Essential Components of the Counter Run Game

In this valuable instructional coaching video, starting with the basic drills, Coach Steven Ciocci, teaches you the fundamentals of offensive line play in the counter run game.

Coach Ciocci also provides four different double-team techniques used for every position on the line, including using the ‘high-knee gallop’ to dominate defenders in the trenches.

Through the use of both practice film and game film you will get in-depth instruction on how to train your linemen to own the trenches. 

Teaching Combo Blocks

Learning how to teach the different gap scheme double-teams used by each pairing of linemen across the front is the critical concept in running the football successfully. In this section, Coach  Ciocci breaks down each combination of tandem blocking in great detail and sheds light on new teaching pointers that will make it simple for you to teach these techniques to your linemen.Critical concepts Coach Ciocci covers includes…

• Two different types of pull techniques to combat defenses that change how they play a puller.
• Tips for getting similar-sized offensive bodies matched up against similar-sized defensive bodies to ensure that you aren’t at a physical disadvantage.
• How to place opposing linebackers in conflict by changing your tags on the play to stress different defenders. 
• Teaching the important concept of both vertical and horizontal double-teams to accommodate your run game philosophy.

Helpful Usage of Game Film, Using RPOs

Coach Ciocci uses game footage to show how each of the drills shown earlier in the video and how the skills they developed while performing those drills, translate to proper execution in live action.  

The use of game film also accentuates the problems your defense may present and offers the solutions to fix them. 

Diving into a helpful section on protecting your counters by using RPOs, Coach Ciocci showcases…

• 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-level RPOs to protect your counter from defenses. 
• How to use a pre-snap RPO to take advantage of free yards.
• Tips on how to incorporate RPOs into any offensive formation.
• How, Why and When you’d use each RPO.

Coach Ciocci breaks down all aspects of the run and RPO game in great detail – using both practice and game film to illustrate his teaching points. He explains and provides multiple in-game situations and explains the in’s and out’s of this related to the run-game concept. 

This video provides an incredibly in-depth breakdown of not only how to run the counter play, but how to protect it through the air. By tagging RPOs onto your counter game, it creates that tried-and-true tenet of ‘holding the chalk last’ and putting opposing defenses in a bind! 

Customer Review: (5 of 5 Stars). ‘This video teaches you how to run the counter play from the ground up. This is essential for anyone who already runs counter or is thinking about adding it to your playbook. It not only gives you the drills and techniques to run the counter, but how to use RPOs to protect it from overcommitted defenses.’

58 minutes. 2023.