Having both played and coached the offensive line, to say I am enamored with the run game would be quite the understatement. I am infatuated with it. To me, it’s a fine balance between art, strategy, technique, identity and shear toughness. If you can combine all of those attributes with a bit of talent, you will have something special.
I was fortunate enough to be a ball boy for the New England Patriots in the mid-80’s. I guess having been a big kid, I was only interested in the guys that I related to. Although I wanted to be a running back, tight end, maybe even linebacker... I was destined to the OL. Thus, my heroes back then were John Hannah, Pete Brock, Guy Morris, Trevor Matich, Brian Holloway, and Bruce Armstrong. I also gravitated to the O-Line coaches. Dante Scarnecchia has been someone that I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know and has been an idol of mine since those early days.
In this post, I’d like to explore what I so lovingly call the "Wham" play. Our New England Patriots have been the pioneer in the development of this scheme. This play shows up at least three to five times per game and is a great compliment to their run game package.
I sincerely believe Coach Scarnecchia has been at the forefront of perfecting what is now a very effective and difficult to defend run play.
The objective of any run game scheme is to find a way to make a defense short in their gap responsibility. Moving tight ends and inserting fullbacks into the line of scrimmage creates this exact challenge. In doing so, you also want to design the scheme so that you have leverage to defenders. That allows for better angles and easier blocks.
A run-game scheme is typically defined by the gap that it attacks. All schemes identify gaps by numbering the gaps. Depending on the philosophy of the offensive coordinator, the gaps can be numbered differently based on their system. Some will number the gaps from left to right.
For example:
Others will have odd-numbered gaps to the left and even numbered gaps to the right.
For example:
For the sake of this discussion, I will just letter the gaps and say whether it’s to the left or right.
As follows:
The other piece that’s important to understand in run game terminology is how you define the techniques or alignment being played by the defensive line. This is important because it determines who is working together on double teams or combo blocks and most plays are checked to a specific technique/alignment.
Once again there are lots of ways to do this. For this discussion, here is how I will define them:
(ProFootballFocus.com)