Dominate the Defense with Double Teams

• By Coach Grabowski

Dominating the line of scrimmage means you are moving people and there’s no better way to accomplish this than with combos. It gives the offense the opportunity to put two on one to get level one movement before coming off to level two.  While this seems simple and smart, to be effective you must have a system for doing this, and the teaching progression and drills that create the execution you need.

Level 1 - High Knee

Taking care of level 1 is priority #1. The correct footwork, hand placement is necessary to get the block and the run play going. For Steve Ciocci, offensive line coach at Bryant University, the movement on level one is created with a high knee position which gives his linemen the leverage the need to get movement on level one started.  He explains the five situations for the “high knee mentality” in this video.

Teaching Uncovered/Covered Principles

In order for double teams to work all the time against different fronts, alignments, and movements, having a system for assignments allows the offensive linemen to be set up for success.

Ohio University Offensive Line Coach Allen Rudolph explains his system for teaching combos here:

Perfect it by Drilling it 

Once you install the techniques and the system for how combos will work, drilling it over and over allows this to become second nature for your offensive line. There are plenty of drills and equipment which help in this process and Coach Rudolph and Coach Ciocci include their drill progressions in their CoachTube courses.

University of Central Florida Offensive Line Coach Herb Hand uses a tried and true piece of equipment that many programs have had for a long time - the Crowther Sled.  He spoke for over an hour and a half at the COOL Clinic.

Coach Hand explains a little of the history behind this sled as well as why he believes in using it to teach and drill his double teams. In this set of videos he explains what he means when he says “The Crowther doesn’t lie.”

Whether you have a Crowther or not, having sound progressions which teach all aspects of dominating the double team are necessary.  Building the performance of the offensive line in practice does not happen by accident.

These three courses which total over 3 ½ hours of video are loaded with the details and drills needed for you to displace defensive linemen and get level two blocked as well.  

Whether you are teaching zone schemes or gap schemes, these techniques will help you dominate the defense and get the ground game rolling.

If you want to get the run game going, this is specifically focused on double team/combos will give you all the details you need from some of the best offensive line coaches in the game. Courses from these three coaches are available.