The Colts Zone Run Game: Why Continuity and Athleticism in Lineman are Crucial

The Colts had one of the more unique and robust run games in the entire league last season. When Anthony Richardson returned to the lineup, the Colts did everything they could to take advantage of Richardson’s ability to stress a defense with his legs.

The Colts system is unique in that it can make life a lot easier on offensive lineman. Having a QB who can pull the ball changes the blocking schemes up front— often making it easier on the lineman to execute their assignment. But the way the Colts operate on offense also presents plenty of challenges for an offensive line. The way the Colts will handle certain looks requires an elite level of communication and athleticism.

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What is “Unblockable Support” and why do the Colts not care about it?

A good run game has at least these three things: Angles, Matchups, and Communication. When you get to the line of scrimmage every run concept has rules so that everybody knows who is blocking who. There has to be a clear language for communication so that each player knows who they are blocking in a matter of seconds.

Every run starts with blocking the “box”. A box defender is any player that is in-between the tackles and within a certain distance from the line of scrimmage. These are players that are immediate run threats and have primary run responsibilities. They must be accounted for (either blocked or “read” in a RPO/Zone Read) for the run to be successful.

A “support” defender is a defender who has secondary run responsibilities. These are typically safeties and corners. These are usually blocked by Wide Receivers.

OL and TE’s block the box, WR’s block the support players.

So what is unblockable support? That’s a term that describes a support defender that enters the box where a WR can no longer realistically block him. When that happens, it creates a +1 advantage in the box for the defense from the center onwards. This causes problems for an offense. The OL has to shift their assignments over in order get the player blocked. This results in difficult angles and tough assignments. What the Shanahan system will do is to tell the QB to get out of the play or flip the run to the other side like you would in Madden.

There is no better play to illustrate unblockable support than this play from the Week 18 game vs. Jacksonville. The Colts are running an outside zone to the weak side.

If the safety remained high the assignments would likely go as followed.

Raimann would take the DE to the left, Nelson and Kelly would combo up to 23, Glowinski and Freeland would combo up to 33, and Ogletree would take the DE on the right.

Well, when Wingard rotates into the box late to the frontside of the play, that’s a problem.

You can see Ryan Kelly signal to the offensive line while this is occurring.

If the OL kept the same assignments, nobody would block him. You can see the +1 dilemma I was talking about. The OL has three guys, and Jacksonville now has 4. What makes Shanhan, McVay, McDaniels, LaFleur, etc. run game so good is that they don’t run into these looks often if they can ID it pre-snap. The Colts will.

As you can see from this drawing, blocking this up now becomes tough. The angles are incredibly difficult, not to mention they have to communicate this exchange on the fly as Wingard is rotating at the snap.

So why don’t the Colts care? A couple reasons. First and foremost, they want to play FAST! Waiting for the defense to declare itself in order together into the right play wastes time. If the Colts see Wingard rotating late into the snap count and try and change the play, you’re going to run the risk of not everyone being on the same page as you try and change the play late.

Secondly, you’ll get yourself fooled. Defense coordinators get paid too. Safeties will bail out of there, DL will stunt gaps, and LBs will plug into holes you didn’t expect.

The Colts would rather practice exchanging assignments as it happens on the fly, then worry about making sure every last detail is perfect before the ball is snapped.

But this also requires continuity and athletic lineman to pull this off.

Take this run vs. Chicago for example. The Colts are running a Wide Zone run to the open side. Here’s another example of unblockable support with #9 rotating into the box. Look at Quenton Nelson. His job is to block the safety here but he doesn’t just immediately climb up to the second level. He gives Ryan Kelly his right arm, because he knows Ryan Kelly has a very difficult assignment. He has to reach block a titled Nose Tackle. He’s essentially trying to cross the face of a DL who has outside leverage and is directing his force right at your outside shoulder. It becomes even harder when he’s doing it with no help.

A right arm from Nelson, although super subtle, gives Kelly just enough time to get into proper positioning. An inexperienced LG might not have done this, and an inexperienced center might have let the NT blow up the entire play.

Not to mention this is special vision and patience from a RB who knows the plays going to take a bit longer to develop with these difficult blocking angles.

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Bottom Line

A good defenses’ job is to create chaos. They want to create a moving picture that’s always changing for the offense. For an up-tempo run team that puts stress on offensive lineman to communicate on the fly, as the picture changes pre and post-snap.

The Colts offensive line is an extremely well coached unit. But as the Colts look to replace two key veterans on their offensive line, it may take some time to iron out some of the minute details.