TALE OF THE TAPE: Successful Zone Blocking compared to the Ravens unsuccessful scheme

[TL24x7]

If you want to understand why the Ravens zone blocking scheme isn't working while teams like the Texans flourish behind it, check out our most recent edition of Tale of the Tape LINK

Excellent analysis by Kyle Casey!

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[moose10101]

What I saw in that breakdown was that the Texans have a blocker for each defender, and the Ravens are always at a 2-man disadvantage. So apparently defenses aren't respecting our WR's/TE's, and they can stuff 8 or even 9 in the box. Seems to me like the frequent use of play-action on first down might help the run game immensely. Our linemen are making some bad decisions, but often they're just badly outnumbered.

[landshark52]

What I saw in that breakdown was that the Texans have a blocker for each defender, and the Ravens are always at a 2-man disadvantage. So apparently defenses aren't respecting our WR's/TE's, and they can stuff 8 or even 9 in the box. Seems to me like the frequent use of play-action on first down might help the run game immensely. Our linemen are making some bad decisions, but often they're just badly outnumbered.

Yeah I saw the same thing, we're getting outnumbered a good bit of the time. The example the guy chose with the Texans had a 6 man box with the safeties way back . It also helped that the Titans line and linebackers were both shifted to the other side the run was called making it easily blocked. No mater how good a run scheme is, you're not going to run effectively when you're playing against 8 man boxes and safeties close to the line of scrimmage.

[pslholder96]

There's a reason why teams are stacking the box against us. Our formations and personnel groupings are predictable and give away tendencies. So given our struggles in the run game we are at an even more competitive disadvantage when teams stack the box. It's time for the play calling to get more creative, spread people out and mix up the personnel and more importantly get creative with snap counts. Yanda tapping on Gino is getting old.

[blah3]

So what I gleaned from those plays was that the run failed because Yanda didn't do a good job. Especially on the first play, there was nothing about the system that caused the play to suck. It was simply that Yanda got beat.
On the second play Yanda blocked the wrong LB. The only other option for the second play was to have Yanda ignore the DT and let Gino do a reach block. That would actually have less of a chance of working.

[Ravenswintitle]

If you want to understand why the Ravens zone blocking scheme isn't working while teams like the Texans flourish behind it, check out our most recent edition of Tale of the Tape LINK

Excellent analysis by Kyle Casey!

Screen Shot 2013-10-29 at 1.28.28 PM.jpg

Nice overview, thanks for posting.

It appears to simply be an issue of the learning curve; they're just not there yet. It may cost a chance at the playoffs if they're committed to continuing to install the ZBS but it sounds like that's the decision.

Maybe man blocking in high-pressure situations would help the offense’s success short term, but in the long run, the ZBS is (likely) here to stay.

[lobachevsky]

What I saw in that breakdown was that the Texans have a blocker for each defender, and the Ravens are always at a 2-man disadvantage....Our linemen are making some bad decisions, but often they're just badly outnumbered.

This. x 100. Any "analysis" that doesn't acknowledge this fact & its devastating effect on the prospects for successful blocking (because it simply asks the OL to do too much) cannot be considered a competent analysis, let alone "excellent."

IMO Tony ought to edit this article to reflect this (or ask the author to do so). A three-line reply in response to a comment doesn't correct the badly mistaken impression left in the body of the piece.

[BPF2]

I like the article and the screen shots, but as others have mentioned, the first thing I noticed in the Ravens examples was how doomed the play looked from the beginning by having more defenders than blockers. To me, that's not really a failure of the O-Line or the ZBS. That is a failure of Joe to recognize what he's facing and go play action to keep those defenders in place, opening up opportunity for the pass.

In the Cleveland example, look at how wide open Doss is. That's an easy toss for at least 10 yards.

In the GB example, you can't see the WRs, but you can see 8 defenders all keying on the RB and a huge hole behind the line. The S is a good 10-15 yards behind the play.

[iggyman555]

There's a reason why teams are stacking the box against us. Our formations and personnel groupings are predictable and give away tendencies. So given our struggles in the run game we are at an even more competitive disadvantage when teams stack the box. It's time for the play calling to get more creative, spread people out and mix up the personnel and more importantly get creative with snap counts. Yanda tapping on Gino is getting old.

:word

[arnie_uk]

Personally that's an awful article

[Captain Offense]

The overall problem I have with the ZBS issue is not related to the pros/cons of the system or the application of the personnel (although that is more of a focus to me). What has bothered me in a lot of the discussion is the suggestion that it would take about half the season to "get it". If your team is in a building mode and is not expected to get to the playoffs, then I accept that plan. If you are expecting to be a contender, then why sacrifice any games to adopt a new system for the long-haul? The NFL is a game-or-two-league for teams to compete. Did Harbaugh believe that they would not make it so the modification was not a problem? Did he believe that trying to adjust it could be compensated by play-calling adjustments until the O-Line caught up? I am confused as to the benefit to applying a new system that has a different focus and different mental challenges to existing personnel under a system that they have worked on for a while. If they had changed the entire line, I could understand it more.

Am I missing something here?

[wickedsolo]

That guy Brad is kind of a dick on the comments, but he's right.




This particular play is more on McKinnie than Yanda or Gino. Granted, not getting a good block on Phil Taylor hurt, but the first screen shot shows McKinnie barely out of his stance with only one arm on the defender. In the second screen shot the defender is already crossing the line of scrimmage and has leverage. Pierce had no choice but to cut it back inside for minimal gain unless he did some crazy tecmo bowl spin move to get outside of that defender.

This is why McKinnie was traded and the Ravens traded for Eugene Monroe. McKinnie is and always has been a lazy blocker, especially when run blocking. Had he done his job correctly, Pierce could have run off-tackle (which is what I think the call was intended to be) and at that point he’d have only been working against their safety and probably the corner on that side. Either way, Pierce would have been able to gain at least 4-5 yards.