Pressuring a mobile QB

[Fjoinkay]

is like being in an open field and trying to capture a free range chicken. Chickens are quick and can turn on a dime.

If you are alone in the field and run directly at the chicken full speed all the way and the chicken sees you in time, you will likely whiff. If alone and the chicken sees you early it might be best to force the chicken to move in the direction you want it to move to try to corner it or trick it to run into the pen. If you have a buddy or two helping out it becomes easier to for the chicken to go in the direction you want, but you and your buddies have to work together. You have to communicate or have the same plan in mind.

In football mobile QBs have some similarities to chickens. Defensive players work very hard to have the opportunity to capture the QB, and when they finally find themselves in a position to make a play every split second counts. Many defenders when they end up with the mobile QB in their sights they become very excited. It's as if they are very, very hungry and they see a chicken, and they would really love to just rip the chicken's head off and eat the chicken for lunch. The reality is no one is going to eat chicken during a game, and so the approach needs to be much more mindful.

The objective in football is to make the chicken run backwards and to prevent the chicken from running upfield gaining yards. If you make the chicken run backwards good things usually happen. If you are alone your buddies have time to join you. And in that case if you work together, have a good plan of attack, and execute the chicken will either keep running backwards, try to run around you, or just lie down.

If the chicken tries to run around you to the outside or around you and your buddies you have to force this quick chicken to run laterally for as long as possible. It's all about having a clear objective and taking the best angles and trusting your buddies to see what you are doing an to assist you by having the same objective and taking the best angle to prevent the chicken from running upfield for as long as possible. You all need to work together perhaps taking slightly different angles without running along the same angle at full speed the entire way. If you force the chicken to run laterally long enough he runs into the sideline and he feels cornered. You want to force the mobile QB to run out of bounds- into the pen- or backwards, but you must prevent the mobile QB from being able to stop on a dime to allow you and your buddies to run past him so that he can then run upfield or make some other kind of play.

You and your buddies need to see what is happening and adjust with the same objective in mind and work together by taking slightly different approaches to force the mobile QB to go where you want him to go and to prevent him from running upfield. Sometimes the mobile QB will beat you anyway and make a great play perhaps throwing a pass on the run to a receiver downfield. And sometimes the mobile QB will outrun you and turn upfield before he reaches the sideline, but the longer you force him to run laterally or perhaps even backwards and then laterally, the more time you give your buddies to help the pursuit. The point is in many situations if the approach is open and adaptive the chicken will be forced to give up.

If guys on any team whether on the farm or on the gridiron can work on those skills good things can happen, and then after work the BBQ tastes much better!

 

[Jake]

One simple football fundamental was missing all over the field Friday night. Its too simple to say it was "tackling"...more specific was the lack of our defenders to break down their steps just prior to contact. Everyone wants the big hit, but if you miss, you leave an opening. Chop steps, lower your hips and drive. We went head hunting for the QB and also the punt returner - three guys on the short side went for the big hit, all three whiffed...cya.

 

[Fjoinkay]

I believe that's something that can be worked out even with young players. Guys need to be aggressive for sure, but they also need to finish the play. At a certain point in the pursuit that usually takes an adjustment that starts with seeing what is happening and knowing how to respond to make the play.

At the same time these young guys work very hard and they have a lot to learn. It's easy to lose that awareness in the heat of battle. That is the challenge for a lot of these players especially the younger players but even the older players early in the season.

 

[JoeSU]

Maybe the front 7 should train using the agility drill from the movie Rocky, where Burgess Meredith tosses a chicken in a dead-end alley, and Sylvester Stallone has to catch it.

 

[Fjoinkay]

I didn't think of that, but I like it. Turn on the music too!

 

[RICuse44]

I think Chuck Bullough wears bad idea jeans...

https://screen.yahoo.com/bad-idea-jeans-000000942.html

 

[Doctor44]

1. I agree the tackling was awful - Our secondary was diving at players legs without wrapping up and our D lineman were just diving at the QBs feet and missing badly

2. Our DE's were awful. They were all going for the dwight freeny/ Jadeveon Clowney beat the tackle and sack the QB from behind move. When you have a mobile QB and an offense built on roll outs and having the QB on the run you have to pursue the QB in your lane. You aren't trying to sack him every play. you're trying to hold your spot on the line and drive the O lineman back into the QB and collapse the pocket - much like kickoff or punt coverage. You're not gonna stop a returner by going wide then coming up behind him for the tackle

3. The scheme - Either you tell the D-lineman to not be overly aggressive and stay in your lanes, or you have a freak LB who can spy on the QB and chase him down when he escapes or you play zone D so everyone is watching the QB

 

[Cuseregular]

One simple football fundamental was missing all over the field Friday night. Its too simple to say it was "tackling"...more specific was the lack of our defenders to break down their steps just prior to contact. Everyone wants the big hit, but if you miss, you leave an opening. Chop steps, lower your hips and drive. We went head hunting for the QB and also the punt returner - three guys on the short side went for the big hit, all three whiffed...cya.

spot on my friend. Except you don't worry about the drive part, you just keep em in your sights and hope to get enough of a handle to wrap up enough to #1 slow em down so others can take em down, or #2 pull em down yourself (vs. drive piling him into the turf).

 

[Fjoinkay]

1. I agree the tackling was awful - Our secondary was diving at players legs without wrapping up and our D lineman were just diving at the QBs feet and missing badly

2. Our DE's were awful. They were all going for the dwight freeny/ Jadeveon Clowney beat the tackle and sack the QB from behind move. When you have a mobile QB and an offense built on roll outs and having the QB on the run you have to pursue the QB in your lane. You aren't trying to sack him every play. you're trying to hold your spot on the line and drive the O lineman back into the QB and collapse the pocket - much like kickoff or punt coverage. You're not gonna stop a returner by going wide then coming up behind him for the tackle

3. The scheme - Either you tell the D-lineman to not be overly aggressive and stay in your lanes, or you have a freak LB who can spy on the QB and chase him down when he escapes or you play zone D so everyone is watching the QB

Yep, too many missed tackles and poor angles. The SU pass rushers took the same approach all game, and in the second half Nova played off of that more and more. Against a mobile QB I think you need a more coordinated approach in the pass rush. Everyone needs to have the same objective and work together to push the QB backwards or at least towards the sidelines to prevent him from running past you for as long as possible. Think about the young men and women at Ft. Drum. Everything they do individually is done with a clear objective in mind, and they operate in coordination with each other. No heros. They work together and support each other to achieve the objective.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Maybe the front 7 should train using the agility drill from the movie Rocky, where Burgess Meredith tosses a chicken in a dead-end alley, and Sylvester Stallone has to catch it.

Maybe?

 

[orangepassion]

It brought back bad memories of us losing to Temple towards the end of the Pasqualoni run when the QB kept running every 3rd down and we couldn't stop it

 

[Toga]

If I saw that QB cut inside our outside rush one more time - my shoe was destined to go through my TV.

 

[Halfmooncuse]

I say just pluck that chicken!

 

[Cuseregular]

is like being in an open field and trying to capture a free range chicken. Chickens are quick and can turn on a dime.

If you are alone in the field and run directly at the chicken full speed all the way and the chicken sees you in time, you will likely whiff. If alone and the chicken sees you early it might be best to force the chicken to move in the direction you want it to move to try to corner it or trick it to run into the pen. If you have a buddy or two helping out it becomes easier to for the chicken to go in the direction you want, but you and your buddies have to work together. You have to communicate or have the same plan in mind.

In football mobile QBs have some similarities to chickens. Defensive players work very hard to have the opportunity to capture the QB, and when they finally find themselves in a position to make a play every split second counts. Many defenders when they end up with the mobile QB in their sights they become very excited. It's as if they are very, very hungry and they see a chicken, and they would really love to just rip the chicken's head off and eat the chicken for lunch. The reality is no one is going to eat chicken during a game, and so the approach needs to be much more mindful.

The objective in football is to make the chicken run backwards and to prevent the chicken from running upfield gaining yards. If you make the chicken run backwards good things usually happen. If you are alone your buddies have time to join you. And in that case if you work together, have a good plan of attack, and execute the chicken will either keep running backwards, try to run around you, or just lie down.

If the chicken tries to run around you to the outside or around you and your buddies you have to force this quick chicken to run laterally for as long as possible. It's all about having a clear objective and taking the best angles and trusting your buddies to see what you are doing an to assist you by having the same objective and taking the best angle to prevent the chicken from running upfield for as long as possible. You all need to work together perhaps taking slightly different angles without running along the same angle at full speed the entire way. If you force the chicken to run laterally long enough he runs into the sideline and he feels cornered. You want to force the mobile QB to run out of bounds- into the pen- or backwards, but you must prevent the mobile QB from being able to stop on a dime to allow you and your buddies to run past him so that he can then run upfield or make some other kind of play.

You and your buddies need to see what is happening and adjust with the same objective in mind and work together by taking slightly different approaches to force the mobile QB to go where you want him to go and to prevent him from running upfield. Sometimes the mobile QB will beat you anyway and make a great play perhaps throwing a pass on the run to a receiver downfield. And sometimes the mobile QB will outrun you and turn upfield before he reaches the sideline, but the longer you force him to run laterally or perhaps even backwards and then laterally, the more time you give your buddies to help the pursuit. The point is in many situations if the approach is open and adaptive the chicken will be forced to give up.

If guys on any team whether on the farm or on the gridiron can work on those skills good things can happen, and then after work the BBQ tastes much better!

as someone who caught a lot of chickens back in the day from the DE position and still holds the record at their alma mater for chicken catching I can speak with some authority (love the analogy BTW). It's really simple and easy this one much as Jake has already posted.

We're taught as a general rule to go full bore at full speed to get to the qb and by and large that works (for most qb's you see). However, whenever faced with this type qb you do just the opposite whenever the qb doesn't hand the ball off. Not by just standing at the line of scrimmage and watching things unfold but you go outside laterally and deep just a yard or two but never too far as to create too much of a gap between you and the DT but rather just enough to start some create some contain.

And unless you're on a stunt or blitz package of some type where your role and responsibility are pre set and mandated to take a pin your ears behind your head full bore approach and try and make something happen, rather here you "hover" those couple yards in and out and wait for the qb to come toward you being certain to take more of an outside in angle and THEN you make your move and attempt after he's committed one way or another. Basically more of a read and react scenario. Sure to tackle too if you can but really more so to slow em up for (as you say) your buddies to get there too.

You slow down try and shed the OL as best you can while keeping this outside in approach and hope you can get at least a hand on to slow them down for you to either start to wrap em up, as here with this type qb you're NOT worried about a Sportscenter hit driving them into the ground (they're just too elusive usually for a one on one square shot); or if not this and they still elude you enough time has gone by for others to arrive. It's hard to have a pull back like approach like this admittedly when most everything else you do in the game is about aggression and trying to disrupt things aggressively, but as the saying goes if you find yourself in a hole and the same things happening over and over again STOP digging.

I'd like to think they're taught this and are just not performing. After that game fri., however, where so many other fundamentals seemed lacking I'm not so sure.

 

[Oakland]

I have chickens and like the analogy.

is like being in an open field and trying to capture a free range chicken. Chickens are quick and can turn on a dime.

If you are alone in the field and run directly at the chicken full speed all the way and the chicken sees you in time, you will likely whiff. If alone and the chicken sees you early it might be best to force the chicken to move in the direction you want it to move to try to corner it or trick it to run into the pen. If you have a buddy or two helping out it becomes easier to for the chicken to go in the direction you want, but you and your buddies have to work together. You have to communicate or have the same plan in mind.
possible. It's all about having a clear objective and taking the best angles and trusting your buddies to see what you are doing an to assist will beat you anyway and make a great play perhaps throwing a pass on the run to a receiver downfield. And sometimes the mobile QB will outrun you and turn upfield before he reaches the sideline, but the longer you force him to run laterally or perhaps even backwards and then laterally, the more time you give your buddies to help the pursuit. The point is in many situations if the approach is open and adaptive the chicken will be forced to give up.

If guys on any team whether on the farm or on the gridiron can work on those skills good things can happen, and then after work the BBQ tastes much better!

 

[Orangello]

Bingo. Well said. A huge part of the problem was the DE's pinning their ears back as you say and running/being pushed past the QB outside on a lot of these plays thereby creating the lanes a mobile QB like Robertson needs. I kept yelling "slow down" to my computer screen to no avail.

 

[Orangello]

spot on my friend. Except you don't worry about the drive part, you just keep em in your sights and hope to get enough of a handle to wrap up enough to #1 slow em down so others can take em down, or #2 pull em down yourself (vs. drive piling him into the turf).

You also tend to start getting holding calls against the OL when you use this approach because the lineman continually lose leverage as they're turned and inevitably start grabbing jersey. Can be just as effective as a good tackle.

 

[kirbivore]

 

[BlazeOrange]

Maybe switch the camp field trip from Ft. Drum to McGillicutty's Farm in Utica?
They can bale hay to clear their practice field, clean stalls, and chase chickens.

 

[PeteCalvin]

That looked like JoeCollege chasing coeds at our fraternity parties back in the day. He couldn't catch em either.

 

[RoysRunts]

Call Norm Gerber out of retirement