
STEPS
This is an endlessly fascinating subject for about .05% of the population, so I won't belabor it here. There are a number of really fine sites on the Internet that discuss steps in great detail and I urge you to check them out. Here's one. There are a few basics, however.
- The playside foot always goes first., whether forward (drive), sidewise (slide), or back (drop), etc. The idea of the first step is to get the angle you want on the defender. If you're going to attack him, the drive step takes you toward him. If you're trying to get an angle, the slide step gets you there, and if you're trying to pull, the drop step will allow you to clear the blocker next to you in your path.
- With the second step you want to plant and drive. This is your power step. Howard Mudd actually had his linemen take two slide steps on many plays, something Danny Watkins could never get down. Watkins wanted to get into his man and power him; that's all he'd ever done and, as it turned out, that's all he ever could do.
In a perfect world, every one of the O linemen takes the same step at the same time and when they do, it's a thing of beauty, like this one against Chicago:

Foles under center. No off-set RB. Which way is playside? The count:

I'm cheating here because I know which way the play is going to go - to the offensive right. I don't feel guilty, though, because the O line knows the play is going right as well.

How pretty is that? Every man is going to an area - a zone - and they are moving in rhythm and unison. Just check out the synchronicity of the steps of the six blockers and the perfect match with the steps of the RB.
Recent Comments