Rams Keep It Simple Against Lions Defense

A combination of outstanding athletes and a unique scheme helped Columbia excel defensively last season. Opposing offenses were consistently caught off guard by the Lions’ ability to hide their alignment until right before the snap. In Saturday’s game, however, Fordham showed that, armed with a game of experience, it could cope with the Lions’ 3-3-5 defense.

Fordham had two backs achieve outstanding rushing statistics in the Lions’ Liberty Cup loss. Senior Jonte Coven had 28 carries for 139 yards, and freshman Xavier Martin had 25 carries for 158 yards and three touchdowns in his first collegiate game. The key to such a dominant running game, according to Rams head coach Tom Masella, was to keep the offensive game plan as simple as possible.

“We didn’t run many different plays,” he said. “We ran inside zone and a little bit of stretch, and we said we were going to block whoever showed up in that area. Whoever showed up—because they do move the front—we were going to get a body on a body or a hat on a hat. They caught us off guard a year ago, because we had never seen that defense, and they had a lot of success last year. This year we said, ‘Let’s keep it simple.’”

The general idea of a zone-blocking play is to wall off regions of the field rather than target specific players. A typical inside-zone play against Columbia’s three-man defensive front would have two down linemen firing out into one defensive lineman. Then, depending on what the opposing linebacker does, one of the linemen would peel off to take care of him. The benefit of this blocking scheme is that the offensive linemen aren’t forced into one-on-one contact with a defender. A hip-to-hip double-team composed of two 290-pound linemen is nearly impossible to fight through.

Zone-blocking is particularly effective for teams with undersized but athletic offensive linemen, as it leaves them available to move to where a defender is going to be, as opposed to where he is. Fordham’s offensive line is gigantic, but the Rams still benefitted from the adjustment, as Columbia’s defense gives so many different looks that it would be very difficult for any opponent to memorize its myriad assignments. The inside zone play does pose a difficulty for running backs, however, since the players cannot see a possible lane until right before the play. Martin was explosive enough that he could adapt on the run.

“I would always see the hole I would run to before the snap,” Martin said. “I would see how, if I had the angle, I would hit it. If I saw the whole defense going to shift over, I would do a cutback lane, take it east and west.”

Martin’s ability to change direction and break tackles kept Fordham’s offense completely run-oriented. Columbia’s defense was most effective last season when opponents threw the ball. The change to zone-blocking may not have been the entire cause of Fordham’s exceptional offensive production, but after the game, head coach Norries Wilson pointed to technique problems on the defense as weak point for Columbia. He also, however, acknowledged the effectiveness of the strategy.

“They had a great plan,” he said. “They beat us with outside zone, a little play-action passing too. They didn’t really have to throw it. They just got after us in the run game.”

What remains to be seen is if other teams will follow Fordham’s lead, or come up with their own ways to attack Columbia’s shape-shifting defense.