Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

I haven't re-watched the Arizona or Oregon State tape yet - that's what I really wanted to take a look at - so I'll update this when I get ahold of copies of those two games, since I believe we ate about 4 sacks apiece in each of those games. The below is only for SDSU through the Cal game.

I believe that offensive success begins up front, so I put together some cutups of common pass protection schemes used by UCLA over a few games. Norm Chow is a former offensive lineman, so you know that he understands the importance of the OL. 

Gap vs. Man vs. Combo

Pass protections generally fall into two categories: zone or man, just like run blocking and coverage. Just like those there are also variations that combine the two. Gap protections have linemen responsible for a gap, and works well against defenses that like to stunt and twist. Man protections work well when you want to make sure that your linemen are blocking linemen, and your backs are blocking linebackers, instead of vice versa. Combo protections involve several linemen using gap principles and several using man principles.

At the top is an example of a 5-man protection that uses man principles, with the tackles locked up on the defensive ends and the interior linemen responsible for the 3 defenders. Generally they will "zone" those three defenders but it usually works out to the RG taking the DT and the C/LG picking up the NT and the LB if he rushes. The offense has 5 men in the route with 5 OL to block 5 rushers.

Next is a 6-man gap scheme where the line "slide" protects to the left, the TE releases, and the back replaces him. The problem is that you occasionally will end up with a back blocking a DE. Another problem is that the back cannot really get out into the route with this type of scheme - if you run a 6-man slide protection scheme, you will have only 4 men in the route, as if you release a back you will have a hole in your zone...the guys you decide to leave in have to stay in.

Combo protection at the bottom uses a half gap/half man system with the back reading linebackers. In this example, the offense locks up the LT man up on the DE. After the gap in the defense (red dashed line), the OL will slide protect away from the call side (right). There are 4 linemen to pick up 5 possible rushers. However the back will "check" the LBs and pick them up if they come - if not he can get out into the route on a "check release". If M comes and S drops, he can pick up M; if S comes and M drops, he can pick up S, and if both come, he will pick up the innermost guy, M. In this case the QB has to be aware that there are 5 possible defenders that could threaten the right side while he only has 4 potential blockers - if both M and S comes he needs to know that he has to get rid of the ball quickly as the back will be looking to pick up the blitz from inside to out (inside = more immediate threat).

Above is a good angle that shows Stanford running combo protection against us. We have 7 immediate threats and they have a max of 6 potential blockers; one must be accounted for by the QB's "hot" read (probably Ayers with something to the TE). We end up rushing only 4 with a stunt and they end up protecting with only 5, the bare minimum.

Note that 4 Stanford OL (LT to RG) step laterally to their left at the snap, while the RT moves backwards to block Korey Bosworth. We run a stunt against the "gap" protection side, and it gets picked up as no one is chasing defenders around, they are all covering their gap. Gerhart steps up callside, "checks" Kyle Bosworth and Reggie Carter, and sees them drop back, and then releases into the flat. Their QB sees that neither LB on the other side blitzes, and has some time to dump it off to Gerhart.

5-man: Man

This is the protection that I used in the example above for man. You can see the tackles seem to backpedal fairly quickly to set up the pocket, the interior linemen form a wall in the middle. This is usually used with some kind of quick-breaking concept and with some kind of short option like a swing route available in case the defense rushes more than 5. In one of the clips at 0:18, Richard Brehaut takes a sack when Oregon rushes 7 and UCLA has 5 in to protect. There is a quick option available, double slants to the left, but it looks like there was a predetermined read to throw to the right side as he doesn't really look that way. It looks as if the back had run a flatter route to the sideline then Brehaut would have been able to hit the hitch for a first down at the 5-yard line/the back in the flat (I put the blame on Brehaut for taking the sack earlier, but looking at it again I believe I was wrong the first time and it was just a sloppy route).

5-man: Gap

This doesn't really seem like it would make sense - if you slide the offensive line to one side, who is going to pick up the backside defender? UCLA has run a few plays where they pull a guard to the backside off playaction to pick up that guy, but during the first couple games they used this form of protection with a straight slide off playaction to the callside, and just left the backside guy unblocked. They dealt with it by sneaking a TE or back into the flat, essentially "blocking" that guy by making him wrong by either chasing the back off the PA, or chasing the QB until the QB just tosses it above the guy's head. I haven't seen it lately - Prince ran it at least once for the TD against Tennessee, but mostly it was Kevin Craft, especially against Kansas State.

6-man: Combo

This is the protection explained above. You will notice half the line "gap" protecting, usually just a tackle or sometimes the tackle/guard blocking man on to the callside. The back will step callside, "check" the LB, and then release or block (in these clips he is usually releasing - will explain below). In most of these the back just leaks out a few yards past the line, underneath the linebackers as a check down, and we've seen some completions to these guys as the QB is about to take a sack. In the first clip, the Vols rush 4 and we have 5 to protect. The right side looks like a man concept as they chase the stunt and the left side looks like they are gap protecting - the stunt is the thing that leads to the sack/fumble, as the players chase rather than play gap. In the 2nd clip it looks like the TE does a little check/release, or it might be pre-determined. 

6-man: Gap

This is the gap protection explained above, you have 5 linemen sliding to one side and the back picking up the backside. One point to note is that the back often ends up blocking (or trying to block) the defensive end, and it doesn't work out that well sometimes. I did not think that our backs looked that good blocking, in general, but the blocking on some of these plays just looks really bad...you will see some of our guys diving at their feet and some whiffed blocks. However, the protection is solid as long as guys make their blocks. The only downside is that you have 6 guys blocking, 4 guys in the route, and if they only rush 3 then you have 3 guys blocking air, while they have 8 to cover 4.

7-man: Combo

This protection is just like the others except that you will have 7 men in - either the TE or another back, with a second back reading the linebackers. I have a couple examples of what looks like the "check" release by the back, although it is hard to tell what is predetermined and what is "read" - but it looks to be what I think it is.

However, there are a few more plays where it looks like a combo protection up front, but the back does not release - a few of these are against a defense only rushing 4. This protection seemed to be pretty common, as on a lot of the games I have seen we have blockers standing around not really doing anything. The steps and body language of the backs on these clips make me think that the back is not reading backers and is only looking to block the most dangerous man, on the one at the end, he isn't even looking at the LBs, he is looking to help out against the DE and is too late to react to the (delayed) blitz - there are 7 in the protection, they rush 4, and we take a sack. In this protection, our backs have not really looked good, so I don't know if it is a scheme thing (being asked to look at the DE 1st) or just poor reads and blocking by the backs.

7-man: Gap

Just like above, here is the cutup of 7-man slide protection. On the first clip, you can see how important it is to maintain these gaps, as there is a pretty big one between the C and RG that Tennessee shoots through. 62 is stepping the right way but staring at grass. In the second, it looks like 51 steps too far to his left, squeezes his gap too far. In some of the others you see 7 men blocking 3 rushers, and only 3 men out in the route.

7-man: Sprintout

This isn't covered above but I threw it in there as I saw it a handful of times, mostly with Kevin Craft. It is basically like the 5-man gap protection above except that you have a back to hook the edge rusher and allow the QB to sprint out. With this protection you are basically eliminating the backside WR, unless you are in trips to the sprintout side. Both times it looks like UCLA runs a smash concept, high-low on the flat defender (who is also threatened by the moving QB.

8-man: Combo

Looked to be a form of combo with double TE and the back in, I saw it at least twice vs. Cal, and I believe both times they only rushed 3 or 4. There are only two WRs in the route and both times we ran streak/dig, once off of PA and once off a flea-flicker.

Thoughts

There is more than what I have here, but these seem to be the big families. One thing that stood out to me was that we seemed to favor the 7-man protections, with all 7 men staying in to block (ie, back not check releasing). As I said before, a lot of times this results in 7 guys blocking 3 or 4 rushers, and 3 guys running routes against 7 or 8 defenders. Running 7-man protections is a deterrent against blitzing; most defenses will not really blitz much against teams that show a lot of 7-man protections as the odds of making it to the QB are lower. However, if teams aren't sending guys then your WRs are going to have a much harder time getting open and the QB is going to have a tough time finding somewhere to go with the ball.

I wouldn't necessarily say that we need to put more guys out in the route and block with less; there is a time and a place for each protection. I think we've done a good job of mixing it up, but when we block with 7, then we should never be taking a sack - the first two clips of the 7-man slide scheme from the Tennessee game show their guys getting too close to Prince, when they are only bringing 5 and 6. Against Cal, we block with 7 and they bring 4 and get the sack. In some other clips, you see some pressure on the QB, causing him to move around a bit. He shouldn't have to worry about this, or reading a "hot" rusher, or paying attention to a blitz in a 7-man scheme; he has to spend more time worrying about where to go with the ball since he only has 3 options. So I think from the offensive line standpoint there is some merit to the argument that we sometimes just get out-talent'ed against some defenses. A lot of it is technique, which is coach-able - using proper footwork and leverage, so it is something that can improve right away, But from a scheme standpoint, it doesn't matter what kind of protection you use, if you need to commit an extra guy or two, or if you need two guys to block one player, then you will be in trouble.