Drive Killer – Great Block! Wrong Guy.
Posted on: October 8, 2013
Image from Soonersports.com
I really love the creativity on this play. Nila Kasitati played some tight end in high school believe it or not, and we desperately need an edge presence. In this play, and the play immediately following the conversion, Nila is lined up at the right tight end spot. While he physically blocks really well, he blocked the wrong guy.
This is just straight ahead power run game here, and I bet we see a lot more of this as the year wears on. This is who Nila should have blocked:
Instead Nila blocks down on the safety who’s walked up close to the line of scrimmage. If he blocks down on the playside linebacker, Millard leads up in the hole just inside of where Ripkowski had the end kicked out. And you can see the lane he’d have below.
Bell isn’t a burner by any means, but he’s fast enough to have broken this one for a huge gain if not a touchdown. The player Nila should have blocked is the guy that Bell ultimately jukes on the play. But by juking him, Bell has to go inside one gap, and at that point it’s too late to get back out into the designed running lane.
Again, this is something we can mentally fix very easily in film and with some more drills. No doubt, Nila’s not used to lining up out there and he needs to see more reps there, but I like the formation, and love the physicality. Even though we busted mentally, we were still physical enough to bull them over for a three yard gain and a first down.
2 Comments
I never played on the line, but it seems similar to another sport I played, where you have to determine, who am I going to block if…..(mentally change scenarios/alignments/fronts, so that you know who you are going to take if the defense front shifts). Thinking ahead.
Absolutely. What the biggest difference is from highschool to college is that you can’t just line up and hit the guy in front of you. Just like you pointed out, scenarios, alignments and pursuit angles is what you have to account for. Like i pointed out in the first picture, Nila has to know that the linebacker is going to fill that gap. You call that linebacker flow or scraping. Nila’s responsibility here is the “c” gap or the gap between him and the tackle. Anyone who steps to that gap is his. He takes a line straight off of the ball rather than blocking down into that c gap. He has to be more of a student of the game to know that Millard is going to take that safety if he fills the hole. It’s a much easier block for Millard to lead on that safety than it is to get that linebacker. Nila was very quick off of the ball and blocked the safety very well. Just was the wrong guy. If you see the safety #1 is showing slightly into the gap outside of Nila. Defenders most of the time will tip their hand to the gap responsibility in well coached defenses. Nila has to recognize this and understand that he has to get down right now into that c gap. Had we blocked this cleanly, it’s one of the prettier plays we would have had to this point in the season.