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WR blocking

HuskerBred said:
I’ll give us a breather from picking on the WR coach — without really knowing what we’re talking about — to point out that the blocking on the perimeter by WRs is about as difficult as it gets. Huskers were spoiled for decades by wideouts who blocked first, second, and third — and then ran a pass pattern a few times per game. And some of the better receivers were terrific blockers too.

Three factors make it a chore: 1) you’re in space; 2) the guys getting blocked are often the best athletes on the field; and 3) the blocks generally need to be held for a longer time. When I watch the tape, guys are being “grabby” when they start losing contact. What I’d like to see the WRs do (and the TEs on the edge) is not worry about direction and focus on contact. If the guy wants to go left, take him left at 100 mph. Don’t try to do anything else with him because you’ll lose him and start clutching. Just make contact, stay squared up, and dance with him close until the whistle. Let the ball carrier figure it out.
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Blocking and tackling in space is the hardest thing to do in football.
 

Captkenny said:
Well, the reason they are calling these perimeter plays, especially the screens, is to slow down the pass rush. They continue to try to run those plays even when they get shut down because they don’t really have a viable alternative that they can run better. The screens are the right play for the circumstance, they just have not executed. If they could execute another type of play to combat the blitzes, or just the pass rush, they would.
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Another play like the jet sweep? Which has worked.
 
Huskerthom said:
Another play like the jet sweep? Which has worked.
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I guess. It still needs to be blocked. Maybe a QB run? That worked too. But both require some level of execution/blocking.

Bottom line is, no matter what play they run, if it doesn’t work, some fans will say it was the wrong call. Some might even demand they go back to running a screen, because that’s the play that is “supposed” to work in that scenario.

In time, they will get this worked out.
 
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Captkenny said:
I guess. It still needs to be blocked. Maybe a QB run? That worked too. But both require some level of execution/blocking.

Bottom line is, no matter what play they run, if it doesn’t work, some fans will say it was the wrong call. Some might even demand they go back to running a screen, because that’s the play that is “supposed” to work in that scenario.

In time, they will get this worked out.
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Or by this point in the season figure out that they just don't have the right guys to execute those plays; square peg/round hole syndrome.
Decide if you really want those plays in your play book, recruit players that can execute them/and or coaches that can coach the players up to execute them which ever is truly the problem.
But for now, for god sake quit calling plays that you can't make work!
You have the off season to decide.
 
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Brew City Husker said:
Our outside receivers are 6’4” 220 and they are outstanding athletes. Any inability to block is either from effort or ignorance(they don’t know how), each of which reflects poorly on the coaching. Last year we were hearing good things about the physicality and blocking of Malachi Coleman. Alex Bullock has shown that he can block on the perimeter. If we aren’t getting what we need from our 6’4” 220 guys maybe we need to look at other guys to do the job and create some motivation in our transfer/6’4” 220 crew by introducing them to the bench.
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6’4” and 220 is good for some tasks, but not always good for others. Do we see many 6’4” 220 DBs? Or RBs? Or slot receivers? Think of how often an OLineman pulls, heads down field, looks for someone in the secondary and ends up hitting no one because they couldn’t close the distant and keep the defender in front of them. Depending on the situation, defenders can be told to never run around a block. The idea being if you do run around it, you allow the blocker to not just take you out of the play, but another player as well. Those DBs are not in that situation. Avoid the block, and get to that receiver, that's their mindset.

I do agree with you that if our guys are not up to blocking, they need to be rotated out more. Bullock blocks, primarily because he's done it since he was in middle school. He has that mental attitude, and really good technique. Coleman missed horribly on some blocks last year, until the light went off and then he became pretty darn good. I don't know what our top two have done over the course of their careers, but apparently they haven't got it down yet, and time is running out because we need to be able to execute that play.
 
LarstheRed said:
6’4” and 220 is good for some tasks, but not always good for others. Do we see many 6’4” 220 DBs? Or RBs? Or slot receivers? Think of how often an OLineman pulls, heads down field, looks for someone in the secondary and ends up hitting no one because they couldn’t close the distant and keep the defender in front of them. Depending on the situation, defenders can be told to never run around a block. The idea being if you do run around it, you allow the blocker to not just take you out of the play, but another player as well. Those DBs are not in that situation. Avoid the block, and get to that receiver, that's their mindset.

I do agree with you that if our guys are not up to blocking, they need to be rotated out more. Bullock blocks, primarily because he's done it since he was in middle school. He has that mental attitude, and really good technique. Coleman missed horribly on some blocks last year, until the light went off and then he became pretty darn good. I don't know what our top two have done over the course of their careers, but apparently they haven't got it down yet, and time is running out because we need to be able to execute that play.
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To the bolded, I’d add ‘OR be able to execute an alternative that works against man/pressure.
 
CrabHusker said:
To the bolded, I’d add ‘OR be able to execute an alternative that works against man/pressure.
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I don't know if there are a ton of alternatives, but I'll leave that to guys with more experience in the sport. I know some will say just put our fastest guys outside and tell them to run as fast as they can to keep defenders busy, then drag a TE across the middle while releasing a RB for a quick swing pass. The idea being to create a logjam with the TE to slow the LB or Safety from hammering the RB the second he touches the ball, but that's relying on 'non blocking', as opposed to crappy blocking.
 



LarstheRed said:
I don't know if there are a ton of alternatives, but I'll leave that to guys with more experience in the sport. I know some will say just put our fastest guys outside and tell them to run as fast as they can to keep defenders busy, then drag a TE across the middle while releasing a RB for a quick swing pass. The idea being to create a logjam with the TE to slow the LB or Safety from hammering the RB the second he touches the ball, but that's relying on 'non blocking', as opposed to crappy blocking.
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One old school alternative is to take both wideouts and run hard slants, filling the space where the backers would be. Very quick throw. Read safeties and decide left or right pre-snap. Big bodies help but need to get the DB on their backside and get the ball to them before safety closes. It’s a classic quick slant.

Another old school play is the quick pop to the TE, again in the vacated LB space. Needs to be quick. RB usually steps up to take A gap blitz or vacated gap from TE.

Both are bang bang throws. High school stuff really. To keep the backers honest. Need a good snap out of shotgun and a very quick release, using size of our big dude receivers.
 
Turd Ferguson said:
WR blocking really comes down to one thing: desire. The best WR blocker I had the pleasure to watch with my own eyes was 6-1 200lbs in pads and he blocked just as hard as he ran routes.

We need WRs who treat blocking just as important as they do running routes and catching, and unfortunately you can't teach desire.
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Yep, see here from AfroThunder!
 


HuskerSuperGenius said:
Or by this point in the season figure out that they just don't have the right guys to execute those plays; square peg/round hole syndrome.
Decide if you really want those plays in your play book, recruit players that can execute them/and or coaches that can coach the players up to execute them which ever is truly the problem.
But for now, for god sake quit calling plays that you can't make work!
You have the off season to decide.
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That’s easy to say, don’t run those plays. Harder to do. I’m reasonably confident if they had better plays they thought would work, they would use them.

Nobody remembers the screen plays when they work. They only remember them when the get blown up. And let’s not forget that OSU had a little bit to do with why those plays got blown up. Players making plays.
 

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