With our Offensive Line being large and very athletic, some of the more studied posters here have been clamoring for a change in run blocking scheme. The Zone blocking system is great for smaller, quicker OLmen. It gives them an advantage on larger DL's and also gets the DL running side to side a lot, thus wearing them down later in the game. Also, combo blocks help control the line of scrimmage while a guy peels off and grabs a LBer.
Problem this year seems to be that the ZBS we're running is too complicated for our younger guys. We're not getting beat physically, but mentally. It's blown assignments not physical mismatches that have caused our woes.
Well, Cable must have heard us. I saw a lot more iso and power run blocking this last game. On Rawls TD in particular, you saw Ifedi just walling his guy off and Britt making a really nifty seal on the NT, sealing him inside. Glowinski had at least 3 blocks where he just manned up and put his guy on skates, sometimes for 4 or 5 yards.
I'd like to see this going forward. Atlanta has a smallish DL that isn't stout at the point of attack. We can (and should) physically beat them, not let them use speed to penetrate gaps caused by missed assignments and create issues.
So the question would be: what took so long to make the adjustment? Was the coaching staff just waiting for the playoffs ? if so, that's seriously wicked on Pete's part. Think about this from Atlanta's DC's viewpoint: you now have a game on tape that has a bunch of ZBS stuff on it, and we just iso'd up on Detroit and gave you a bunch of things you haven't seen out of us.