OLine Pride Weekly – Gap scheme
In this edition of Oline pride weekly we are going to highlight one of the most common, and my favorite styles of run in football, gap scheme! Power, counter, duo, and trap are all considered gap scheme plays. However, for…
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Continue ReadingIn this edition of Oline pride weekly we are going to highlight one of the most common, and my favorite styles of run in football, gap scheme!
Power, counter, duo, and trap are all considered gap scheme plays.
However, for our examples today we will solely focus on Power and Counter specifically.
Power is a run play where the front side of the offensive line (the front side tackle, guard, and center) blocks down or combo blocks the down linemen to the backside linebacker. While the backside guard is responsible for pulling for the middle linebacker.
Counter is the same concept on the play side and the only thing that changes is that the backside guard is no longer pulling for a linebacker but is now going to kick out the play side defensive end.
Power and Counter are always fan favorites for offensive line coaches including myself. Line coaches love these plays because the offensive linemen can have a very thick and healthy double team with the play side guard and tackle. The name of this double team is called a “Deuce” when blocking the front side 3 technique.
On a Deuce block, the play side guard has to take a trigger step with the inside foot (to catch any possible movements or slant), then a power step, followed by a shoulder sphere to distort the defender out of his body lean. The point of emphasis here is to have the guard be the “post man” aka the guy that digs out and sets the defender up for the playside tackle. The tackle is going to come down and bang him over onto the guard, to create displacement before going to pin the backside linebackers inside V-of the neck.
The specific technique that the play-side tackle is going to use to knock the defender horizontally, is called a “Highleg at a 45.”
When utilizing the high leg technique, the tackle will gallop square into the double team and bang the hip of the defender. Once the tackle achieves horizontal displacement of the defender’s hip, he’s taught to go and pin the V-of the neck of the backside backer down inside.
In a four-down defensive front situation the center will be executing a back block. The center is blocking back on the defender that is covering up the backside guard that is about to pull.
The backside tackle has to execute a technique called a stab-peel. When “stab peeling” the tackle is responsible for posting inside and replacing the pulling guards outside foot with his near foot and stabbing through the outside breastplate of the defender to take some heat off and allow the center to come back and secure his block.
After accomplishing this the tackle has to now kick back vertical to block the C gap defender.
Counter has a ton of different ways you can run it. However, for argument’s sake, I want you to mentally marry the two concepts in your mind. With the only distinction being the backside guards assignment. In counter the backside guard is kicking out and on power, they are skip pulling up for the middle linebacker. The coaching points for the backside guard on their open pull is to throw your inside elbow to break the imaginary glass and run through the defender’s inside ear hole. While on a power concept the backside guard is skip pulling with the shoulders square and staying so tight to the front side double team that they can strike a match with their inside handoff of the double team. After skip pulling and attacking the middle linebacker vertically the guard should have a double under approach and run his feet through the linebacker to spring the play.