It looks like you missed the entire point of what I was saying in terms of the solid front.
I think your main points are:
- The Giants try to not let the Texans combo block before releasing to the second level.
- They also try to tighten the cut back lane.
If I miss something, please tell me.
...
Since Rey mentioned the third play in LZ series, I'd like to get to that one.
As always, I'm only interested in breaking down plays to see how things work (or in this case, not working well.)
This play is on 2nd and 7, right after the one we just discussed about "the solid front".
LZ titled this one "the Giants 5-man line".
It ended up with the same result: a 3-yd run as Foster cut back behind Myers.
The same culprit was Smith with another "not quite effective" cut block, this time on the play side.
Note that both plays gained 3 yds, so neither one were a wash!
LZ:
On this play, the Giants saw the Texans were going to a 2TE, 2RB and 1 WR set so they decided to to take out a LB and add another defensive linemen to match up with the Texans. In this set, you have a 0-technique nose, two 3-technique DTs and two DEs. Once again, the Giants are sticking with their philosophy of trying to cover up the offensive linemen so that they can't get to the 2nd level on the LBs while also jamming, creating more difficult blocking assignments for the Texans based on alignment.
The 5th lineman they brought in was #71 Tollefson, a 250lb DE.
That's still a little more beef.
But we have two TEs and a big FB.
If we had decided to keep both TE on the same side and run this way (to the right), we could have several combo blocks to choose from, depending on how we want to set up the blocking assignment.
Most likely, we would have Winston and Dreessen combo on the LDE before one of them slip out onto the LLB or the RLB.
Or perhaps we can have Winston stay back to help Brisiel on the LDT, after he had combo with Dreessen on the LDE (that would be 2 combo blocks).
OD will then be on the SS, with Leach coming up for another possible combo
(even though I don't think it will be needed).
If Winston is able to get to the LLB, we would have a great double-team (OD+Leach) on the SS.
If Winston can only get to the RLB, then either OD or Leach would have to get out onto the LLB.
I see these as possible scenarios for our combo-blocking scheme.
LZ:
As you'll see before the play is snapped, the safety who is following Owen Daniels in motion drops into the box right before the play. The Giants now have nine in the box. Now if the Texans and Arian Foster can find a crease, they could bust this for a huge play, but the Giants maintain their responsibilities and there is nothing there for the Texans
But we sent OD in motion to the left, faked a run to the right, then run a counter to the left.
OD kinda settled just inside Butler and started to the right (together with the whole offense - including Leach and Foster.)
IMO, OD started to the right (just a tad) and did a couple of shuffle steps to sell the RDT Scofield #96 the run to the right (which he bought).
But by doing this, we kept the SS closer to the box.
As OD sprinted out to the left, the SS still had to honor the PA pass.
He squatted, followed OD a few steps but still maintained his discipline by watching the backfield.
He was able to see Leach changing course, coming over to block the RDE.
But he waited until he saw the hand-off to Foster before charging back into the box.
My point: It's not like he went for the run all the way.
He did honor the PA pass first.
On another note, even though the SS did not figure immediately in the play, IMO, we could have OD going up inside the SS instead of sprinting out to the flat.
The SS still has to honor the PA pass, and OD can block him out of the running play as well.
At any rate, once gain, Smith's cut block was rather ineffective.
The RDT was able to contain the outside, turning Foster into the pile.
We actually had Butler combo with Smith before releasing onto the RLB; therefore, the notion that we can't have combo-block is not accurate.
Rather, the question is how well did the combo block work.
In this case, Butler was able to slip out and neutralize the RLB.
However, Smith, even with Butler's help, did not make a good block on the RDT.
A good block by Smith would have allowed Foster to bounce to the outside (on either side of Butler) for a bigger gain.
