The Eyes are the Window to Good Football

      It's been great to get back on the field coaching after a season recuperating.  One of the big challenges, I had when watching from afar last season was actually vision. I didn't see things as clearly as I had in years past.

A quick test - Can you find the fault along the offensive line?
Answer by email to coach.mcraft@gmail.com

     I mean that in both the physical sense and in the literal sense.  Over my career, one of my strengths was standing behind the offense and seeing when something was out of place. Whether it was a false step by a lineman or a missed blocking assignment.
A fellow coach once asked - "How do you see all that?"
     The answer lies in both extensive film study and
a foundation as a videographer for more than 30 years.   When a "photog" films a scene like the picture, below, he learns to look at the bigger scene and then break it down into several different shots.  One scene like this may yield a wide, medium and a number of close up opportunities.
      When it comes to football, I have an image in my mind of what the play should look like and anything that doesn't fit the template stands out like a sore thumb.

       Last season, I spent a lot of time in the press box watching games.  It was very revealing to see the game from that perch.   I would advise any offensive coordinator to head upstairs and not rely on getting second hand information from a box coach on defensive formations and schemes.
      Unfortunately, players don't have the advantage of seeing the big picture other than looking at stills or game film when they prepare for a game.  However, as a coach you can teach them see exactly what they need to see by training their eyes.  In fact, training a players eyes, no matter what position, could be the single greatest thing a coach can do to ensure his players success down the road.
      Once I got back on the field this season, one of my main goals was to train my offensive players to "get your eyes in the right place." Here are some examples of these lessons:

1) "Hands on the lineman. Eyes on the Linebacker." - When we combo block it starts with a double team on the defensive lineman.  The lineman will work that double team up to the assigned linebacker.  If both linemen focus their attention on the defense lineman they will often times be late to collect the linebacker or miss him all together and he will make the tackle.

Drill: When you work on the fundamentals of double teaming stand in the position of the linebacker and show the lineman a number one through five. The offensive lineman are supposed to call out the number. If a player is late giving the call you know that he is not getting his eyes on you as quickly as he should. This drill is also useful when working on pass blocking as well especially when working on blitz pickup.

2) "Read one player and make your initial cut" - How many times as a coach have you asked about a running back - "Why did he make that cut?"  The answer is because he is not making an initial read and/or he doesn't have a full understanding of what you are trying to accomplish on the play. Let's deal with the initial read.  I coach my running backs to take a good first step, take the hand off, make your initial read and get to the second level.  After that it's on them to be a great athlete.  As an offensive line we want to give the back the first three yards, but if he miss reads what's going on in front of him then the play is likely to fail.  It's impossible for even the best runner to read more than one or two players at a time but if they can learn to read the key block at the point of attack, it's a good start.  One inside zone, we teach our backs to press play side and  read the block on the first down lineman past the center.  This gives him a three way go -- "Bang it, Bounce it or Bend it." If the center and guard overtake the nose tackle, the choice is to hit it through the play side "A" gap.  If the nose is pushed pass the gap, the play can hit through the void created.  If the entire line slants or is pushed to the play side, our running back can bend it back behind the back side tackle.

Drill:  Break it down into small chunks. We bring the running backs and offensive line together during individual drills and work on that initial read with two lineman working their combos.  Some would say going over this read over and over again would build muscle memory, but I contend that we are building visual memory.  Over time you can see the running backs, making decisions sooner and being able to make the cuts with more certainty. One of my biggest pet peeves is a running back hesitating to make a cut or "tap dancing".  It just makes him an easier target for defensive players.

3)  Quarterback Keys -  I am a firm believer in teaching quarterbacks to adjust their reads to the structure of the defense.  For instance, if we are running the "basic" concept -- a vertical by the number one receiver and an out by the number two or running back.  If the corner is up in press coverage, we will make a high/low read on the corner.  It amazes me how many times the corner will bail leaving the flat wide open and the quarterback will not take advantage of it.  My belief is that the QB in some cases fails to get his eyes on the corner to determine his posture.  One thing we instruct QB's to do is if the corner turns away from you to run with the go route, throw the out route immediately and let's take the five yards or more that the receiver can get in open grass.  Wait too long and you lengthen the throw and put the receiver in a bad position especially if the corner comes off the deep route. With the ball in his hands early the receiver has a chance to break a tackle get a bigger play.

Drill: Once again, work small to large. Have the quarterback go over reads for each concept with only the two receivers and a coach or fellow qb's standing in as the defender.  Set up each scenario and have the coach turn to give the qb a read and see how quickly he can make the proper throw. This is a drill that can be done in the off season, even in the gym during the winter.

With all of these drills repetition is the key. Another important factor is that they mimic actual game situations.  Add these type of drills to your every day drills because you always get what you emphasize.

Better than the old block

    After coaching my son, Matthew, for the past three years, I had to take a season off to heal up from a series of medical issues.  It gave me a chance to just be a fan of his and I am excited about his development.     Right now, Matthew is technically more sound than I was as a senior at the University of Richmond back in 1986.
    This season, he went head to head with a few Division I prospects and other good defensive ends while making the switch to left tackle from his natural center position. This was a move I considered before taking my medical leave, and it became necessary because of a lack of tackles on the roster.
    This position change gave Matthew a chance to show some versatility to college coaches. 
     One of the reasons, I jumped at the chance to coach him in his freshman year is that as  college coach I noticed that there was a real lack of fundamentals among players arriving at our campus at Johnson C. Smith University.  One of my first meetings as running backs  coach, I wanted to find out exactly how much my guys knew so I got them on the board with a marker and asked them to draw up some simple defenses front and the result was not good. On the field, we had to teach every fundamental from stance to proper blocking technique.
     My main goal when I moved over to Berry Academy of Technology in 2010 was to take every opportunity to teach the basics of football so that if our players moved on to the next level they would be able to excel.
     Watching Matthew play, I feel certain that because of his fundamental understanding of playing offensive line and his knowledge of the game he will be able to contribute once he gets to college.
     One of the biggest things I liked on film was his ability to use his hands with proper placement.  Starting when he and two of his line mates were freshman, hand placement was one of our every day drills or EDD's.  The first thing we worked on each day was stance and then first step.  I would run the same drills I picked up from Campbell University offensive line coach Kevin Thompson who handed me a drill tape produced by Coach Chinnis Berry.

     In pass protection, he had success against highly touted players because he was precise in his hand placement.  I was glad to see our drill work carry over to the game.  When we did punch drills, I encouraged our lineman to pick as specific a target as possible. In practice are target to punch the breast plate of the shoulder pad was narrowed down to the "E" and "R" on the front of our practice jerseys.  If we were working half man on combo's it would become the "B" or "Y" depending on your post hand.

     Another thing that jumped off the film was his ability to drive defenders off the ball. He got a lot of chances to lead the way in the red zone and on a number of occasions drove his man well into the end zone.  

    On gap blocking schemes Matthew and his line mates would crush the play side shortening the corner for the puller and the running back or quarterback.   When it came time to pull on counter he did a great job of turning up in the hole and blocking his man.  In the past, we spent a lot of practice time making sure those blocks counted. I would teach them to locate the man they were responsible for on the pull and by skip pulling keep their shoulders parallel to the offensive line and eyes on the linebacker or defensive end.

   The icing on the cake, was Matthew's ability to seal the edge on outside zone.  That was a constant source of frustration in previous years for me and some of my tackles. I remember on practice reloading an outside run three or four times because my tackle just could not make that block.  When we run outside zone -- I teach lineman that we are in an overtake mentality.  Our ultimate goal is to gain a gap on defenders. If we can't overtake, then we simply take them where  they are going and allow the running back to find a crease.  This season there was no doubt that we were running outside because Matthew was not only able to overtake but also wheel around on defenders pinning them inside.

    It is so satisfying to see improvement like that from any player that you have coached but when it's your son it leaves you speechless.
    Note: Matthew and his line mate Andrew Howard both received all conference honors in the South Meck 8.  Congratulations!

    



  

Give a little love to ISO

        In this "Zone Blocking" World there has to be a place for a good ole isolation running play.  The weak side run that pits the fullback in a one on one match up with the linebacker. I guess the first thing you have to do is bring back the fullback.  While many of today's offenses include three and four wide receiver sets, some like Auburn Head Coach Gus Malzahn have found creative ways to get a lead blocker in the formation allowing the offense to run more traditional 21 personnel formation based runs like power and iso.
       One of these formations I call "Tulsa" -- a reference to  Malzahn's time spent as

Tulsa Right Formation

offensive coordinator with the Hurricanes.  In this set the offense lines up with three receivers out wide and a hybrid fullback/tight end or "H" lined up offset with the tailback in the base formation.  The great thing about Tulsa is it's a flexible formation that poises the question to defenses  -- is it a run or pass formation?
       As we began to incorporate this formation into our offense at Johnson C. Smith University, it became obvious that we were only scratching the surface.  In Tulsa, the offense has a chance to; overload the strong side, balance or flip the field with motion and get to just about every run in the offensive play book.  Conversely, in a four receiver spread formation, you are virtually locked into running inside or outside zone without shifting or motioning to a different formation.
      Over the years, I found that ISO was a very productive play to run out of Tulsa formation.

Tulsa Right - ISO Weak (Bend)

     We also found a way to run it without tipping our hand quite by accident.  Normally, we would move the tailback and fullback to the side of the run.  One day during inside drill, we lined up in Tulsa with the slot to the right and the tail back and H lined up to the strength as well.

      Our offensive coordinator, Maurice Flowers, called ISO to the left and I started to move the backs to the play side when Coach Flowers said  "Leave them on that side and let's see how they adjust." The first time we ran the play from this alignment, it broke loose. From my vantage point behind the play, I could see that the "Will" linebacker never saw the H until it was too late and we had him out flanked.
     Later as a play caller iso became a bigger part of my run package. I developed and taught some rules that made this play even more effective.  The first rule I gave the lead back whether a true fullback or H was to get to the outside shoulder of the linebacker on the isolation block. This is in direct contrast to what defensive coaches tell their linebackers which is to never give up their outside shoulder. My reason for teaching this was if we got outside leverage on the linebacker, we could hit this play outside the lead block and just inside the block of the offensive tackle who was taught to take a short jab step to the outside. The tackle's step forces the defensive end to widen because his first instinct is to not get reached.
     When the tail back or in some cases the quarterback hits this crease it puts him in a one on one situation with the safety. One missed tackle and he is off to the races.

Panthers, Derek Anderson finds simple solutions to complex problems in opener

        The Carolina Panthers were expected to wilt under the Florida sun and the pressure of losing franchise quarterback Cam Newton against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Instead they went on the road and built a 17-0 lead before holding on for a 20-14 win. The first opening day victory for Carolina since the 2008 season.

        One of the keys to the win was the efficient way that back up quarterback Derek Anderson managed first and second downs which translated into manageable third downs especially in the first half. In the second quarter, Anderson lead a gut-busting 15 play, 69 yard drive that took the starch out of the talented Bucs defense.

        Here's an example of a play drawn up by Panthers Offensive Coordinator Mike Shula that lead to one of those big conversions:

       As you can see the Panthers are lined up in a spread formation. Tampa's defense has loaded the box with seven men at the line of scrimmage.  The Bucs have two high safeties and the corners are 7 to 8 yards off the line of scrimmage.      Basically, they are saying we will get to you before you can get the pass off.  I find it a little puzzling that while showing an all out blitz they would show this four deep look on third and only four yards to go.

        Anderson was quick to capitalize. It appeared that the veteran audibled into a play that included two quick hitting concepts on each side - one designed to beat cover two or four and one designed to beat cover-3.

       On the boundary side, the Panthers ran a concept I call "flash". In this combination,

Rookie wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin runs a square in or slant and tight end Greg Olsen runs an out route from the inside.  This is a good concept to  run versus a one high safety defense look with the corner walked off. In that case, the quarterback reads the alley defender. If the alley defender normally a safety or linebacker chases the flat route which should be his responsibility the quarterback would throw to the slant. If he drops into the slat window, then the quarterback throws to the flat.

      Because the Bucs are two hi defensive set up Anderson decided to work the the far

side of the play, where wide receivers Jason Avant and Jerricho Cotchery were running a concept I call "basic".  Basic includes a go route on the outside and an out route from the inside.  This quick game read is good against a two hi defensive set because it forces the corner to make a decision to drop with the vertical or release the vertical route and attack the flat. In this case, the corner dropped to protect against the vertical voiding the flat.  The safety who was covering the slot receiver from depth had no chance to stop the 5 yard gain that was good enough for a first down.

Give me a choke point!

      One of my least favorites sights is eleven defenders flowing over top of any run to the outside -- on pitch or outside zone.  I always complained that when the running back gets to the so-called edge the same 7 or 8 defensive players that were in front of him at the snap are still in front of him.
      Our answer to that was to provide one or more "choke" points along the line of scrimmage. This was accomplished by having at least one fold (blocker block back) or crack on the play allowing another lineman to wrap around and rise to the second level.
       At Johnson C. Smith,  I pestered OC Maurice Flowers so much for the "crack" that he named it after me.  
       The logic of the choke point is simple - to give atleast one lineman a gimme block that will stop the flow of one defender and possibly pick up some more defenders in the wash.  Here are a couple examples of how we establish that choke point:

1) Center/Guard fold on zone run to the strength - As you see in this example, we are
running zone stretch to the right. The play side guard and tackle take their zone step and work to the outside shoulder of the defensive tackle (T)  and end (A).  Most defensive linemen will do everything they can to prevent this and this will widen the play side naturally.  The center provides the choke point by blocking back on the nose tackle (N). This accomplishes a couple things: First it allows the left guard to pull around and rise up to the second level to block the linebacker (M). It also prevents the backside defensive end front flying down the line of scrimmage in pursuit without having to work around the center's block.  Because the mike is likely to flow with the run action there is very little chance that the guard will overtake him.  That's all right because the choke will create a natural crease in front seven and once the running back sticks his foot in the ground and attacks the crease  the guard should be in perfect position to kick the linebacker to the outside. 

2) The old "Green Bay Packer Sweep" - if it was good enough for Lombardi it is certainly good enough for me.  For years I kept hearing the voice of the all-time great coach in my head extolling - "We want a seal here, and a seal here, and we will run in the alley!"  My foundation for teaching this to today's players came from Coach Joey Sulkowski who was offensive coordinator my first year at JCSU. The simple rule he taught to the offensive line was -- if you're covered pull and if you are uncovered block down.  As you can see in this example in a Pro formation that provides two choke points and allows both guards to pull. On key to running in the alley is the seal provided by the tight ends down block. I instruct tight ends to make sure that they don't must protect the gap first and then prevent the end from escaping over the top.  I the right set (two high safeties with only seven in the box) the lead block by the fullback can really help set up a big play.  in this case, he must "scrape to safety picking up a linebacker that flows over the top.  If this is a constant problem, we would add a crack on the alley defender and allow the fullback to kick the corner.

What I Believe -- It's All About the Numbers

     Several years ago, University of Virginia Head Coach Mike London, a former college teammate, challenged me to produce some X's and O's videos which would represent my beliefs as a football coach and serve as a resume tape of sorts.  At the time, I had just finished my first year as an unpaid part-time assistant coach at Johnson C. Smith University.  
     The most important thing that I had learned up to that point was exactly what I didn't know.  A very humbling prospect for someone who had been around football his whole life but as coaches know there is a difference between being in the stands and in the coach's meeting room.
     What I believed, especially on the offensive side of the ball, was about to change thanks to the arrival of offensive coordinator Maurice Flowers in my second year.  The former JCSU quarterback and very successful high school head coach opened my eyes to the possibility that as an offense we would dictate to the defense the number of players in the "Box."
     One day in practice, the defense ran a blitz off the weak side edge and the running back ran right by him and went into the flats. I yelled at the running back to not bypass the blitzer. Coach Flowers interrupted at said, "Coach he is more useful to me in the pattern than staying in to block." I replied, "Who's going to block the blitzer?"  He answered, "Let them figure out who is going to cover the running back."
     As I look back that was a watershed moment in my development as a coach and later as a play caller.
     The funny thing is that in my years of covering the NFL as an analyst, something always bothered my about the "hat on a hat" rule.  The belief is that you keep in enough blockers to block the equal amount of potential blitzers.  How many times have you seen NFL teams take a running back and tight end and keep them in to block in maximum protection.
     The thing I learned from Flowers was that if your response to the threat of a blitz is to take receivers out of the pattern, you are only helping the defense by reducing the threat.
     When I took over a offensive coordinator at Phillip O. Berry High School in 2012, I became a creature of managing the box count -- always looking for ways to force defenders into coverage instead of lurking around the line of scrimmage.

     It's simple math: Let's say you line up with five offensive linemen and a tight end (11 personnel).  The defense will put seven in the box - four down linemen and three linebackers and some cases eight by walking down a safety.
     Now, if we were using the hat on a hat philosophy and brought a receiver into the box for added protection the defense would just add another defender to the box and still out number the offense. Eventually it would be nine on 11 (not counting the running back and quarterback).  I say that with tongue in cheek but the truth is using that rule the defense is always going to win the box count.
     Here's a very simple approach we used to force the defense's hand at Berry. If we lined up in spread formation and a defense did not cover the number two receiver (L) as in the example below. The quarterback was required to take the snap and throw him the ball.  As you can see in this example, the linebackers are inside to protect against the run.

     We forced defenses to honor the outside receiver and move a linebacker out of the box to protect against the short throw. In my second year, our quarterback really began to exploit the uncovered receiver rule even more and we averaged over 9.5 yards every time we made the quick throw.
     In my opinion, this just became and extension of the running game because if a team overloaded the box to stop the run, we were almost guaranteed a first down.  Look at it this way, if there were a run play that averaged almost 10 yards - how many times would you run it?
     Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris used this very play in their 2014 bowl game against Ohio State, throwing the ball to Sammy Watkins time after time when the Buckeyes left him uncovered or tried to cover him from depth with a safety.  When I asked Morris what his thoughts were on the play, he said with a smile, "That we didn't run it enough during the season."
      The only way defenses can stop the quick throw is to move a linebacker out of the box and cover the outside receivers. As a offensive line coach who calls plays that's exactly what I want.
      With the box count "lighter", we can be more successful in our run game.  Here's an example of our inside run play which uses zone-help rules to block the remaining defenders in the box. This play provides some nice lanes for our running back to be successful.      
     Eventually, this becomes a cat and mouse game with defensive coordinators who look for ways to cheat the box - having defenders play half way out on the slot or lining up on the slot and bringing the linebackers hot of the edge versus run and pass.  Then that question comes up again -- who is going to cover our receiver?

Coach Craft
      

In A Bind: Kansas City Head Coach Andy Reid is a master at putting defensive players in a no-win situation.

FORMATION:

      The Chiefs are lined up in 12 personnel - one running back and two tight ends. To make this harder to decipher, they put the two receivers spread opposite the two tight ends. This created what I like to call a "nub" side. Formations like this, force defensive coordinators to make a choice - play the nub side for the run or stay in a balanced defensive set that accounts for the 2 by 2 passing set.
As you can see in this case, Panthers Defensive Coordinator Sean McDermott, who ironically worked for Reid in Philadelphia, moved his corners to the two receiver side to provide the best match ups.  In addition he lined up of his safeties over the number two receiver to protect against any deep threat.
                That left weak side linebacker Jason Williams (54) and safety Robert Lester (38) to the nub side to protect against a run to the boundary and also cover any pass combination involving the two tight ends that I will designate (H) and (U).

It is also worth noting that the tight end on the ball (H) was detached and the other tight end (U) lined up inside but off the ball.  This will comes into play when the Chiefs put him in motion.

MOTION:

Before the snap, the Chiefs used a simple motion to probe the Panthers coverage.  The tight end off the line (U) motioned across the formation and back.

At that point, the quarterback knew he was facing zone coverage since the Panthers defenders did not adjust to the motion. Now it was game on.

Just before the snap the (U) completed his yo-yo and at the snap burst towards the side line before wheeling up field on a vertical route.

It's that split second of indecision for the defense that's so critical to the success of the play. Who covers this apparent threat to the flat?  This is the main reason I prefer speed motion over shifts that allow the defense a chance to sort out coverage and make adjustments.

Normally, in this situation the outside linebacker would have responsibility for the flat or curl/flat.  The safety would then have responsibility for the deep half of the field. The magic of the motion is that it forces the defenders to choose between threat and responsibility.

If they make the wrong decision and even move a couple steps out of position that's all the offense needs to capitalize.

BIND:

In this case, the safety took several steps toward the (U) who was now running uncovered. The (H) delayed slightly before running his vertical into the safety's "ghost" (voided area). When the safety realized he was out of position it was too late. The chiefs quarterback delivered a strike and the (H) was on his way to the end zone.

Coach Craft