FOOTBALL Outside zone play didn't really work well this past season.
- By Ted Masters
- The Tiger Walk
- 17 Replies
Good read from RockMNation:
Also known as “Drink’s Binky”, this play has been a staple of the Drinkwitz offense since his days at Arkansas State, and one that Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie ran to perfection. The 2022 guys? Not so much. But you can see the appeal; the offensive line blocks in a direction rather than a specific guy, and the running back flows behind that movement to the outside boundary until he finds open space (or a hole) and hits it for big yards. And, as you can see in this design, you can also add an RPO wrinkle and have the quarterback keep it and/or throw it the receiver on the opposite side of the movement (although Drink doesn’t do that enough). The thing to remember with this play is that, in previous years, this was a good play to generate explosive yards. In 2022 though? Eh...
Number of times this play was called: 119
Percentage of all plays called: 13.5%
Total yards gained: 555
Percentage of total yards gained: 11.6%
Yards per play: 4.7
Success rate: 28.5%
Yuck. Yuck yuck yuck. When your staple plays gets called 119 times but only manages a 28% success rate you’re just being lazy. And while it did gain the most yardage on the year...it was the second-most called play, of course it gained a ton of yardage! You’ll remember the games where freshman lineman Armand Membou would don the number 9 and lineup as a tight end/6th offensive lineman? This play was the reason why, to help beef up the outside blocking on Eli’s favorite toy. I would argue that the inefficiency of this play is one of the biggest reasons why the offense fell backward this year; whether you want to blame the line or the backs, it doesn’t matter, Drink’s go-to play stunk and he never really got over it.
Also known as “Drink’s Binky”, this play has been a staple of the Drinkwitz offense since his days at Arkansas State, and one that Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie ran to perfection. The 2022 guys? Not so much. But you can see the appeal; the offensive line blocks in a direction rather than a specific guy, and the running back flows behind that movement to the outside boundary until he finds open space (or a hole) and hits it for big yards. And, as you can see in this design, you can also add an RPO wrinkle and have the quarterback keep it and/or throw it the receiver on the opposite side of the movement (although Drink doesn’t do that enough). The thing to remember with this play is that, in previous years, this was a good play to generate explosive yards. In 2022 though? Eh...
Number of times this play was called: 119
Percentage of all plays called: 13.5%
Total yards gained: 555
Percentage of total yards gained: 11.6%
Yards per play: 4.7
Success rate: 28.5%
Yuck. Yuck yuck yuck. When your staple plays gets called 119 times but only manages a 28% success rate you’re just being lazy. And while it did gain the most yardage on the year...it was the second-most called play, of course it gained a ton of yardage! You’ll remember the games where freshman lineman Armand Membou would don the number 9 and lineup as a tight end/6th offensive lineman? This play was the reason why, to help beef up the outside blocking on Eli’s favorite toy. I would argue that the inefficiency of this play is one of the biggest reasons why the offense fell backward this year; whether you want to blame the line or the backs, it doesn’t matter, Drink’s go-to play stunk and he never really got over it.
