jblaze

October 23rd, 2009 at 5:16 PM ^

I have a couple of questions. In the base Cover 3 D, 4 players rush 5 OL and during the zone blitz, it's 5 players rushing 5 OL. This assumes the O does not keep the TE or a RB to block. Why is this successful in getting pressure? Are PSU's DL just so dominant that they can do this? Schematically, what is the advantage? As you can tell, I don't know a whole lot about this topic!

Joined: 08/29/2008

MGoPoints: 19393

Penn State Clips

October 23rd, 2009 at 6:16 PM ^

"Why is this successful in getting pressure? Are PSU's DL just so dominant that they can do this?" Larry Johnson is not only one of college football's top recruiters, he's also one heck of a defensive line coach. In this decade we've had four first-round, one second-round, and one third-round D-Line draft picks.

Joined: 10/23/2009

MGoPoints: 46

wile_e8

October 23rd, 2009 at 6:38 PM ^

In a normal pass rush, the OL can match up against the DL across the line of scrimmage. In a zone blitz, the OL does not know who is rushing and who will be in coverage. This can possibly confuse the OL and get a blitzer through if no one picks him up, especially if they send overwhelming numbers at one side of the line despite not having an overall numerical advantage. Normally an offense will defeat a blitz by hitting a quick slant or hitch in the area vacated by the blitzer. The zone blitz combats this by having d-linemen drop into the passing lanes for those quick passes. They can break up or intercept those passes if the QB does not see them, or cause the QB to hold the ball long enough for the blitz to get home. So, pretty much, a zone blitz hopes to confuse the offense by not letting it know who will be the rushers and who will be in coverage, hoping to quickly get a man past the confused OL before the confused QB can find a hole in the zone (which doesn't take long since it's d-linemen in coverage).

Joined: 06/30/2008

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Seth

October 23rd, 2009 at 5:20 PM ^

You could have used "covered" instead of "wrote about" and accomplished a slight but statistically significant reduction in overall verbiage. When you're going for the record, every "about" counts.

Joined: 10/14/2008

MGoPoints: 149454