The Two-Back Power and How to Defend It (Part I)

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Since this post turned out a lot longer than I expected, I'll break it up into two parts - Part I dealing with the offensive side of the ball and Part II dealing with the defense.

Now that the season is over and I have some spare time, I'm going to go back to take a look at the 2009 season, starting with the run game (offense and defense). The power play is one of the most common and versatile run plays at any level of football, so I'll begin there. This is the general principle used on Johnathan Franklin's 74-yard TD run against Cal this season and was fairly common throughout the '09 season. I'll explain how it is blocked in part I and then how to defend it from the other side of the ball in part II.

Offense

Here is what it looks like on paper:

The basic idea is that you have everyone blocking "down" (away from the playside) except for the fullback, who kicks out the end man on the line (EMOL) and the backside guard (BSG) who pulls and leads through. EMOL and the first linebacker are usually left unblocked for these two players to pick up. The hole is supposed to open up off the FB's kickout block, as the playside tackle and guard (PST and PSG) combo a defensive tackle to the second backer (the first is picked up by the guard). Everyone else just blocks down as you'd expect, although sometimes the BST has to make a tough fill block vs a 3 tech backside with a covered center (the bottom right diagram). Basically you have a wall of blockers blocking down one way and your two players kicking out and leading through the other way, creating a hole for the back. If you have 6 OL and a FB = 7 blockers and the defense has 7 in the box, everyone is accounted for; if they have 8 in the box then you will have an unblocked man backside and probably need some sort of bootleg action to keep him honest.

This is just the basic premise of the concept - one to kick out, one to lead through, everyone else blocking backside - you can take this idea and run it in any way you can dream up. You can run it out of an I-formation as shown above, or as a counter play (in Franklin's TD the FB was offset weak and the guard instead kicked out and the FB led through), as the famous "counter trey" made famous by the Redskins in the 80s, without a FB but with an H-back pulling across, out of the shotgun, with your QB as a counter from the shotgun, as part of the Wildcat series, and in a video game. You can switch up assignments and have tackles, guards, H-backs, fullbacks pulling and/or lead blocking for you with this concept. Very simple and very versatile, and almost everyone runs it in some form or another. There is also a one-back variant that does not feature a fullback; the guard typically does the kickout and there is no lead-through.

UCLA Offense

The Bruins use the power concept a few ways, but for the most part is fairly traditional stuff out of 2-back sets. Here is what UCLA did against Cal to spring that 74-yard TD by Johnathan Franklin. 

UCLA offense came out in an I-formation with the TE left, and motioned the FB offset strong. We will run several different plays (including power) to the TE side with the FB offset strong. In the video below you will see the Cal LBs take a read step that direction. Both Kevin Prince and Franklin opened up to the strong side. However, we instead ran a counter to the weakside. Cal is in an Eagle front, although they have 3 DL and 4 LBs they aren't playing traditional 3-4 principles. Playside tackle and guard (PST and PSG) combo the 3 tech DE to the backer, C is able to take the NT since he is in a shade, BSG pulls and leads through on the backer. FB slides underneath the QB and kicks out the playside backer on the line. Franklin takes his counter step and then the handoff the other way for a score. It looks like Cal was in cover 3 and had their safety flying down as the run force player, and the WR at the bottom of the screen veers inside to block him. The counter step allowed the double team to form on the backside LB and time for the guard to pull and lead through, and it looks like a few Cal defenders in the secondary misjudge Franklin's speed as he turns on the jets - see video at the bottom.

Here is the complement to the play above, run against Arizona State. ASU is in a basic Miami 4-3 running cover 2 and are looking to "spill" the ball outside to the squat corner (I will get more into run defense in part II and explain how they are trying to defend this play). In this play, rather than using the TE to block down on a linebacker, they are using him to force the DE outside and instead using the FB and BSG to block the first two LBs playside. Everything else is blocked the same. This play is sort of a cross between an isolation play and a power, and the ASU LBs play it as if it's an iso. However, the principles of power are the same. In the video below, ASU almost blows the play up because their two DTs stunt across each other and the shaded NT almost makes a tackle for no gain.

Here's a third example of a basic power play which I drew up and explained at the beginning. The only wrinkle is that the Bruins motion the flanker to a wing position, and he blocks the strong safety (visible on the edge of the frame).

Video clips of the three plays are below.

Click here for Part II - Defense