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AFM Magazine


Blocked! 10 Essentials to Master in Blocking a Punt

by: Dan Weil
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Blocking punts can make a key difference in winning a game for you. Not only do punt blocks give you a better chance to score on your next possession (or perhaps even on the block itself), but also they provide a boost of confidence for your own team and represent a psychological blow for the opposition.  We talked to two coaches for their views on the details of blocking punts: Dave Ungerer, special teams coordinator at University of Alabama, and Jim Schaak, special teams coach for Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI.
 
1. Find players on your team who can get to the ball.
    “You need players that can and know how to have a feel for blocking punts,” Ungerer said. “You have to evaluate you own players. Obviously you want guys that if you can get them there, they can get their hands on the ball. The worst is getting a guy free, and he doesn’t block the punt or runs into the punter for a penalty.”

    Schaak seeks only skill players on his punt-blocking team. “Wide receivers and secondary guys are especially good,” he said. “If you have a linebacker who can run well, that’s good. Never use offensive linemen, because they’re too slow. They often don’t run or tackle well.”

    A defensive end or linebacker who is both mobile and strong can be quite useful for blocking a punt, Schaak noted. “The wing on the punting team is stepping back. If you have someone who is big and strong, they can bull rush and push his butt right into the punter.”

2. Constantly drill your players on all the techniques of blocking a punt.
    “It’s about taking the proper paths,” Ungerer said. “If you’re coming from the outside of the blocking alignment, you have to know where the block point is and how to get your body at the proper angle, otherwise there’s a danger of roughing the punter. Work on blocking the punt from the outside or the inside – the A gap, or up the middle, where you’re face to face with the punter. Are you on the side of the foot the punter is kicking with or the opposite side? We work on all those things to have guys understand all the angles and things that go into blocking a punt.”

    If you’re approaching the punter from an outside rush, “you want to keep your body parallel to the line of scrimmage, so you can run through and block the punt,” Ungerer said. “If you are coming up the middle, you want to be in a position where you can run past the punter and use your hand to take the ball off the punter’s foot. You want your hands to be below your waist if you’re coming up the middle. If you’re coming up the side you want to run right through the punt, reaching your hands late, with your hands perpendicular on each other like a cross.” This prevents the punt from going right through your hands.

    Something to watch for, Ungerer says: “A lot of kids will run with their arms extended, and that slows their speed. We want them to run fast and shoot their hands late.” In addition, Schaak pointed out that the punter kicks the ball below his waist, and you want to have your hands there at the release point. So you must run toward the punter with your hands down.
    
3. Learn the opposition’s blocking scheme and figure out how to attack it.
    “It’s about finding the best way to get your guy free,” Ungerer said. “With balanced looks, you have the same amount of guys blocking on each side. Take advantage of a suspect blocker. Use overloads to get one more guy to a side than they have. If they have a man-blocking scheme, you may want to do some twists. Have your best guy on their worst blocker.”

    You also want to determine how long it takes the opposition to get off the punt. “Look at their operating time from snap to kick,” Unger said. “Are they a little slow? How accurate is the center in his snaps? You might be able to take advantage of him. All those are factors playing into whether you want to try blocking the punt.”

4. Blocking a punt against a team using the spread formation.
    That’s a formation like the pros, with two gunners on the outside, five linemen, two wings off the side, the personal protector five yards behind the center, and the punter, usually 14 yards deep. “That formation is the most popular now,” Schaak pointed out. “It works because you have a long snapper that is athletic enough to get the ball back 14 yards. Then he has to step back quickly to block. The basic opposition to that formation is eight people in play, two corners out with the gunners and then a returner back deep.”

    Most punt teams line up four of their blockers on one side of the ball and four on the other. “The first strategy [in trying to block a punt against that scheme] is to put five on one side and three on the other,” Schaak said. “That will stress the punt team if they don’t pick up the extra guy. The personal protector has to tell the center to go to the overload side and go there himself.”

    There is some cat and mouse involved. The protector will say, “load right” or “load left” to alert his teammates as to which side the defense has overloaded, Schaak said. “If you can time it just before the ball is snapped, one or two of your guys fire to the other side, and they (the punt team) overload to the wrong side.”

    The possibilities are many, Schaak noted. “How many combinations can you get of loopers, etc. The easiest way to put pressure on that formation is to stress the A gap to the left or right. The center has his head down and his hands on the ball.” In addition, unless the punt team sees you overloading, the center and personal protector will move in opposite directions. So you only have to beat the center to get to the punter.

5. Attacking the C gap.
    Another advantageous point for attacking the punter is between the tackle and the wing, Schaak said. “The wing has his inside foot on the outside foot of the tackle and is lined up behind him. You want to go to the C gap between the tackle and the wing. You have to convince the tackle to drop straight back or look inside and drop down. You want to make the wing stay on his same rail too.

  “You dip toward the outside shoulder of the wing [selling him on an outside move] and then go up and under [between the tackle and the wing]. Then you run to your block point, which is about 9-9 1¼2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. You’ll be at approximately where the ball will leave the punter’s foot.”

6. The Follow Scheme.
    Another way to get to the punter is what Schaak calls “the follow scheme.” You make it obvious to the offense that one of your players is attacking the A gap on either side. “Then you run another player right behind,” Schaak said. “Whoever is assigned to block the A gap picks up the first guy but not the second. Some lineman on the other side thinks he has an easy blocking job, and that no one is coming. Meanwhile, the follow guy is coming close to the punter.”

7. Fake a double-team of the gunners.
     Against a spread formation, many defenses double-team the gunners on a punt. You can fake a double-team, and “if the punting team isn’t paying close enough attention, you run one guy off the edge right at the punter. The personal protector has to see it and yell out, or your man is right on the punter,"  Schaak said. You can even have your cornerback abandon the gunner and start creeping in toward the punter. “You have to hope your opponent isn’t sharp enough or gutsy enough to have the punter throw to the gunner. Usually you’ll pull one of your front guys to run back and catch up to the gunner, so the punting team can’t pass over to him,” Schaak said.

8. Make sure you don’t have two players on the punter’s foot at once.
    “If you have two guys who get through their initials blocks and both are trying to block the punt, you have to be careful that one doesn’t knock the other into the punter,” Schaak said. “You have to sacrifice and let the one who’s a little ahead go for it.” In addition to the possibility of roughing the punter, “if both guys charge in, there’s a chance they might miss the ball.”

9. Make your players believe.
    To some extent blocking punts is about psychology. “You have to sell your players that when you call for block, someone will get there,” Ungerer said. “You have to get them to be aggressive. You create confidence among your own players. Teams know you’re good at blocking punts, and they panic. Sometimes you don’t get the block, but you get shanks or bad snaps.”

10. Practice, practice, practice.
    “Constant practice allows you to sell it to your players that they will be successful, that they will create turnovers or good field position,” Ungerer said. “After they are successful once or twice, their confidence elevates.” Alabama players practice their punt blocks twice a week for about 10 minutes a day. Ungerer has all 22 players go through actual punt plays – generally six to eight of them in the 10 minutes. Sometimes he’ll let the plays go through all the way to the end, and sometimes he’ll interrupt in the middle to make corrections. p





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