This is an outstanding post with a lot of meaty stuff in it. I used to write things like this (but without the flashy HTML) back when Tim “Nepotism” Nunez was our OL coach, but I quickly realized that only about a dozen people really understood my criticisms and a significant number more would point to the fact that he was a coach and I wasn’t, so how could I possibly be right? When he got shitcanned - pardon me, reassigned - their silence was deafening. We have a good OL coach now, thank God, now the question is how to get our running game less predictable in the absence of Vince.

After reading your analysis, Greg Davis would retort that in a zone play, there is no set hole, the back must be prepared to break it off immediately inside or patiently wait for things to develop before making a plant and heading upfield - zone blocking is judo and you simply use your opponent’s force against them….that is until he read your last paragraphs.

That’s when the keys you mentioned come in. As long as a DC can reasonably guess the direction of a play and you know how it’s going to be blocked, you give your defenders an opportunity to shoot fish in a barrel.

Our running game is as varied as Barney Frank’s politics. And quite possibly as gay.