Cut Block, Sherman, Green, Salaam

[TwinSisters]

A few paragraphs of reading for sure, but worth it for most.

2005
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100205/jag_19924406.shtml
2006 SEP
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=494391
2006 DEC
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=537909

There is some stuff in there about Sherman's use of pulling guards and a comparison of Ahman Green's injury in relation to Harris. While a RB is not the same as a DT, watching how the two repair might be interesting for some.

Green Bay's zone blocking scheme, like other teams', requires its offensive linemen to take out the legs of the men they're assigned to block by throwing their bodies at the player's thighs.

Harris hadn't seen it regularly against the Packers previously, as former coach Mike Sherman favored a counter scheme that utilized pulling guards. But Harris said he and his teammates were well aware of the changes brought about by Green Bay's new regime.

"It's film, man. It's film. We expected that," Harris said. "They have the Falcons' offensive dude (offensive coordinator Jeff Jagdzinski). We knew that's how they block; they cut on the back side. One cut is cool, but all that every play? That's freakin' high school."

The work of the underhanded Gibbs.

Green Bay - It took until Game 12 for the Green Bay Packers' cut-blocking technique to really tick someone off.

not really... see above.
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McKittrick is gone, but his fondness for the cut block lives on, mainly through Alex Gibbs, who was the Atlanta Falcons' offensive line coach last season and is now listed as the team's consultant/offensive line.

Gibbs arrived in the NFL four years after McKittrick and immediately took to the cut block after seeing the 49ers use it to build one of the league's most explosive offenses.

Gibbs, though, didn't become the lightning rod for opponents of the cut block until he joined the Broncos as line coach when Mike Shanahan took over in 1995.

dirty Broncos

"Some of the things the Denver Broncos employed under Gibbs were unethical, to say the least, and I say that as a former offensive lineman myself,'' said retired Jaguars center Dave Widell, who also played for Denver for five years before Gibbs' arrival. "The Broncos were very good at what they did when they were winning Super Bowls, but there was a dark side to what they did in a lot of people's minds, too.''

Jaguars offensive tackle Ephraim Salaam, who played under Gibbs with the Broncos for two seasons, was more succinct.

"Under Gibbs, it was either cut [block] or get cut [released],'' Salaam said last year. "You really didn't have a choice in the matter.''

One highlight from our main man.

So I have to give some props to Pendry and Sherman for taking the losses and not falling to the level of the 49ers, Broncos, and the Packers.