The bedrock principle of our zone running game is to attack with a downhill running game that focuses on level one movement and displacement. Fundamental to that is the zone combination block.

A good combination block essentially guarantees a positive yardage play that will keep the offense on schedule. Staying on schedule is critical to moving the chains toward the end zone on a way to a score.

In setting up our offense with the stretch play, we like that, with a few adjustments to technique and thought process, we can build on our teaching of the stretch concept. 

On zone plays everyone is responsible for their play side gap. Gap responsibility is the overriding rule for our offensive line.  This makes the zone scheme sound against blitz and defensive line movement.

SEE ALSO: Read more of Keith Grabowski's Building an Offensive Line series

Against an over front, the guard is taking his reach step.  However, he is now working a different technique in working to get a more vertical push upfield.

For an uncovered Tackle to the play side, if he has no immediate threat in his inside gap, he is responsible for posting the down lineman to his outside gap. His objective is to get vertical displacement of the down lineman by driving him upfield at the point of attack. 

Both linemen are thinking single-under with eyes on the linebacker and feeling movement.  Ultimately, the defenders will define their gap responsibility. One of the linemen will go to two hands and the other will be off to the linebacker.

We do allow the guard to bring his step a little more to parallel. This shortens the distance that his leg has to travel to get to the crotch of the defender. The target for the guard is the inside number of the down defender.

His approach with footwork is to take an up-and-down (jab) step with his inside foot. This is the foot to the direction of his gap responsibility. His second step will be through the crotch of the defender. He will want to keep this leg high into the defender through the block. He wants his feet to remain staggered with the inside foot always behind.

This movement can be seen in the following video.

As far as our hands and hips work, we like to think of them moving together.  We have transitioned to the use of John Strollo’s double-under and single-under technique.  This allows the hips to really work through a block, and it keeps the head out as a point of contact.  I cannot emphasize the importance of this type of technique for safe blocking. 

This technique can be seen in Southwestern Oklahoma State offensive line coach Justin Iske’s videos below.  Iske utilizes volleyballs as the aim point for in these drills.  He has a great resource available on iTunes. 

The inside zone play has multiple variations and is versatile enough to be used in any offense.  Attention to detail with the offensive line is the key to making the scheme successful.

Keith Grabowski has been a football coach for 26 years, currently serving as an offensive assistant and technology coordinator at Oberlin College in Ohio. He previously was a head coach at the high school level for eight years and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Baldwin Wallace University. Grabowski serves as an advisor for several sports technology companies. He is a columnist for American Football Monthly and writes his own blog at thecoachesedge.com/blog. He’s the author of “101+ Pro Style Pistol Offense Plays” and five other books available on thecoachesedge.com and operates Coaches Edge Technologies. Follow him on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.