Stampede Blue
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.
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...
