Power
What it is
Down blocks playside, a kickout on the end man, and the backside guard pulling through the hole.
Why it matters
Power is the oldest argument in football made in blocking terms: create a wall, remove the edge defender outward, and put an extra body through the resulting crease. Because the pulling guard is a lead blocker with momentum it wins short yardage; because it takes a moment to develop it is vulnerable to penetration. The kickout and the spill are its central conflict.
Both sides of it
Running it
Playside linemen block down, away from the play, creating a wall and double-teaming to the playside linebacker. A fullback or H-back kicks out the end man on the line. The backside guard pulls flat and turns up INSIDE the kickout block. The back presses the hole and follows the guard. The single coaching point that decides the play: the puller reads the kickout — if the end wrong-arms it and spills, the puller must go around him, not into the pile.
Stopping it
Make the extra blocker wrong. The end man either boxes the kickout to keep everything inside, or wrong-arms it to spill the ball outside — and that choice is only sound if a force player is waiting where the spill sends it. Interior linemen fight the down blocks to keep the wall from forming. Playside linebackers scrape over the top and meet the puller in the hole with the inside shoulder, squeezing the crease rather than running around it. Backside pursuit takes away the cutback.
Also called
Programs call this power, power O or down-down-kick-pull. The Coach answers to any of them.
Related
This entry is authored, not generated. It is one of 205 in the index that the AI-ssistant Coach retrieves from, and that Film Study tags clips against.