Untitled - Fast and Furious Football

158 FOOTBALL COACHING STRATEGIES
By putting a strong rusher on the punter, we
rot only put pressure on the snapper to get the
ball back to the punter quickly, but we also put
pressure on the punter to get the ball off fast.
The "look ofpressure" also requires the coverage
team to block belorc theyrelease, giving ourwall
time to fol.rn and our punt rcturn€r time to catch
the ball and get upfield.
OuI punt block team has two defenses, one base
and one blitz, which can b€ utilized according to
field position and time remaining in the game.
When people talk about blocking punts, the
first thing that comes to mind is an alt-out 10-
man block. We calry a 10-man block, but very
seldom do we send all10 men.In actuatity, it only
tahes two men to block a punt. The fiISt man must
draw the personal protector's block whit€ th€
other man mal{es the block.
Punt Btock.Betum Team
Alignment
We lin€ up 10 men on th€ line of scrimmage. Thi s
makes the punt team account for an all-out block.
We number our positions, 1 through b, on both
Bides of the center. If we do not want an all-otlt
block, we will simply call out the numben of the
positions we want to fall off. For exampte, we
might call "13," meaning the 1s and Ss dmp off
(see Figure l). We can use any combination ol
numberu we \.ish. It is extremety impoftant that
the positions dropping out do so as the bary is
sndpped, so that they draw th€ blocker they are
aligned over, not allowing thei opponents to help
out somewhere else,
FIGURE I
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CICOC
L4 L5R5R4 R3 R2
Adjustments
Io Punt Prctection
There are basically two types of punt protections,
and eachrequires different aiming points for the
playem attempting to block the punt. It is critical
to detennine which type of protection ]our
opponent is using. The frrst, and most conmon.
iE an outsidp zone.lL an outside zone protection,
the blocken step out, protecting their outside gap
(see Fieure 2). On this particular twe of prot€ction,
we ask our punt blockers to take a wider
alignment and take an outside aiming point to
create an inside-out stretch. Ifyou werc to take
an inside rushine angle. you would be runnins
into the blocker instead of away liom him.
FIGURE 2 ourside rone prorectton by punr
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RETURNER
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The second twe ofprotection includes both the
man concept and the iDd& zone. In an inside zone
protection, the blockers step down, protecting
their inside gap (see Figure 3).Versus th€se types
of prot€ctions, we ask our blockers to take a
tighter alignment and to take an inside angle or
aiming point, much like an extra point or field
goal block, to creat€ an outside-in shetch. Once
again, the reason for the inside angle is to run
from where the block is coming and make people
move their set foot.
Punt Btock lechnique
RETUBNER
I
After we have taught our players to clear the
blocker we then t11rn our attention to the punl
block t€chnique. It is very imporl€nt that we teach
proper technique in blocking punts just as we
teach technique in any oth€r phase of football.
We break our t€aching into six different areas.