The Ravens\' Nest

Anderson University\'s I-Back pass protection
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At Anderson University, we are committed to throwing the football on any down and distance anywhere on the field. We led NCAA Division III in passing offense at 383 yards per game last fall while finishing 7th in total offense at 470 yards per game. Throwing the ball 505 times last season, we gave up 19 sacks in which only 12 were due to protection breakdowns not on the quarterback. That comes out to 1 sack every 26.5 attempts or less than two a game. It’s a true testament to our players believing in our system and their willingness to learn. Our offensive line is the absolute key to our success.

No matter what kind of offense you believe in, protecting the quarterback is the number one priority. We run the spread to take advantage of our athletes and our recruiting base. In addition, we hope that the number of looks we see will be cut down significantly. Our goal is to get our players to play as fast as possible and eliminate confusion. I have heard many different philosophies on protection calls but we fell that our quarterback must make these checks. It does give him one more thing to do pre-snap, but we feel that he must be confident that he will be protected before we can have any success throwing the football. We would like to share with you our base protection schemes and how we implement them focusing on the offensive line.

Diagram 1. Diagram 2. Diagram 3. Diagram 4. Diagram 5. Diagram 6. Diagram 7. Diagram 8.

The number one key to protecting the passer is communication. We demand that our players talk from day one. It sounds simple but at times it seems that our players want to keep everything a secret. WHY? Our key is that we talk every snap so that we are all on the same page and if we are not, we fix it.

Pre-snap, our center will make two calls to tell everyone what the front is and who is the Mike linebacker (or “Zero” based on our initial protection call by the quarterback). We teach our line to also read the middle of the field as if they were a quarterback.

We teach it as follows:
1. Two-High (Open) - We expect outside rushers
2. One-High (Closed) - We expect inside heat
3. Mayday (No one deep) - We expect full pressure
4. Safeties - Have to move for the defense to bring more than we can block

We use a BOB (big on big) protection and a BOB and Sort (man/zone combo) protection. The following diagrams will show our two base protections verses the four major fronts we see: Even (4-1 box), Odd (3-2 box), Stack (3-3 box), Deuce (4-2 box). Our center will identify Mike. The next linebacker strong is Sam. The weak side linebacker is Will in an even set. Jack is an inside backer weak versus an odd defense. Against a Stack, we term the weakside force player as Bandit. We teach these names for organizational purposes so that we are never confused against different defenses, but Mike is the real key for us.

In our BOB protection, we are not as concerned with who the Mike is, but the call of the front. We will count off of the defender the center determines “Zero” to be. Odd defenses are counted inside out counting every defender as they are positioned. Even defenses are counted by the linemen first and linebackers second.

The rules are as follows:
1. Center - 0
2. Guards - 1
3. Tackles - 2
4. RB - Check 3 to 4

After the quarterback makes his initial call (Rip or Liz), the center identifies the front, YELLS and POINTS to “Zero.” The guards now turn to the tackles and tell them who number two is based on the center’s call. The directional call is important because it tells the linemen where the running back is going. Diagram one shows a Rip call verses an Even defense. Once we hear “Even,” it puts the center on a Molly (double read) reading zero to three. In our BOB scheme, any uncovered lineman will deep set quickly to help out on any potential match-up problems and to cut down the angle if number three comes. (See Diagram 1.)

In diagram two, we have given a “Rip” call to our line which tells them it is BOB protection and our back is blocking to the right checking three to four. The “Odd” call by our center tells the guards that he is covered and they will Molly. Our uncovered lineman away from directional call checks two to three. (See Diagram 2.)

When we receive a “Stack” call from the center it places the call side guard on the stacked Jack linebacker. The call in diagram three is “Liz” which places the left guard on Jack with the right guard on a Molly between the Will (3) and Bandit (4). Placing the back opposite his protection responsibility creates a natural play-action look and eliminates tendencies for the defense. (See Diagram 3.)

When the defense brings six in the box our center calls “Deuce.” The call means simply we have an Even front with two linebackers. (See Diagram 4.)

In our Rex/Lou protection we block BOB to the call side and zone the backside. Our slide starts with the first uncovered lineman to the call side and they works opposite the directional call. With this scheme, our back has to know who the center has called Mike. The back always reads Mike to Sam. We will try and zone away from our quarterback’s first read so that his backside is protected. Our linemen block the most immediate threats. The “Mike” call is also important to our zone linemen because they know he is not a threat to them. We will work to block the most dangerous men regardless of position. In Stack and Deuce situations, the linemen will focus on the defenders in the box first while working out defenders outside.

These are the general blocking rules for Rex/Lou:
1) Covered Lineman Call Side-Man on
2) 1st Uncovered lineman starts the slide away from the call
3) RB- Mike to Sam
(See Diagrams 5, 6, 7, 8)

Thank you for allowing us to contribute this article to AFM. We are proud to be a part of the greatest fraternity in the word!

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About the author
Brad Paulson

Coach Brad Paulson just completed his first year as Offensive Coordinator at Anderson University. He directed the Ravens' offense to 8 major records this past past fall. Coach Paulson spent the last two seasons at Wisconsin-Stevens Point as Quarterbacks Coach (2001) and Passing Game Coordinator (2002). You can reach Coach Paulson at bppaulson@anderson.edu.

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