If you’re taking the time to read this article you’re probably like me and frustrated with ND’s performance in compressed yardage situations (short yardage and/or goal line situations). While I hesitate to be hyper-critical of the team I love, the ND approach has been a bit limp-wristed in execution for my liking. Sure there have been exceptions for a few (short) stretches which were mostly thanks to Theo Riddick and Everett Golson, but overall the ND offense has been lacking in these situations. My interactions with other ND fans suggest that most feel like these scenarios should be addressed with a smash mouth running game so I will do my best to limit my comments to that phase of the offense. I don’t believe the problem is a lack of practice time dedicated to the running game, but rather a lack of focus on the running plays which can be successful for Notre Dame.
In case you’re not already familiar, there are three basic run-blocking schemes: Zone/Gap/Man. By play-calling ratio, ND has definitely favored the zone-blocking approach during Brian Kelly’s tenure. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach at all. Zone-blocking can be a physically punishing style and the proof is in the pudding when you examine such offensive innovators as Chip Kelly and Urban Meyer who have had massive success with zone-blocking (Gus Malzahn combines a heavy dosage of gap-blocking with his zone concepts if you’re wondering). The problem is that you won’t find that kind of proof in ND’s zone-blocking pudding! I was baffled that Chuck Martin consistently went back to the well with zone-running plays in compressed yardage situations despite the general lack of success with the approach and the specific lack of a mobile QB who can attack the backside by reading the DE. Even during the ’12 season, Everett wasn’t “reading” anything about the backside DE so it still wasn’t a completely viable threat in the traditional sense.
To me, the problem with employing zone-blocking in compressed yardage situations boils down to the OL’s “bucket steps” in the zone-blocking scheme (“bucket steps” are where the offensive lineman will quickly take a couple of steps back or horizontally to get his body in a better position to execute his block). In compressed yardage situations, the DL and LBs can aggressively attack the zone blocking OL during these steps and blow the play up. Bucket steps are minimized on the inside zone play but the problem is again compounded by the fact that zone-running plays take longer to develop in the first place because the RB has to read his blocks and determine if the play should go out the front side with the flow of the blocking or cut it back and take the play out the backside.
If you’re not going to employ your QB in a fashion where he is truly reading the backside DE, then I definitely prefer gap-blocking in these situations. Gap-blocking is exactly what it sounds like, you get a pulling or trapping OL moving to an assigned gap to kick out the defender who is threatening that gap. Examples of gap-blocking include Counter/Trap/Power/Sweep plays. I can’t tell you how often I hear fans talk about wanting to emulate the “physical” man-blocking of Team X,Y, or Z when they are actually witnessing gap-blocking. Man-blocking is much more easily confused by defensive stunts, movements, and alignments than zone-blocking which follows specific, and easily taught rules that apply against any defensive alignment. The same is true of gap-blocking, as the defense cannot dictate the location of the gap you are attacking, only the location/alignment of the defensive players. With gap-blocking, you likely lose the ability to double-team or execute combo blocks that you had with zone-blocking, but what you do get is a much more “quick-hitting” play as the RB is following an assigned track with no read or decision to make. He simply follows his assigned track into the gap that the offense is attacking.
My hope for Saturdays this Fall is that we see an effective combination of both zone and gap-blocking. Our current zone-blocking concepts will be aided in compressed yardage situations by increased physicality among the offensive linemen (if that happens), true zone “reads” of the backside DE executed by the QB, and bootleg action off of zone-blocking which creates a run/pass option for the QB. Completing the threat in these scenarios should also include a heavy emphasis on gap-blocking plays which diversify the effective pool of plays for these situations.
