one on one

24639407938_9d2661026f_z

[Fuller]

It’s been a slow season when it comes to the addition of new phrases to Harbaugh’s vernacular, but one thing he’s mentioned a few times this season that has stuck with me is one’s “football sensibilities.” This is very much a feel thing, and it’s the reason I picked this play. Wisconsin blocks this as well as they can; there’s a Mack-truck-sized lane for the back with one guy to shake. Each guy has an opportunity; someone will succeed, someone will fail. It’s binary. It’s brutal. It’s decisive. That appeals to my football sensibilities.

What were you expecting from them at that point?

“I had a read and I seen the fullback come to my side off a little short motion, and then I just read off the fullback and I tried to get down to the line of scrimmage as fast as I could. So as soon as I came down there and read the fullback’s block I tried to fit the hole as fast as I could and get my arms on the running back and tried to get him down as fast as I could, so that was pretty much my read on that play.”

It was 2nd-and-6 at that point, so pretty much everything’s available to them. Were they tipping anything as far as run or pass goes?

“Oh yeah. We seen how heavy their hands were on the ground with the linemen, and the D-line gives the linebackers the checks and the linebackers give us the check and we read that really well and I came down and executed the play really well.”

The receiver on the outside was running a drag. Did you see him and have to get underneath him first or was he not really an issue?

“On that play I did not. Josh Metellus was in the back helping the corner with that coverage.”

You were talking about the fullback earlier. Once he motions over, you basically know where the play’s going to go?

“Yeah, yeah. Watched film on them all week and saw that type of motion. They had more plays out of that type of motion, but I was very confident on that play. Got down there and trusted my gut feeling and made the play.”

That hole opened up perfectly for you to make the tackle, but were you expecting, based on what you’d watched on film, the back to bounce?

“I was expecting him to hit the hole harder, I thought, a little bit at me. I didn’t expect him to bounce it back inside, which he tried to do, and then I just tried to trace it back and get my arms on him, which I did. I did expect him to hit that hole. Like you said, it was wide open, and I tried to get down there as fast as I could to close it because, you know, once it’s not closed you know he has room and he’s a good back. He can make you miss, so I just tried to get down there as fast as I could.”

So when he decided to bounce he saw that you were in the hole and there was nowhere else to go and last minute he decided to cut?

“Yeah, I don’t know what he seen but yeah, I think that might have been the reason why. Me getting down there so fast, he wanted to cut it back. So, like I said, I just tried to get down there and just fill the hole as fast as I could.”

Technique-wise, what’s most important when you’ve got pretty much a free hit like that?

“You just want to bring your feet and shoulders to the tackle. When you make contact you want to keep your feet going, especially with a back like that. He’s big, and once he gets contact  he’s going to keep his feet moving, so you want to get your body on his body and keep your feet moving and just wait for your guys to get there to finish it off.”

37135092714_806493c316_z

[Upchurch]

I sat down to do my usual Sunday-night film dig and didn’t have to dig far to find the play I wanted to go through on Monday. I started with Chris Evans’ vault because a human wearing full pads shouldn’t be able to jump over another pad-wearing, presumably angry human whose only object is to fling their mass into said person. I didn’t even get to the vault itself before something at the top of the screen caught my eye: the numbers printed on the back of a Maryland defensive lineman’s jersey. Like leaping a person, that, too, is a sight to behold on the football field. To gain additional insight, I asked Patrick Kugler about the technique behind how he and Ben Bredeson spun that guy.

Let’s start broad: were the defensive linemen tipping anything during the game?

“No. The formation that we were in, we knew kind of what they were going to be in and we knew that inside zone scheme was going to be pretty good because it’s a box-sensitive play which means you can only have [redacted] in the box usually for the play to work but by spreading them out with the three-receiver set we knew that one of the linebackers was going to go out and cover the slot, so it allowed us to get good double teams up to the backers and yeah, got to see Chris make the pretty sweet play.”

So I wanted to talk about the art of the double team. Take me through that. What’s most important? Is it speed off the ball or is it leverage or is it something else?

“I think the most important thing is getting hip to hip, definitely. With the 2i, because he’s playing on Ben [Bredeson], Ben’s got to get a good initial lift on him. Then I come in and get really tight with him, and if I bring a lot of power to that we’re going to get some good movement, so it’s all about that initial pop and getting hip to hip and being able to drive them off the ball.”

How’d you end up turning that 2i?

“Like I said, yeah, Ben got two really good steps down and was able to turn his shoulder a little bit which allowed me to get in there and kind of get squared up on him, allowing Ben to work up to the backer.”

To go back to double teams for a second, does it depend at all on chemistry and time on task with the guy next to you, or is that something where if you’re both sound technically you can kind of plug and play?

“It definitely helps when you have a lot of practice at it. Coach Drevno does a great job. We work at double teams countless hours during the week. Yeah, but it definitely becomes an art form. I think me and Ben got a pretty good feel for most of our double teams because we’ve been doing it all season. Me and Mike [Onwenu] as well and Cesar [Ruiz], just getting everyone in there. But it definitely takes a lot of work to get a really good double team.”

37466968544_f9b1b76229_z

[Fuller]

Thor: Ragnarok just came out. Justice League comes out later this month. Some people don't like "comic book movies" because they say they're too unrealistic. If you ever run into one of those people, show them this GIF and whisper "I've seen some things." Their argument is instantly invalid.

Was the offensive line tipping anything in this game?

“A little bit. We were able to get a read on a couple of the pass stances that they were showing. I think the biggest thing for that play is that I was able to see the running back go in motion, and once the running back goes in motion they didn’t really have any quarterback runs where they were using the quarterback to draw or anything. I just knew it was going to be a pass, so I sort of switched my stance to a little bit more of a pass stance and got off the ball as quick as I could.”

So it’s an opportunity for you to pin your ears back there on second down.

“Yeah.”

It was 2nd-and-12, so what were you expecting from them at that point?

“They were actually running the ball a little bit on their second and long drives. I think six was kind of their cut-off where they were passing the ball. Just expecting run first, but then once the running back went in motion was able to expect that was going to be a pass.”

What’s the first thing you noticed about the guard once the ball was snapped?

“Just leaning back and sort of getting into his pass set. That was kind of where I was, and then once I sort of engage the guy I was able to get control of his hands and sort of control the man. I think that was probably the reason I was able to bull him back is that I was able to get control of his hands and use my leverage against him and was able to knock him back into the quarterback.”

From a technique perspective, what was he trying to do to you?

“He was just setting back far. Probably a little more afraid of speed than power. Normally when guards set back really far they’re trying to protect themselves against speed, so doing that kind of leaves them vulnerable to power moves. So once he started leaning back his momentum’s going that way so it kind of just carried back towards him.”

Looked like he got a hand in your face. Were you able to tell that you had even gotten to the quarterback? Did you just keep bulling through him or did you know which direction to push?

“Yeah, I mean, I could see the quarterback but one of the things is I thought the quarterback was going to scramble out of it so I was just trying to bull him, and then once I saw the quarterback was still there I just sort of reached out for him and was able to get a sack on him.”