Chalk Talk: How Oregon Blocks the Inside Zone

Much has been made of Oregon's ADHD-esque offense since Chip Kelly first arrived as offensive coordinator in 2007. The team's appearance in the national championship last season resulted in countless high schools and colleges attempting to mimic Kelly's breathless no-huddle playcalling. Now, everyone seems to be jumping on the Autzen bandwagon; Miami Heat Head Coach Erik Spoelstra made waves this offseason by flying his entire staff to Eugene to learn more about Kelly's philosophy (apparently LeBron will be running the zone read in South Beach this season).

After navigating a wave of recruiting allegations last summer, the Ducks still managed a potent offensive game this season. Oregon rushed for just shy of 300 yards per game (5th in the nation), and have scored 42.6 points per game (3rd in the nation). Most of the media and fan attention is focused on Kelly's talented skill players, but they aren't the only players who deserve the spotlight. Although weapons like Darron Thomas and LaMichael James make defensive gameplans near-impossible, Kelly himself admitted in his Nike Coach of the Year Clinic talk that "the five offensive linemen are the key to your football team." The reason Oregon's offensive linemen are so important is Kelly's heavy reliance on zone reads and options.

Here's a look at how Oregon's offensive line executes the inside zone:

The video used in making this post is courtesy of ESPN.

This is how Oregon's offensive line sees the defense. In the above picture, Oregon has an inside zone called to the left against Stanford's 4-2 defensive look. The offensive line has been told to account for 5 defenders. In Kelly's offense it's the center's job to "set the point," meaning he identifies the "0" defender. This player is the A-gap playside defender, which in this case is the noseguard in between the center and the playside guard. From this decision, the offensive line follows their blocking rules.

Since there are 6 defenders in the box, the #3 player to the right is the quarterback's man. He must be "blocked" by the quarterback's decision to hand off the ball or keep it; he is not truly "blocked" because the quarterback is too small to physically block a defensive lineman. Rather, if the quarterback can make the edge player respect him as a runner, he is doing his job. I won't go into the quarterback's job in too much detail here, because Chris Brown already did a great job of that over at Grantland.

Although the quarterback's decision is crucial to the play's success, the offensive line's work is by far the most important. Since the center's job is to block the "0" defender he identified, the rest of the offensive line works around his block.

The left guard is essentially responsible for the left-side linebacker, but it would be stupid to run straight at him and leave the center to deal with the nose by himself. This would affect the timing of the play, and the backer would most likely shed the guard's block before the running back even got there.

Instead, the offensive line works double teams in order to more effectively create running lanes. The left tackle will attempt to kick out the wide 5-technique to his left, and the other four linemen will double the remaining defensive linemen up to the inside linebackers.

Double-teams are one of the most drilled blocks in virtually any college program, because it takes work to learn it properly. Ideally the offensive linemen should be able to block butt-to-butt with synchronized footwork so that the defender cannot split them and wreak havoc in the backfield. Most of the time when you see a defensive lineman split a double team, it is due to a lack of synchronicity between the blockers rather than the d-lineman's amazing skills.

The double team is also practiced intensively because it requires two blockers to share the same vision. Although the o-linemen are working to drive a player backwards, their eyes are on the linebackers. If the block is executed perfectly they will be able to drive the d-lineman straight into the backer, but most of the time this does not happen. They will instead attempt to decide where the linebacker is flowing based on their block, and one of them will come off to block the backer.

The double teams are executed well on this play. The linemen make a unified six-inch step with their left foot at a 45-degree angle to the left, followed by the same directional step with their right foot. Once they reach the defender, they attempt to move him, or as Kelly describes it, "we want them handling the defender as if they were a bouncer in a bar throwing him out of the bar."

 You can see that the linemen are creating movement while watching the linebackers. The right guard is already on his way to the mike backer.

The quarterback chooses to keep the ball because the #3 defender stunts hard inside to tackle the running back. The right guard has made it to the mike backer, and the center is disengaging from his double team to block the will. The quarterback has a free running lane, but he would not be one-on-one with the safety if the offensive line's double teams were not executed properly. The offensive line does not particularly care where the ball goes; their blocking scheme is designed to adapt to where the defenders flow, and if the o-line adjusts properly, Oregon's skill players are given space to make plays.

Chalk Talk: Dion Jordan's Free Shot Sack

UCLA entered this year's Pac-12 Championship in dire straits; the team was coming off a 50-0 loss to USC, and had just been informed that Rick Neuheisel would be fired after the season. The Bruins practically admitted defeat before the game even started by filing paperwork with the NCAA that would allow them to play in a bowl game with a 6-7 record (which they expected to have after playing Oregon). Matters would only get worse after kickoff.

With 1:55 remaining in the first half and a 28-point deficit looming, Kevin Price lined up his offense in a trips formation with tight end Joseph Fauria slotted out to the right. Price looked to make a quick throw to his left, only to get smoked by an untouched Dion Jordan. Online discussions seemed centered on blaming the right tackle for such an egregious error in pass protection. However, Mike Harris was in the wrong here. If the blame for that sack should be placed on anyone, it should be on Price. Here's why:

The video used in making this post is courtesy of winesfamily.blogspot.com and Fox Sports.

Above is the diagram for the protection UCLA called on this play. Going into halftime against the Ducks with only a 14-point deficit would be a dream come true for most schools. It's 3rd & 6, so, the Bruins are looking to use their 3-step passing game to get a quick first down and keep driving into Oregon territory. Most 3-step protections call for the offensive line to slide one way or the other; this allows the unit to stay together and keep defenders from getting any run-through to knock down a pass.

The only problem is that Price is passing out of an empty set. Above is a spot that marks where the running back should be in order to use this slide protection. The running back's job (if he were in the formation) would have been to pick up Dion Jordan.

This is the blitz scheme Oregon has called. They only have one down lineman, which is typically referred to as a Psycho package. The rest of the stand-up defenders are assigned to cross the offensive line's faces in order to create pass rush lanes. The backer outside the left hash is designed to rush outside Jordan, but he won't get there in time because of the quick throw price will make.

With their protection call, the offensive line is accounting for the four left-most defenders in the box, and leaving Jordan one-on-one with what should be a tight end or running back. Unfortunately for UCLA, this formation doesn't have anyone to account for Jordan.

As you can see from the above view, Fauria is flexed out too far to block Jordan, so without a running back there is a free shot at the quarterback.

Price looks left immediately for one of his receivers to get open, which doesn't happen quickly enough for him to make the throw before Jordan gets there. At the bottom, you can see Fauria open with the safety coming down to cover him. If Price had thrown to Fauria immediately, it would have been an easy 4 or 5-yard gain.

Only UCLA players and coaches really know why this protection was called in an empty set, but I can offer a few theories:

1. If the o-line calls their own protections (as is common, especially in 2-minute situations), they might have called the slide left without knowing that they were in an empty formation.
2. Price didn't know which protection was called, so he didn't know that Jordan would be the hot defender (meaning that Jordan is unaccounted for, so Price would have to make a quicker throw).
3. Price did know which protection was called but didn't expect Jordan to blitz, or thought he would be able to make the throw before Jordan got to him.
4. Rick Neuheisel was on his way out and just wanted to watch his players suffer a little.

I'm going to assume that #4 isn't true, so my best guess is a combination of 1 and 2. It doesn't appear that Price knows Jordan is coming hot off the right side, so he takes at least part of the blame. The problem with running a 2-minute offense (especially when you're down a bunch of points) is that players get flustered while trying to run the plays quickly and efficiently. As a result, communication between the offensive line and the skill players often breaks down. Most likely, the offensive line didn't know the formation was empty and Price didn't know the o-line would be sliding left. 

These situations are exactly what Oregon intended to create by using a fast-paced offense and a complex blitz defense. Any time an All-Pac 12 defensive end comes unblocked, mayhem is the result. Look for Oregon to try and create similar panicked situations for Russell Wilson and Wisconsin's offense in the Rose Bowl.