's funny is just what I said is coming to fruition right in front of your eyes, different regime and the same talk is being spewed by coaches and players, execution, mistakes, slow starts being blamed...lol
From a year like this? With a cut off-season and no pre-season and a group of coaches trying install new things?
You want to gloat about execution?

Huh...

I don't know, man.
 

Sydla

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and you think...lol what's funny is just what I said is coming to fruition right in front of your eyes, different regime and the same talk is being spewed by coaches and players, execution, mistakes, slow starts being blamed...lol

LOL. We are two games into a season with limited camp time. Who knows how the season will go.

But again, let's remind people............. you are the guy who argued Jason Garrett likely could have been Bill Belicheck if Garrett had been lucky enough to be the HC in New England.
 

Sydla

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From a year like this? With a cut off-season and no pre-season and a group of coaches trying install new things?
You want to gloat about execution?

Huh...

I don't know, man.

You have to understand Dre. He's spent much of his time here crafting a theory that coaching doesn't really matter. It doesn't affect the outcomes of games. Basically all coaches are the same, it just comes down to which players decide to play better on a given day. That's it. In other words, if you are down 5 with 10 seconds to go and no timeouts from the 20 yard line, run a draw play and it fails, the problem wasn't that it was a stupid play call. Rather it was the players' fault for not making a draw play work in that situation. I

As I noted right above, he believes a guy like Garrett is basically the same as Belicheck, where Garrett got dealt a poor hand whereas Belicheck just got lucky with his situation in NE.
 
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Corso

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You have to understand Dre. He's spent much of his time here crafting a theory that coaching doesn't really matter. It doesn't affect the outcomes of games. Basically all coaches are the same, it just comes down to which players decide to play better on a given day. That's it. In other words, if you are down 5 with 10 seconds to go and no timeouts from the 20 yard line, run a draw play and it fails, the problem wasn't that it was a stupid play call. Rather it was the players' fault for not making a draw play work in that situation. I

As I noted right above, he believes a guy like Garrett is basically the same as Belicheck, where Garrett got dealt a poor hand whereas Belicheck just got lucky with his situation in NE.
Thank you. That's good to know.
 

buybuydandavis

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DLinemen can shift before the snap and OLinemen can't.
- The OC can change the blocking assignments but they can't do it every time a DL shifts.
- When DLinemen shift and the Center does not change the blocking assignments, some designed blocks can't be made.

If you thought the LG failed on this play, then you didn't have the full picture.

image 1: DL aligned over LG.

image 2: DL shifts to aligned on left shoulder of OC after TE motioned to the right side.

image 3: The run is to the right. LG can't reach block a DL that has 3/4" of a gap advantage.
- Notice that the scheme had a "backup plan" built in with the TE coming inside to block.
- Unfortunately the TE went to the next gap outside and didn't block the immediate threat.


Two futile reach block attempts for WIlliams and Looney while Collins contributes nothing. Obviously a loser from the alignment. Half the oline was useless. Just bad scheme.

Let Looney cut off the guy on his left shoulder from crossing his face, Williams helps with a blow then goes to get LBs, while Collins seals.

I am not a fan of the oline coach.

Though shouldn't this oline adjustment have been Looney's responsibility to call?
 

xwalker

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Two futile reach block attempts for WIlliams and Looney while Collins contributes nothing. Obviously a loser from the alignment. Half the oline was useless. Just bad scheme.

Let Looney cut off the guy on his left shoulder from crossing his face, Williams helps with a blow then goes to get LBs, while Collins seals.

I am not a fan of the oline coach.

Though shouldn't this oline adjustment have been Looney's responsibility to call?

They can't change the call every time. DL would just keep shifting.

They had a clean up blocker (TE) designed into the scheme but he made the wrong block.

Connor Williams only had 3 blocks that were even questionable in the entire game.

Fans think their team should win every snap.

The other teams get paid also...
 

xwalker

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IMO this is singularly the greatest loss the organization had in the Romo era. Losing Callahan was a blow to our offensive lines during Romo's time.

I didn't necessarily agree with his being the OC, but his ability to coach OL and put together good blocking schemes was more than capable.
Callahan departed for the same job in DC (OL coach). Jerry tried to get him to stay but as soon as his contract was up he departed.

Reason: Garrett

Callahan wanted to bench Doug Free in 2012 but Garrett refused. Jerry interceded and the compromise was rotating Free and the backup by series the remainder of that season. The backup wss injured in camp the following season and Garrett's buddy Free kept the job.

Free got injured in 2014 and missed 7 games including the 2 playoff games. The backup gave up 1 sack total over the 7 games and his run blocking was far better than Free's. The backup departed after 2014 for 32M contract.

Callahan was the best coach of the Garrett era and Garrett ran him off.
 

CATCH17

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The inside zone does have some OLinemen block back.

Most people think that the outside zone (which always has the cut-back to the inside option) is the only type of zone blocking.

Yes, the Rams are great at the blocking that you're describing where the OL with leverage initially blocks the DL while the backside OL works his way around to the play-side for the reach block. The key is that they do it such that the initial blocker quickly frees up to make another block, usually on a LB.

As I said before, they don't have to adjust the blocking when the DL shifts because they already have the TE coming back as a clean-up blocker.
- The TE just didn't block the correct defender.

We saw it when Bill Callahan was the OL coach where it was obvious that they designed run plays in a way that they might not get the perfect blocking angles but that would not necessarily kill the play.

Once Callahan departed we saw less and less of the clever type run blocking and more run block that was guaranteed to fail if all blockers didn't get a perfect angle.
- They kept things together with Callahan's assistant become the OL coach until they had to use 2 new starters that had not been coached by Callahan.
- Last season with Columbo as the OL coach, the zone run blocking had many fails.
- Columbo had only played in a man blocking scheme.


I love Zone blocking compared to man.

Too many things can go wrong in a man blocking scheme.

Even if you’re OL isn’t the best you can still pop some nice runs even if guys miss blocks because the way it’s designed the DL really can’t do anything right because the RB can just cut inside or continue outside.
 

Stash

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You have taught me so much over the years with your instructive posts.
I watch the game differently now and a large part of that is from the way you show the game at a deeper level for us.

I just want to thank you.

A very thoughtful and kind post. Kudos.

This place - and this world - needs more of that.
:bow:
 

xwalker

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A very well coached and smart Oline, along with the TEs, would know what to do and change their blocks (block down while the backside guard or tackle pulls and takes any available opponent depending which gap the run is dictated to run through) whenever a Dline shifts at the last second before the hike of the ball.

The scheme had a built in plan to deal with it but the execution failed.

They had a TE come back across from right to left and was in perfect position to block the defender that CW could only partially block due to the alignment that we've discussed.

The TE paused for a split second where it appeared he would block that defender but then he moved on to the next gap over. The defender in the next gap over was not a threat because if the TE had blocked the correct defender, Zeke would have been past the line before that backside defender could get to him.

The OL scheme and coaching appears far superior to last season.

The Cowboys had 570 yards on offense and scored 40 points with 2 udfa OTs each having started 1 NFL game.

The last time the Cowboys played Atlanta they had a 3rd round pick that had started a 5 NFL games at LT and it was a complete disaster.

This time they gave the OTs a lot of help. The TEs did an excellent job on pass blocking and Zeke made pass rushers pay a price with his wham type chip blocks.
 

xwalker

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I love Zone blocking compared to man.

Too many things can go wrong in a man blocking scheme.

Even if you’re OL isn’t the best you can still pop some nice runs even if guys miss blocks because the way it’s designed the DL really can’t do anything right because the RB can just cut inside or continue outside.

Agree.

Man blocking was great in the early nineties when DTs still averaged about 280 and the Cowboys were the 1st team to go all in on size for the OL with OLines that averaged about 320.

As teams started to get bigger and bigger DLinemen, man blocking became difficult without an entire line of physically dominant OLinemen.

By far the #1 reason the Rams dominated the Cowboys in the playoff game was due to the Rams zone blocking scheme.

Marinelli's defensive scheme just couldn't handle good zone blocking teams and that continued into the 2019 season.

In this seasons game vs the Rams the run defense didn't always "look" great but they managed to hold the Rams to 3.8 yards/attempt.
- It was refreshing to see the defense mix things up against the Rams this time instead of doing the same thing on every snap.

The 49ers made it to the Super Bowl last year due largely to their version of the zone blocking scheme.
- The 49ers used sets with a FB and TE in zone blocking; whereas, the Rams lead the league in using 3 WR sets.
- The 49ers Head Coach's father was the first Head Coach to completely commit to the zone blocking scheme.
- Mike Shannahan became the Head Coach of the Broncos in 1995. He committed to obtaining OLinemen to run OL coach Alex Gibbs ZBS.
 

AsthmaField

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The OL scheme and coaching appears far superior to last season.

The Cowboys had 570 yards on offense and scored 40 points with 2 udfa OTs each having started 1 NFL game.

The last time the Cowboys played Atlanta they had a 3rd round pick that had started a 5 NFL games at LT and it was a complete disaster.

This time they gave the OTs a lot of help. The TEs did an excellent job on pass blocking and Zeke made pass rushers pay a price with his wham type chip blocks.

This is 100% true.

I love zone blocking and IMO, it is far superior to the man scheme Dallas had been using since Callahan. I’ve been wanting the team to go back to zone since he left.

When McCarthy and Philbin were hired, that is what I was most excited about and it will end up having a huge positive effect on the run game once the players get comfortable in it.

That’s what fans need to remember, the players have had very little practice in this scheme. As the season goes on the team will get more and more comfortable in it.

There will be mistakes, like this play, but they will be fewer as time goes on. By mid season they will be much better in it and you’ll see a jump in run blocking in particular.

They’re not bad now but they’ll be very dangerous as the season wears on.

I’m so glad they’re back with this scheme.
 

xwalker

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This is 100% true.

I love zone blocking and IMO, it is far superior to the man scheme Dallas had been using since Callahan. I’ve been wanting the team to go back to zone since he left.

When McCarthy and Philbin were hired, that is what I was most excited about and it will end up having a huge positive effect on the run game once the players get comfortable in it.

That’s what fans need to remember, the players have had very little practice in this scheme. As the season goes on the team will get more and more comfortable in it.

There will be mistakes, like this play, but they will be fewer as time goes on. By mid season they will be much better in it and you’ll see a jump in run blocking in particular.

They’re not bad now but they’ll be very dangerous as the season wears on.

I’m so glad they’re back with this scheme.

Zone Blocking has taken over the NFL, IMO.

Having said that, New England is one of the teams that has stayed with more man blocking and their way usually wins.
- As of last season. I have not reviewed their games this season in the post Brady era.

My thoughts last season after the Cowboys played the Patriots was that a big reason the Cowboys defense limited the Pats to 13 points was because the Pats were not killing them with zone runs which had become the Achilles heal of the Cowboys defense.
 

CATCH17

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I feel like most NFL teams just need to copy San Francisco’s offensive model.
 

Dre11

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From a year like this? With a cut off-season and no pre-season and a group of coaches trying install new things?
You want to gloat about execution?

Huh...

I don't know, man.
ok


Lol nobody gave Rob Ryan any slack for his defense not executing you can go right to the players lounge and hear Danny McCray talk about them not having time to learn Ryans defense in the lockout year. I'm also not the ones talking about it, the players and coaches.
 

Dre11

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LOL. We are two games into a season with limited camp time. Who knows how the season will go.

But again, let's remind people............. you are the guy who argued Jason Garrett likely could have been Bill Belicheck if Garrett had been lucky enough to be the HC in New England.

lol... let's remind folks how you exaggerate, I said we don't know what would have happens if the roles were reversed, If BB was here under Jones instead of being in New England where he has full control
 
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