X's and O's question about Power O

An interesting question. I'm not sure if a playside guard pulling is more common in today's football or if Michigan is simply trying to take advantage of Omameh's ridiculous locomotive-caliber open field blocking. The key on the Toussaint run was the playside tight end's ability to handle the DE himself. Dorrstein crashes down on the DT lined up over Omameh, who circles behind him and runs between the space created by the tight end and tackle. It's almost like they're using Omameh the way some teams would a fullback. If the tight ends can handle blocking a DE one on one (or at least ride their man away from the play), having Omameh as a lead blocker hitting the hole with a head of steam is a scary prospect for a lot of defenders.

he does get to the hole faster; however, the disadvantage to this is the tackle can crash down and bust up the play in the backfield bc the guard is not there to chip. its a risk/ reward thing. and the backside de could always do the same thing if the play isnt fast enough :/

Having the playside gaurd pull doesn't fit the techincal defination of the Power-O play. It fits a west coast play called "belly" (Atleast as I know it). There's really no huge difference's between the plays, but without looking at the picture, I would guess it wasn't a favorable front to pull the backside gaurd against, because they were probably favoring that side due to the QB Iso we all know and love. So instead they just used this play.

This play takes advantage of the DT lined up in a 3 technique which is an easy down block for the tackle to make. Omameh gets a little deep on his pull in order to see how the Tight end handles the DE. If he crashes down he needs to be able to get around him to get to the linebacker. In this case the DE is man handled and makes for a nice clean lane to reach the linebacker. In zone blocking a pulling guard must read the blocks the same way a running back would. This is why the pull is a little deep compared to a normal backside guard pulling and kicking out the DE.

or as Tressel calls it "Dave" (not sure why, he used this terminology at YSU as well), is when a lead back kicks out the last man on the LOS and the backside guard leads through the hole onto the first man that shows.  The play that we ran is either a "belly" or "down g"...same thing.

at least not by Smart Football's defn:

http://smartfootball.com/run-game/explanation-and-cut-ups-of-the-power-…

the defining thing there seems to be leaving the end man on line of scrimmage unblocked by the playside OL, which doubles everyone inside of the EMOLS with the kickout block coming from a FB/HB/OL coming from the backside, like you say.

they've got a 4-2 with an LB splitting the TE and WR to that side, so the way i see it going given their set up is the TE and T block down on the 3 technique, leaving the DE unblocked to be hit by whoever the near back is (Smith?  can't tell) and whichever lineman got pulling duties to hit the inside backer.

if they ran it like that, there's a number of pretty rough matchups though.  runningback on DE, for example.  and the backer splitting the TE and WR would probably have a pretty decent shot at the tackle, not to mention the DE being blocked by the back.

so i don't think they'd run that play out of that set.  but i don't know what that play should be called.  the down g play seems to be close, except that from what i can tell the pulling guard is responsible for the EMLOS...and the TE takes him. 

it's just a pulling guard with zone type action.  pin and pull is the closest thing i'm familiar with based on that.