Stopping the zone blocking scheme
 

The question has been asked over and over again, what is going on with the running game? Where here is my take.

The problem lies with:

Chris Meyers.

Because he is unable to maintain leverage, our running plays are getting blown up inside. Not only that; they are getting blown up 1 on 1. This in turn gives the linebackers free range. Not only are the LB roaming free, they are maintaining gap integrity. Because they don't have to help out in the middle they can run blitz from the edges. So teams are just run blitzing from the edges forcing slaton to run right up the middle where the interior lineman (mainly Meyers) are being out muscled. No spectacular plays by the D. Just good ol' fashion lane integrity. And we all know if there is no cutback lane the zone blocking scheme is useless. Doubling the NT only leads to a LB coming downhill free.

The Cure:

Stronger in the middle.

If we had a center or guard who could consistently at least maintain his ground against the NT the outside LB wouldn't feel so free to blitz the edges.

Screen/Sweep plays.

If the NT is just too stout, take him outta the play. This will make those blitzing OLB think twice.

Overall, we do not have the man power to push the pile. So we should adopt a page outta the Eagles playbook. Make little dump offs and screens our run plays.

Breisel ain't too good either. Of course he is Kube's favorite, being from CSU.

It could be Briesel is injured and we'll get to see Caldwell.
http://www.houstontexans.com/news/St...?story_id=5681

Somebody give that man a dollar!

Amen! :)

Maybe screens, but that dumpoff shovel pass to Leach got blown to hell up!!

How can the ZBS be so successful one year, and totally fall on it's face the next? Defenses have adjusted, but the ZBS doesn't seem to have adjusted at all. Or am I wrong?

And speaking of adjusting, Kubes doesn't seem to be doing too good of a job in that regard either. You can't fall 21 points behind to a team like Arizona and expect to logically come back and win.

On your first point, I'm not sure that I'd say that the ZBS was successful last year. Statistically, there were some big plays that Slaton was able to make that inflates the numbers. For example, Slaton gained over 100 yards against the Titans Twice last season. I believe in both games he was bottled up, but was able to break open long runs. The first game he had 18 attempts for 116 yards (one of those being a 50-yard scamper). Take out that "fluke" and you get 17 attempts for 66 yards ( 3.8 ypc). The second game he had 24 rushes for 100 yards (his long was 34 yards), so looking at 23 for 66 yards ( 2.8 ypc). It's not like we were seeing a consistent gain every time he had the ball, but occasionally he'd get a seam and exploit it. So, we haven't really seen that big play this season out of Slaton.

This season his long runs have been 16 out of 13 attempts, 32 out of 21 attempts, 20 out of 12 attempts, 12 out of 17 attempts, and a "long" 7 yard gain when given 9 attempts. I'd have to say in fairness that Slaton hasn't been getting enough touches this season. He was only give a chance to run the ball more than 18 times once in a game.

On your second point, we were VERY close to coming back from 21 points behind. Even after throwing a heart-breaking pick six interception, we could and SHOULD have been able to convert a 1 yard run or pass on the goal line. The biggest adjustment I saw between the 1st half and 2nd half of the Cards game was on defense. We stopped playing Zone and went to more Man coverage.

Even if McNair keeps Kubiak on beyond the 2009 season I suspect this is Gibbs (the ole man) last year here which probably means that his ZBS leaves with him. OK they'll probably keep some zone schemes in their repertoire, but I suspect we will move away from it like ATL did when Gibbs left there and transition if not fully convert to a basic man system.

I find it hard to believe that Kubiak won't keep the ZBS. We had it before Gibbs got here, Kubiak was elated that he was getting the GURU out of retirement so it could be coached the right way. Straight from the horse's mouth, since Gibbs is the Godfather of the ZBS.

The thing that really bothers me about Myers on that last play wasn't that he got overpowered by a bigger, stronger player, but that he allowed the DT to get under his pads and get leverage on him. The undersized OL in the ZBS are supposed to make up for their lack of size with superior quickness and technique. When they get beaten on technique the results are pretty ugly.

Another something that has bothered me about the last 2 plays is a question I have, when did Briesel hurt his foot? If the hurt foot is bad enough to miss the rest of the season, then he should not have been in the game for that play.

We have seen it over and over again with this group, the coaches let hurt players, worse one legged player play. If you need to get low and push, you need your feet. And that last play could have had a healthy player had Briesel told the trainers the truth.

Macho BS.

As for Myers being beaten, that is a given for an undersized guy like him.

If you can come in on defense with a short yardage line, why not a jumbo package on the OL?

I agree with that. We did have some man power principals. We had several plays with Pitts pulling and things like that. Those were likely Sherman's influence, but pre-Gibbs we were mostly zone. It could have been called a little bit of a hybrid scheme though with some of the things Sherman added. They went to 100% pure Gibbs zone scheme when Gibbs arrived with the intention of only doing a few things....but do them very well. That's a good approach, but it's probably past time to add a few wrinkles to help keep teams off-balance.