The Outside Zone – Article 5

The Outside Zone has been run for a long time now, since the early days of post-war football, and was very successful in those innovating Bengals team of the late 80’s through the inimitable Coach Jim McNally, and was popularised by Alex Gibbs, with the Broncos in the mid to late 90’s.

I’m sure by now, if you’re worth your salt as a football coach, especially an OL coach, you’ll have seen the 8 hour long session that Alex Gibbs did with a college staff explaining the ins-and-outs of the Wide (Outside) Zone, and touching on the Tight (Inside) Zone. If you haven’t, get it watched, as it’s the best coaching on the OZ anyone can get.

That session was where I found the Outside Zone as a coach, and I’ve loved it since. It fits my players most importantly, which is why it is the base run for our offense.

The Outside Zone and Stretch

I just want to start by clarifying the difference between the two. The Outside Zone is designed to look like an Outside Run, utilising zone blocking, however if blocked properly, will result in an upfield cut.
The stretch is designed to get the RB to the outside, in that sense it’s very much like a toss/sweep type concept, just with zone blocking up front.
It’s a common mistake thinking the two are the same play, they are very different.

What is it?

As I stated above, the Outside Zone is an outside running play designed to allow an upfield cut. As with all zone plays, the mantra stays true:
“The more you run it, the more effective it becomes!”
In the case of Outside Zone, what we want to happen is the defense will start to over pursue to the outside, allowing the big play on the upfield cut. Please note it’s an upfield cut, not a cutback!
In the following articles, I’ll be looking at:

Article 6 – Base Blocking, Single Blocking and Zone Tracks
Article 7 – Cut Blocking and Backside Blocking
Article 8 – Overall scheme concept

The Basics – What is it?

The outside zone play is a complex and nuanced play, much like the inside zone, it is not a simple play to run well. The reason it is so often employed is that it allows the defense to work against themselves, thus creating big plays.

We are looking to get double teams at the point of attack, give the running back an aiming point and let him cut off the blocks in front. I stick to the same terminology for both Inside and Outside Zone, for the Running Backs, on any play, the RB can either:
BANG IT: Run the ball through the pre-snap aiming point, generally the C Gap;
BEND IT: This is the ‘Cut Back’ behind the Centre, is more of an upfield cut than a cut back;
BOUNCE IT: If everything crashes inside, bounce to the outside.
This gives us two possible scenarios when it comes to the Outside Zone play, if blocked properly:

1. The defense quickly diagnoses it as an outside run, over pursues to the outside, leaving an upfield cut lane (BEND IT) for the RB; or
2. You’ve hit the defense on the ‘cutback’ a few times, so they ‘slow play’ their pursuit, giving the RB an opportunity to get to the outside, and turn the corner. (BANG IT or BOUNCE IT)

Either scenario turns out well for the Offense, assuming the two basic rules of Outside Zone are followed, these are:

• Lineman must make quick decisions on their blocks, communication is the key.
• Running Backs only get one cut, if they delay in the backfield at all, the play is sunk.

Finally, one more note of interest, is that the blocks used on the Outside Zone vary depending on if you are playside or if you are backside. For this article we will focus on the playside blocks only.

Outside Zone Block Types

Much like with the RB’s, I like to use the same terminology, where possible for the OL, so the following table is identical to the one used for Inside Zone.

Outside Zone Steps

For the Outside Zone there are a myriad of different ways to teach the footwork, and a lot of terminology and verbiage to digest, especially for players at the higher level. I like to keep things as simple as possible, so try to keep words and steps memorable, that why I use the Drop, Lock and Pop terminology for the Zone Steps. These are to be used when you are uncovered, working with your playside teammate for the double team.

STANCE

Again, stance is as key for the Outside Zone as it is for the Inside Zone. As I’ve alluded to, I like to have my linemen in a 2 point stance, however, these steps can easily be done from a 3 point stance as well, and it’s important to teach linemen both.

I like the back foot slightly angled, as it aids flexibility and is a bit more natural for the slightly more inflexible linemen.

DROP STEP

Commonly known as a ‘bucket step’ this is a step that gains width and depth, and gets your “hips, nose and toes” square to your target. Our target, as an uncovered lineman, is always the ‘next down defender’, that’s a statement you’ll hear echoed a lot throughout our OL sessions.

The drop step takes you onto your track, which we’ll discuss later on. The focus on this step has to be gaining both width and depth, we aren’t pulling or losing ground. How far we drop and the angle we take is solely dependent on the position of our target, however, we do want to make sure our knee and shoulder are above the ball of our foot for a couple of reasons:

1. It pretty much guarantees we dont over stride and lose our base;
2. It ensures forward momentum. If your foot is in front of your knee/shoulder, your braking. If your foot is behind your knee/shoudler, your accelerating. We want the latter, which is why we want the ball of our foot, knee and shoulder in alignment, generating forward momentum, whilst remaining balanced and under control.

LOCK STEP

Sometimes known as a crossover or lateral step, I use the ‘Lock’ terminology as it locks the lineman on his ‘track’. As with the drop step, we want to gain ground on the defender.

Important that we continue our forward momentum on this step, we don’t want to be out of control, but we want to have enough impotence that if the DL stunts into is, we can make a solid contact, adjust our body, and make a good block.

POP STEP

This is the step we are either making contact on, or the step where we are attacking the bubble in the defense, hence the ‘pop’ terminology.

We want to limit ourselves to three steps and a decision, as it then puts the read in the Running Backs hands, exactly where we want it to be. Get the ball to your playmakers and let them make a play. If we take longer in our decision making process, we are delaying the RB read, which will allow the defense the opportunity to make a play in the backfield.
Worth noting that there are no sizes of steps mentioned, the steps will vary based on the alignment of your target defender, and how athletic your lineman is. It’s where splits and alignment come into it more.
Next week we’ll have a look at Base Blocks and Single Blocks, and tying all three together, as well as zone tracks and hand placement.