The inside zone read is the base play in the shotgun spread option offense and allows for a mix of power football and option concept football. The inside zone blocking scheme allows the offense to zone any fronts and movements on the front side due to the linemen blocking the play side gap to the linebacker and allows the offense to read a defender ...

Over the past few articles I have covered the inside zone blocking scheme against the most common defensive fronts in the NCAA Football series. Now that we understand how to block the inside zone scheme I will cover the play mechanics from under center and will also include plays that should be added to the game.

Inside zone is designed to be a no loss play. If the back hits the hole hard, the number of double teams on the line of scrimmage should result in vertical running lanes and a consistent running game. Depending on the defensive stunts, the inside zone will often end up being a cut-back play.
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Before going any further I would like to cover the defense’s reaction to the different types of blocks seen in the zone scheme. You will also notice I did not cover the interior of the Odd Stack Front (linemen and linebackers), this is because in this defense the down linemen slant on every play and depending on the gap assigned to the down linemen the linebacker will fill the next gap opposite of the lineman’s slant.
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Here I am covering the inside zone versus an odd stack front.

Ace Normal


Play 1:

Initial movement is bad, the play is being run to the right and all the linemen are stepping to the left. With the linebackers playing to the flow of the ball this puts every blocker out of position. The tight end does not block man on against the strong safety leaving him completely unaccounted for in the blocking scheme. The tight end and tackle double the defensive end, with the Sam linebacker flowing over the top this now put both him and the safety outside the tight end to play any front side cut by the running back. The guard and center double the nose tackle leaving the Mike linebacker to flow over the top. The back side guard releases to the Will linebacker and the back side tackle and tight end block man on against the defensive end and weak safety. In all honesty the blocking on this play looks a lot like a pull scheme with no blockers pulling to the play side. The blocking is completely wrong.
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Here I will cover the inside zone run against the odd front.

Ace Normal


Play 1:

On the front side of this play the blocking looks pretty good. The tight end blocks man on against the outside linebacker and the play side tackle and guard work a zone combo on the defensive end, the correct blocker comes off the combo as the strong inside linebacker comes over the top. The backside is where we start to see some problems. The center blocks the nose guard however it never looked as though the back side guard never looked to work a scoop block with the center and ended up releasing vertically on the weak side inside linebacker. The back side tackle blocked man on the back side defensive end and the tight end released to the weak outside linebacker. If these two would have worked the correct assignment on the weak side defensive end the tackle would have come off on the weak inside linebacker and the tight end would have ended up on the weak defensive end. The weak outside linebacker would have been controlled by the roll out by the quarterback.
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As I did in covering the inside zone against the even stack front, in this article I will cover the inside zone against the even front.

Ace Normal Inside Zone


Play 1:

The play side safety does not get blocked as both the tight end and play side tackle combo block on a defensive end that is dropping into coverage at the snap. The play side guard carries out the correct assignment in blocking the defensive tackle. The center makes the correct block as at the snap the play side linebacker comes forward to plug the A-gap. The backside guard makes the correct block in blocking the back side defensive tackle; the back side tackle however pulls around the guards block into the back side A-gap to block the backside linebacker. Now if he would have worked a zone combo block with the back side guard on the defensive tackle he would have taken control of the tackle as the back side guard slides off on the back side linebacker due to the A-gap plug. The back side tight end blocks the back side defensive end as he is supposed to. Despite what was two missed assignments the play still had a chance to be successful if the play side tight end would have blocked the correct defender. Clean this up along with the back side guard and tackle combo block and this would be a clean play.
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