Bad Things Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 There’s been a lot of discussion on this board regarding the Zone Blocking Scheme that the Bills ran this year. Most of the discussion centers on the fact that it hasn’t been as successful as other schemes that we ran in previous years. Many on this board have laid the blame solely on the Offensive Line Coach, Juan Castillo. Is this fair? My question is… Who exactly is responsible for the blocking scheme, the OC or the OL Coach? I would imagine that the OL Coach is simply doing what the OC is telling him to do. Is all the Castillo hate justified? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ndirish1978 Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 (edited) Castillo has run a primarily zone blocking scheme as a coach, that's what he does. No offensive schemes run ONLY zone blocking, so he coaches everything, but historically that's his bread and butter. Here's a decent primer article http://www.newyorkupstate.com/buffalo-bills/index.ssf/2017/10/buffalo_bills_ol_coach_explains_blocking_schemes_what_could_fix_offensive_line.html. My issue with Castillo isn't his blocking scheme, it's that the line as a while appeared to regress under his coaching. John Miller, while not a worldbeater by any metric, went from a promising young G to pure bench material. If you can't develop talent on the O-line you're screwed, Edited January 31, 2018 by ndirish1978 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldTimeAFLGuy Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 7 minutes ago, Bad Things said: There’s been a lot of discussion on this board regarding the Zone Blocking Scheme that the Bills ran this year. Most of the discussion centers on the fact that it hasn’t been as successful as other schemes that we ran in previous years. Many on this board have laid the blame solely on the Offensive Line Coach, Juan Castillo. Is this fair? My question is… Who exactly is responsible for the blocking scheme, the OC or the OL Coach? I would imagine that the OL Coach is simply doing what the OC is telling him to do. Is all the Castillo hate justified? ...it's too bad a poster like Shaunta53 is no longer around to give you THE expert assessment......he was a collegiate lineman and SERIOUSLY knew his stuff.......I'd guess the OL Coach has significant input......BUT...at the same time, is it his system the rules or does he adapt to the personnel he has to work with, which is the sign of a good coach.....Schwartz adapted and we saw the result......hell, I'll even quote mumblin', stumblin', grumblin' Ditka again....."you can have the BEST system in the world but if you don't have the personnel to execute it, you fail"..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hondo in seattle Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 My thoughts... I don't hate Castillo. I do want him gone simply because the line wasn't as effective in 2017 as in 2016. If Castillo is primarily a zone blocking guru, then I want him gone because zone blocking schemes didn't serve us well this year. Replacing him could signify a change in emphasis. I don't blame Castillo entirely though - the OC decides play designs and blocking schemes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloRush Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 3 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said: My thoughts... I don't hate Castillo. I do want him gone simply because the line wasn't as effective in 2017 as in 2016. If Castillo is primarily a zone blocking guru, then I want him gone because zone blocking schemes didn't serve us well this year. Replacing him could signify a change in emphasis. I don't blame Castillo entirely though - the OC decides play designs and blocking schemes. Solid logic. You have to account for the history McDermott has with Castillo going back to Philly. I think he’ll give him more than a year to fix things. At this point, I don’t see Castillo going anywhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 Did the fact Tyrod would panic and turn everything into utter chaos half the time hurt the ability of the o-line to stay in its scheme? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 5 minutes ago, row_33 said: Did the fact Tyrod would panic and turn everything into utter chaos half the time hurt the ability of the o-line to stay in its scheme? That did not seem to be the case the year prior Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 Schemology belongs to the OC. So whether we run inside or outside zone blocking or man, it’s what the scheme of the OC dictates. The personnel on our OLine is well acquainted with zone blocking concepts, which we’ve run a lot of over the years. Gailey ran some but not as much as Roman or Lynn who ran zone concepts about half the time. The big difference between Roman/Lynn and Dennison was that Dennison wanted to use more outside zone schemes vs the inside stuff that Roman/Lynn preferred. A case could be made that our personnel is better suited for the inside stuff and we showed improvement when Dennison listened to his players on their preferences for more inside zone, but the idea that they can’t run outside zone blocking at all doesn’t make sense to me as they have done it in the past. While not the leading rushing team team in the league, we were still a damn good running team last season, regardless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo716 Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 (edited) The blocking scheme is designed around the run play called... are you running a stretch or a power ? the former is zone blocking and the latter is power blocking the last few years we have been really successful running Power O and then zone running from the shotgun we got away from that this year a bit Dennison called the plays Edited February 1, 2018 by Buffalo716 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 6 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said: The blocking scheme is designed around the run play called... are you running a stretch or a power ? the former is zone blocking and the latter is power blocking the last few years we have been really successful running Power O and then zone running from the shotgun we got away from that this year a bit Dennison called the plays We ran zones about half the time under Roman/Lynn; most of that of the inside zone variety. As I said, our personnel was no stranger to the concepts and were quite good at both zone and man blocking schemes. I would quibble just a tad about the bold text as how a defender is aligned dictates whether you block him man up or zone, whether it’s a an inside run or an outside run. If the defender is lined up directly in front of the OLman, that OLman has to fire straight out and engage him man up. If the defender is in a gap, then the OL can take their angled step (for an inside zone scheme) or their lateral step (for an outside zone scheme). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victory Formation Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 26 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said: The blocking scheme is designed around the run play called... are you running a stretch or a power ? the former is zone blocking and the latter is power blocking the last few years we have been really successful running Power O and then zone running from the shotgun we got away from that this year a bit Dennison called the plays This answered my question, I thought to myself, why not run both? Mix up the schemes on different plays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo716 Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 8 minutes ago, K-9 said: We ran zones about half the time under Roman/Lynn; most of that of the inside zone variety. As I said, our personnel was no stranger to the concepts and were quite good at both zone and man blocking schemes. I would quibble just a tad about the bold text as how a defender is aligned dictates whether you block him man up or zone, whether it’s a an inside run or an outside run. If the defender is lined up directly in front of the OLman, that OLman has to fire straight out and engage him man up. If the defender is in a gap, then the OL can take their angled step (for an inside zone scheme) or their lateral step (for an outside zone scheme). Yes. Under Roman and Lynn we ran inside/outside zone out of shotgun alot and power under Center Its the NFL everybody runs both... the playcalling decides it at the end of the day we ran more stretch runs under center this year than we did the previous 2 though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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