WHEN IT COMES to offensive line play, nothing’s more important than how your players finish the job. The ultimate goal of every offensive lineman should be to consistently knock their opponent to the ground.
45 Knockdown Blocks In One Game
Since Larry Beightol took control of the Green Bay Packers offensive line in 1999, he’s kept a game-by-game log of his offensive linemen’s knockdown blocks, with a record-breaking 45 of these blocks occurring in a game earlier this season.
As defined by Beightol, a knockdown is carrying out one’s assignment and leaving a defender on the ground in one of three ways:
1. Pancake: Toppling the assigned opponent.
2. Decleater: Knocking the opponent’s cleats out of the ground.
3. Domination: Your player knocks the opponent back 10 to 12 yards, a rarity at the professional level.
Benchmark For Linemen
Beightol says an offensive lineman must know which man to block and how to execute the block to keep him out of the play. He says a flourishing finish often separates a good offensive linemen from a great one.
“Things start on offense with the starting count and end with the whistle,” he says. “That’s 5 to 7 seconds and we want that time to be an explosion of trying to kick somebody’s butt. It’s your player’s will against theirs and we stress it every week in practice.”
He says a real key for offensive line success is to have your blockers finish effectively. The more confidence they gain and the more aggressive they become, the better they can finish the play. If you have players who are gung-ho about finishing their blocks, it makes a huge difference in your offense’s efficiency, attitude and production.