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Tuesday, April 20, 2021

History and Evolution: Power O - Part III - The Modern Era of Power Diversity

Previously

Part I - The Power Series Origins

Part II - Off Tackle Power Earns the Name Power


Retaining the Power Series

While "Power" began to be defined as the Off-Tackle Power O variant in the 1980s, most offenses, including the split back dominated West Coast Offenses, retained much of the Power Series plays within their playbook, albeit under different names. This made use of multiple backs to alter the backfield flow, changing the kick blocker, lead blockers, or sending someone elsewhere altogether.


The Way Forward for Power Sweep

18/19 BOB (Big-on-Big, Back-on-Backer) is the classic Power Sweep

1982 San Francisco 49ers Playbook




This is effectively the same thing as Buck Sweep, a popular Wing T play within the 1970s. And certainly, that existed in the 1975 Delaware Wing T playbook

1975 Delaware Wing T Playbook

And would remain a fixture as the Wing T was adapted for the modern game.


2010 Auburn Offensive Playbook


As off-tackle Power became more of a base play, teams also started incorporating a "Bounce" version of standard Power to get outside on teams that started to try to condense on the kick block.

1995 Florida Offensive Playbook



2000 St Louis Rams Offensive Playbook


While this is likely a standard Power O call, the defensive EMOL along with the standard pull and depth naturally allow this play to bounce outside.



Bluff and the Origins of Modern Counter

16/17 A Bluff is an iteration off this Power Sweep, with the FB faking the block on the backer and the PSG kicking him, in a Down Scheme type play. But importantly, it retains the kick block, and the wrap block.

1982 San Francisco 49ers Playbook

This looks similar to the way some teams currently run Down G with a backside pull. Here it is with a Center pull instead of a BSG


The intention today is not to cover the Counter OT and Counter OF/OH of the world, but it is nearly impossible, because:

1989 Alabama Offensive Playbook

Right, they are cousins. By the 1990s, most playbooks included both, but that wasn't originally the case. Many option teams (and the utilization of zone blocking had come about by now for many of those teams) rarely pulled OL. But they still did incorporate trap blocking as a changeup. Thus, your off-tackle Power in those systems now largely relied on a kick block from a BSG and a lead from a FB (or in this case, no lead)

1968 Houston Veer Playbook

Counter until that time had largely been based on misdirection within the backfield, including with a play fake. This cousin of Power largely changed that. Counter OT started like most counters of the day, with backfield misdirection and a playfake.

This could be a fake to the FB and a sweep to the Tailback (or Wing coming back the other way)

1983 Nebraska Offensive Playbook

Or could be a fake to the Tailback and a counter with the FB, holdovers from the split back era with a modern off tackle Power O setup

1985 UConn Offensive Playbook

In the mid-80s, the zone revolution came about, and teams like the Joe Gibbs Washington football team. This allowed the use of FBs, but also 12 personnel with wings to seal the backside. 

1992 Washington Redskins Playbook

And while the backside began to prove difficult to block, Counter OF came about, utilizing the same two plays to kick and wrap as Power, but inverting their responsibilities.


1994 Penn State Offensive Playbook

A Gap Power

The other item that zone/option teams were used to is Fold blocks as an interior changeup to their base schemes. This resulted in an A-Gap Variation of Power existing in many playbooks.

90/91 O Is a form of A-Gap Power, with the playside OL kicking out the defense and the BSG wrapping to the MIKE.

1982 San Francisco 49ers Playbook


Also seen within Nebraska's Option playbook of the era

1983 Nebraska Offensive Playbook

This received new life when North Dakota State began heavily utilizing A-Gap Power


Dealing with a 6-Technique

A head-up defender on the TE has historically caused a lot of issues for Power. Too tight to kick, not far enough inside to get a good combo and drive inside. Arcing the TE is a key way of messing with the TE. The arc often causes the 6-technique to naturally widen, as if getting into a pass rush or protecting the reach block.

14/15 HB O is a Y-arc variant of Power O, which became a common way of blocking a 6-technique defender. The arc block generally widening the player for the kick, and allowing the TE to handle the overhang.

1997 Buffalo Bills Offensive Playbook

1982 San Francisco 49ers Playbook


16/17 BIM (as seen above, but this time with a Y-arc) has s potential double-team on the C-gap defender with the PST and FB, with the Y-arcing outside the play and the PSLB getting logged by the puller.

1982 San Francisco 49ers Playbook

Misdirection Maintained

Lag O is a form of A gap, single back Power with split flow in the backfield, which is an early form of Dart. Mostly throughout the 80s and 90s, teams retained various forms of split flow to prevent defenses from being able to identify the direction of the run immediately at the snap.

1983 San Francisco 49ers Offensive Playbook


1998 Wisconsin Playbook

Single Back Power

While the answer seems obvious now, given all the Power Solid and Split flow versions of power you see above, early spread teams largely struggled with figuring out how to block Power within their framework. Some went straight to the modern answer.

1998 Washington Huskies Offensive Playbook


Others attempted to avoid the pull in favor of the trap, as we saw with early zone based teams, which Air Raid largely maintained as a primary blocking scheme (note: the F here doesn't matter if he's aligned in the slot or backfield)

1999 Oklahoma Offensive Playbook


Another favorite of the time was Dart

2000 Northwestern Offensive Playbook


And some teams started to realize pass setting the playside kickout was easiest

2002 Kansas State Offensive Playbook


The Patriots included it in their Jab series, which allowed them to pull either the BSG or BST, depending on the defensive alignment

2004 New England Patriots Offensive Playbook

And now teams run it out of both 11 and 10 personnel


2014 Ohio State Playbook


In 11 personnel, teams were trying to think of ways of dealing with a 6-technique again, this time without the benefit of a backfield kick blocker. A TE vs a DE can be a bad matchup, and result in not expanding laterally, or often without combo help from the OT if there is someone in the 4i-techinque. The solution is a different sort of BIM block, with an Off-Y combo blocking with the PSG to the BSLB while the PST kicks out.

2014 Ohio State Offensive Playbook




Maintaining Multi-Back Offense

Dating back to the 80s, teams that went to split backs wanted to maintain some of the numbers advantages they received from the 3-RB T-formation. This led to plays such as BOB Trey O, which was Power O with both backside OL pulling.

1992 Raiders Offensive Playbook


The use of multiple TEs or motion WRs also allowed to add blockers to the play


2014 San Francisco Offensive Playbook

I've written two articles on Wisconsin utilizing just this (Link 1, Link 2).


In a more modern sense, this has involved the Q Run game, utilizing the RB as an additional blocker.

2014 San Francisco 49ers Offensive Playbook



Teams have also learned to utilize WRs or TEs on the Shovel pass to make use of Power blocking.

2004 Utah Offensive Playbook


Read Option
A major way teams have tried to "add blockers" despite going spread is a return to the read option game, an interesting twist from using Power as a constraint to the T-formation era option game.

People knew they wanted to utilize Power blocking within a read scheme, but originally struggled to figure out how
2007 AFCA "The Power Play"

Around this time at TCU, they developed what became known as Power Read.

2014 Ohio State Playbook


Here it is utilizing a WR to get into 2-back and have a Lead Power Read

2014 Ohio State Offensive Playbook



Which in turn made use of a lot of the ways to add second blockers to the misdirection and option game (Y-Arc, Lead, etc.) along with Dart. Thus, we came largely full circle to the original T-Formation stuff.

2019 Penn State Offense


To avoid tipping to the defense that runs are opposite alignment, another way to effectively run Power Read is with Power Toss, which runs it back to the RB alignment


A few other read iterations are the following:




USA Football For More


And now it is largely used within the RPO game, both for screens (already seen when Auburn was doing it in 2010), and for the downfield attack

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Ultimately, Nick Saban had this to say about it:

Other Wrinkles

 


 Pulling the Center rather than the BSG based on defensive formation


Power has withstood the test of time. It has lived on in various iterations but has remained a part of football for nearly 100 years.  It is versatile, adaptable, and dependable. It is, indeed, "God's Play"

And here's a backside cut against the pull, with Power Scissors


Etc.

Smart Football - Evolution of Inverted Veer

Smart Football - Explanation and Cut-Ups of the Power O

Grantland - Why Power Running Works

Football Study Hall - The Modern Power Run

Inside the Pylon - Three Power Run Schemes

Concerning Sports - Baylor's History with the Power Run Game

The Spread Offense - How to Run Single Back Power

Run The Power - Why Weak Power is Great

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History and Evolution: Power O - Part II - Off Tackle Power Earns the Name "Power"

 Previously

Part I - The Power Series Origins


Off-Tackle Power O becomes “Power”

While the I-Formation had a scattering of purveyors dating as far back as the turn of the century, it wasn’t really until the early 1960s when a man known as Don Coryell would begin to popularize it within the Air Coryell offense. While at the upper levels of football it remained mostly unknown, by the late 1960s and into the 70s, coaches such as John Madden and Hank Stram started incorporating it within their offenses. By this time, most teams had now gone to 21 personnel, though split backs and near/far formations still held dominance. But, for instance, in the 1968 Chiefs Playbook, we immediately see what we know of today as traditional Power O (though, it should be noted, Power Sweep remained a vital part of the offense).

1968 Chiefs Playbook



It is telling, also, that we begin to see the changeups take after Power O rather than the sweep variant (though admittedly, this is years in the making). Teams began realizing it was Power O that they could base out of, and so concepts like Power Trap came into the window.

1968 Chiefs Offensive Playbook


While the name Power was at times used for the above Off-Tackle version of the play, teams began to differentiate it with names such as “Pinch”, which was the name of the combo block between the TE and playside OT.

1974 New England Patriots Playbook


1974 Giants Playbook



In the case of the New England Patriots at the time, "Pinch" was reserved for a TE-PST combo block, whereas Power was used for the PSG-PST combo.

1974 New England Patriots Playbook

Whereas for the 1974 New York Giants, Pinch referenced the block, but Power referenced the play.

1974 New York Giants


But like most football, this term “pinch” or "power" were also not ubiquitous. Indeed, some preferred to refer to any playside combo working to the backside as “Power," as seen in the Rams Offensive Playbook.




1970s Rams Offensive Playbook


By the 1980s, Off tackle Power was now emphatically known in most circles as just “Power.” And this is also where we really start to see different branches of Power and how they fit into the various schemes. Right now, we’ll stick in this 21 Personnel Off-Tackle area before branching into other areas.


A Shift in Aim

While some began to install I-formation rapidly, the overall shift away from split backs was more gradual. And indeed, the teaching of the concept was also slow to change.

In the early 1980s, you still see Power taught similarly from split backs and I-formation. Here we compare the 1982 Bill Walsh playbook to the 1985, and note the split backs still favors an initial aiming point near the midline of the TE. The threat, of course, is the sweep, while the ball carrier cuts it inside the kickout block and stays on the hip of the puller.

1982 San Francisco 49ers Offensive Playbook

1985 San Francisco 49ers Offensive Playbook

Notice, though, that while the plays look nearly identical, the RB's intended hole has moved inside by 1985. But yet with I-Formation teams such as Houston, you see Power actually initiated with a Toss (it should be noted that the Rams primarily used zone between the tackles, and gap schemes to get outside).

1983 Houston Oilers Offensive Playbook


By the 1990s, you see definitive evidence in how I-formation is shaping the direction of Power. Here, the RB's aiming point has moved slightly inside to the outside hip of the PST.

1990 Colorado Offensive Playbook


By 2000s, teams began setting their aiming point to the inside leg of the OT or even outside foot of the guard.

2001 Dallas Cowboys Offensive Playbook



2000 Tennessee Offensive Playbook







A Counter Step for Timing
Besides the tightening of the aiming point, another development you see is the introduction of the counter step to the play. The aiming point remained relatively unchanged at first, the primary point being a return to the timing of something more similar to the split backs timing, giving proper spacing relationship between the Puller and the ball carrier.

1997 Buffalo Bills Offensive Playbook


1998 Oakland Raiders Playbook


2000 Cleveland Browns Offensive Playbook



But eventually, you see even with the counter step that the aiming point moves inside as well.

2003 Nebraska Playbook

It is, in fact, interesting, that in the mid-1980s, Nebraska had no Off-tackle Power O (we'll get back to this). By the mid-90s they did, as they started favoring more I-Formation offense. And by 2003, under the same offensive scheme (Osborne being Nebraska Head Coach from 1973-1997, and Frank Solich being the RB coach from 1983-1997, where he became head coach from 1998-2003)



1997 Nebraska Offensive Playbook

Interestingly, by the mid-2000s, Power started to lose some favor to Inside Zone. The Miami dynasty, OSU's National Title team, and Ladainian Tomlinson had made a killing with Power, but Inside zone was still finding favor. But when it came time for a changeup, it was no longer Counter that teams turned back to, it was once again Power. And with the Power Read and Stanford/49ers success, Power football found new life.

The A-B-C of Off-Tackle Power
By the late 2000s, the path of the RB became definitively downhill, aiming at the playside A-gap. Reading A to B to C gap, and with the use of a shuffle pull, the puller doing the same (pulling at first evidence of off-color).




2010 Auburn Offensive Playbook



2014 San Francisco Offensive Playbook

Note how David Shaw talks about runningback footwork now changing to draw footwork to ensure he receives the ball deep in the backfield and allows him to really press the A Gap.


Coming Up
But the evolution of Power took other paths as well. In the next post we are going to look at how Power developed through the option offenses, how it took root in the spread revolution, and how teams attempted to maintain Power Sweep and the 3-back elements that originally defined Power.

Part III - The Modern Era of Power Diversity
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