Making In-Game Adjustments with the Offensive Line

This week I thought I’d respond to one of the requests for topics that have come in since I started. By the way, in a little over a month we've had almost 700 page views – thank you very much! I’m not sure who picked up the blog, but about 10 days ago all of a sudden I had over 100 views that day alone! It is all very humbling, and I hope that all of you are getting something out of it. OK – back to football.

In my experience, in-game adjustments with the OL (including TE, FB, wing type players) are very subtle. Rarely, if your scheme is sound to begin with, do you have to drastically overhaul what you’re doing in the middle of the game.

Usually, the “adjustment” is really more of a “reminder”. For example, I tell my guys all the time about taking “smart splits” – if you know you've gotta double with someone, then go ahead and shorten that split down a little. Or, if your DE will stay outside you no matter what, then if we’re running off tackle, maybe split out another 6” or so to widen that hole. So the guys will come off after a series and tell me they’re having trouble with one of those types of blocks, and the first thing I’ll ask them is, “have you changed your splits?”

Sometimes the adjustment has to do with a particular player. Maybe a defensive tackle is better than expected and is giving my center or guard a real problem in pass pro. In a case like that, you could slide the protection towards the DT. Or if you’re blocking man, tell the center to set towards the DT. If you’re blocking man against a true NG (never a good idea, by the way), then you can give him some help by having the guard to his snap-hand side come down.

On the perimeter, lots of times the adjustment has to do with the exchange of assignments. A common one would be on a lead play, where initially the tackle blocks a DE and the FB leads up on the LB. Maybe that LB is playing too close to the LOS and is very aggressive, consistently meeting the FB in the backfield. A simple adjustment would be to exchange the assignments – have the tackle gap block the LB and let the FB kick out the DE.

Sometimes on tosses you can do the same thing – switch the slot’s block with the tackle’s block. Maybe the combination of a wide DE and an aggressive slot defender is giving both your players a problem. Maybe the slot isn’t a great blocker, but he can come down and crack the DE “just long enough” to get the play outside. And then your tackle can physically handle that aggressive slot defender.

The moral here is to look for easy fixes, to get you through the game. The easier (simpler) the fix, the easier it will be for your guys to remember it and execute it . Who knows? Maybe the in-game adjustment you make will be the new way to get it done!