Flacco Struggles Against the Bengals Zone Blitz

What is the Zone Blitz?

A zone blitz is where the defense rushes 5 defenders toward the Quarterback and drop 6 defenders into zone coverage. The six coverage zones are as follows:

• Fire Zone (2) - This is a zone closest to the sideline approximately 12-22 yards from the line of scrimmage covered by the Cornerback. The cornerbacks will cover ⅓ of the deep zones.
• Deep Zone - This is a zone in the middle of the field approximately 14-23 yards from the line of scrimmage covered by the Safety. The Safety will cover the remaining of the ⅓ deep zone.
• Bronco Zones (2) - This is a zone on the numbers approximately 3-9 yards from the line of scrimmage. Depending on the formation, the Bronco zones are covered by a Linebacker, Defensive End or Safety.
• Middle Hook Zone - This is a zone in the middle of the field approximately 6-11 yards from the line of scrimmage. Depending on the formation, the Middle Hook zone is covered by a Safety or Linebacker.

In a zone blitz, Defensive Linemen fake a rush to the Quarterback and then back out into zone coverage while Linebackers and/or Defensive Backs, initially in zone coverage, rush the Quarterback. The goal of a Zone Blitz is to confuse the protection by the Offensive Line and allow an unblocked pass rusher to sack the Quarterback.

Zone Blitz Protection

What makes the zone blitz hard to defend is that the offense does not know where the pass rush is coming from. Defensive coordinators will look at the weakness of the offensive line and designate the area that a defender is to rush in order to exploit the weakness. In one instance a Middle Linebacker and Outside Linebacker may blitz the Quarterback while the Defensive End drops into coverage. In another instance, a Free Safety and Outside Linebacker may blitz while a Defensive End drops into coverage.

The key to handling pressure is for the offense to communicate. The Offensive Line must communicate with one another on identifying threats from the edge in addition to the Defensive Linemen alignment. In pass protection, the Offensive Linemen must keep their head on a swivel looking for a potential pass rusher, but must not commit to blocking a defender until the defender has declared that they are rushing the Quarterback. Otherwise, a pass blocker may end up chasing a defender dropping into coverage and allowing a defender to rush the Quarterback.

The Quarterback must also communicate with the offensive line and receivers. The Quarterback must understand the strengths and weaknesses in the protection and compare it to the potential defensive schemes in his pre-snap read. The Quarterback must also know the potential escape routes if the protection is overloaded on a particular side.

The offense can’t protect against every blitz. The Quarterback must know when to throw to the hot receiver, when to scramble or when to take a sack.  

Now that we understand the basics of a zone blitz, let’s look at two examples where Flacco failed to read the zone blitz properly.

Flacco’s 3rd Quarter Interception

On the interception thrown by Flacco, the defense lines up giving a look of a single high safety or a Cover 1 defense. A cover 1 defense is where the defenders play man coverage on a receiver. However, in this formation the Cornerbacks and Outside Linebacker do not line up over the 3 receivers in a bunch formation (3 WRs to right of offensive line). The Safety has lined up 6 yards off the line of scrimmage on the weak side (the side with the single receiver). This is a sign that the Bengals are in zone coverage.

Just before the ball is snapped, the Outside Linebacker and Safety start to rush the Quarterback. After the ball is snapped, Flacco must check the alignment of the secondary as they are moving to their assignment. Once Flacco sees the blitzing Safety and Linebacker he can only throw to certain routes to beat a zone blitz. They are:

• A vertical route across the passing zones.
• “Hot Routes” - throw directly at pressure to a Receiver in the void left by the blitzers.
• A bubble screen - A screen pass thrown thrown to the slot or inside receivers.
• Taking advantage of the mismatch between a receiver and a Defensive Lineman.
• A quick throw to the flat route before the defense has time to settle into the zone.

Of the four potential routes, only the quick throw to the flat route is available to Flacco. Instead of immediately making the throw, Flacco went through his progressions and then came to the Receiver in the flat route. By then the defense has settled into their zones and are able to make a play on the ball. To make matters worse, Flacco stared down the receiver before throwing the ball. This led to an interception.

The Game Ending Sack

On the game ending sack in the 4th Quarter, the Bengals bring extra defenders to the line of scrimmage in the form of the Safety and Linebacker. They give the look of rushing 6 defenders. On the actual play, the Bengals rush 5 and drop 6 receivers into coverage.

In order to protect Flacco from the potential pressure, the Offensive line needs to communicate with the inside and outside threats with each other. The RT, Rick Wagner, should communicate that he has an outside threat on his side. The LT, Eugene Monroe, should communicate that he did not have an outside threat on his side of the line. With the additional defender on top of RG Yanda, the Center, Jeremy Zuttah, should have called for a slide protection where the Offensive line will take a step to the right and lock onto the first gap threat. This would allow the Offensive line to match the defensive alignment.

Note: This would have left the left Defensive End possibly untouched on his rush to Flacco. If that happened, Flacco would have been able to throw to the Hot Receiver, Pitta, for a first down since the Free Safety was lined up on the weak side of the line.

Unfortunately, the offensive line did not adjust and left the outside threat unaccounted for. Flacco failed to communicate to the offensive line of the potential outside threat. The ultimate responsibility for communication on the offense is through the Quarterback. Flacco did not use his escape route or know when to scramble. After the ball was snapped, he dropped back and started to go through his reads. Three defenders were able to attack the two offensive linemen and one of the three defenders was able to sack Flacco to end the game.