I can't recall being a huge fan of it when we first adopted it. I know after seeing the Cowboys game I'm far less fond of it.

I don't know a whole lot about the zone blocking scheme, however, I do know not many teams use it. That says a lot to me especially since this is a copy cat league.

But, every team uses a flavor of it in some capacity.


I miss the days when we had a power oriented OL. One that just manhandled people. You know what, we still have those two tackles that anchored that line too. I'm not convinced that Colledge will be the answer at LT be it zone or power scheme.


It's impossible to switch now, mid season. I just kind of hope we draft some big OL this next off season and start moving for a OL that just punishes people instead of the one we have now that tries to finesse people into not tackling our RB's.


I'm ignorant to the knowledge of a OL and how one works so this isn't some educated rant or anything like that. I just don't like our OL being smaller than 85% of the DL's we face.

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Well we saw the zone scheme have success last season... obviously. But I am like you, I'm not very educated on O-line schemes.

Zero: I've had the same thought as you about the ZBS. McCarthy emphasizes that he does not run a pure ZBS, he mixes it up, but it does have a big effect on what kind of players the Packers use. The emphasis is on getting linemen who are more nimble, which usually means sacrificing some strength. The downside is that linemen of this type tend to have problems in pass protection, as they get overpowered at times.

When Josh Sitton won a starting spot in the preseason, that may have been a move away from the ZBS. At 317, Sitton is about 15 pounds heavier than our other interior O-linemen, and he is supposedly stronger. I think the coaches were ready to go with more of a mauler-type lineman. Unfortunately, Sitton got hurt and hasn't been able to play yet.

The fact remains that the interior O-line is the one area of the team that continues to be an Achilles' heel for Ted Thompson and the coaching staff. And it says something that our best interior O-lineman is Scott Wells, who is a holdover from the Mike Sherman era. It may be time to move back toward more of a power running scheme. I'm not expecting anything dramatic, but when Sitton returns we may see this trend begin to play out on the field during the course of this season.

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I dont like it. There is a reason that not many teams around the league run one. I just dont get why a team goes away from what has always worked...Doesnt make sense to me.

I'll wait till this season is over before passing judgement on it. We haven't had our O-line healthy, or for that matter our starting RB yet.
So it's hard to say how good it CAN or CAN'T be until we have the pieces in place to properly judge it.
JMO

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The zone blocking scheme has really only worked when Alex Gibbs was coaching it Denver or Atlanta. The concept is simple: smaller, faster linemen move around and block a zone instead of straight man up blocking. You have to have the right personnel for it, though. You have to have guys who can work in space but are also smart enough to recognize where the pressure is coming from and shift to it. My personal preference agrees with most of you, in that I'd much rather line up behind some monsters and just smash the ball down the defense's throat.

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I wish we could trade for the Badgers O line...and plow people over.

Say what you want about the ZBS and the types of blockers it gives us, but since we've switched we have had extremely low sack numbers given up by these "smaller, mobile linemen." I don't have a problem with it in the running game either.

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Yeah. That's what I don't get. The scheme we had before the ZBS was working great from '01-04. Why fix something that's not broken?

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I think we'll be fine. We've been banged up on the offensive line and Favre's pocket presence masked some of the problems we had in the interior. I expected a slight drop in the line play and the injuries have exacerbated it.

About the scheme, multiple teams are using it. Us, Denver, Oakland, and Houston all use it, and Atlanta used it with success as well. From what I understand it places even more emphasis on communication than a typical blocking scheme, and injuries make that more difficult.

http://www.atexansblog.com/2008/01/11/soabout-that-zone-blocking/ 

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