Football analysis and strategy from Chris B. Brown
New Grantland: Lombardi Sweep Redux: How Eddie Lacy – and Green Bay’s Most Famous Play – Give Green Bay a New Dimension
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New Grantland: Lombardi Sweep Redux: How Eddie Lacy – and Green Bay’s Most Famous Play – Give Green Bay a New Dimension
It’s now up over at Grantland: The 2013 Packers have also resurrected a version of the most famous play in Green Bay history, the legendary Lombardi Sweep, also known simply as the Packers Sweep. The play was the backbone of the Lombardi teams that won five NFL championships and two Super Bowls. On the Packers Sweep,…
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Alex Gibbs Denver Broncos (Terrell Davis) Outside Zone Cut-Ups and Explanation
As always, very good (somewhat old) stuff from Alex Gibbs on the outside zone running play. Note that Gibbs recently rejoined the Broncos as a consultant. Of course there’s a lot more where that came from. (Hat tip to togfootball.) Also try eight hours of Alex Gibbs talking with Dan Mullen, Steve Addazio and others…
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Russell Athletic Bowl — Key to Rutgers vs. Virginia Tech: Outside Zone
College football’s bowl season is not much like the single-minded narrative of a one winner-take-all playoff. Instead it’s a shifting, multiple layered story told through an ensemble cast. Some of the stories, like the BCS title game, are triumphant, with maybe even a tinge of poetic folklore — some battle that could as easily be…
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New Grantland: Cam Newton and the Diversity of Carolina’s Zone-Read Package
It’s now up over at Grantland: One of them is a play Newton made famous at Auburn — the “inverted veer” or “dash read” play. Unlike a typical zone read where the quarterback reads a back-side defender, the inverted veer reads a player on the front side — the quarterback and running back head in the same…
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Watch the left guard
While watching the clip below, that’s all you need to do: watch the left guard. Getting excited for football season.
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My favorite method for running a reverse to a wide (or slot) receiver
This method is very simple. I like it because it is not a reverse in the sense of being a true “trick” play, but instead you can actually count the blockers and evaluate your numbers at the point of attack and the associated leverage and numbers at the point of attack. The points are simple:…
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Fantastic inside zone and “pin-and-pull” outside zone cut-ups
Under former coach Glen Mason, Minnesota, while not a great team, was one of the best rushing teams in the entire country during that time. And while they had some very good backs — including both Lawrence Maroney and Marion Barber III at the same time — they did it by being extremely simple: the…
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Adapting the Rocket Toss Sweep to Spread and Pro-style Offenses
The top four rushing teams in college football this past season — Navy, Air Force, Army, and Georgia Tech — each ran the flexbone offense or some variation of it. “Well,” you say, “those offenses run the ball a lot, so that inflates the yardage.” To a point, yes, but even if you simply look…
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What is the Inverted Veer / Dash Read?
In fall 2009, a reader emailed me about a spread run scheme TCU used to close out a tight victory against Clemson. The scheme featured a runningback and the quarterback running to the same side — as opposed to the traditional zone read, where the two ran in opposite directions, along with playside blocking from…