Scott Turner gets creative with Commanders run game
Breaking down the run game that has become the foundation of the Commanders offense
The Washington Commanders have turned their season around dramatically. The team started with a 1-5 record in the opening six games before winning six of their last seven. A large part of that turnaround has been the significant shift in offensive philosophy. Obviously the change in quarterback plays a role in that. Carson Wentz ran a pass-heavy offense looking to attack down the field and make use of the speed the Commanders have at receiver. But with Taylor Heinicke under center, the philosophy changed to try and limit his weaknesses and emphasize his strengths.
That meant changing to an old school run-first, ball control approach which has proven to be successful for this team so far. But running the ball more isn’t just a case of calling more running plays. The coaching staff has to devise a package of run concepts that can work against various defensive fronts they’ll see from week-to-week and ensure that the personnel they have on the field can execute those concepts.
In the past few years, Washington has leaned heavily on the zone running scheme. Running back Antonio Gibson is a more natural zone runner where he can attack the edge or make a single cut and get vertical, instead of processing all the different moving parts in front of him with gap scheme runs like power and counter. Every team in the league runs a number of zone scheme concepts every week and the Commanders are no exception.
This is a typical example of a zone run from the Commanders. They like to run it out of the shotgun with the running back to one side of the quarterback. This is an inside zone scheme but with a tight end sifting back across the line to cut off the back side edge defender. The entire offensive line steps in unison to the right side to block the inside zone run in that direction, while the tight end sifts across and cuts off the back side edge defender. This creates a nice natural cut back lane for the running back, who initially works to the right side of the line before sticking his foot in the ground to make his cut and get vertical for a solid gain.
That has been the Commanders bread and butter since Ron Rivera came to Washington and hired Scott Turner as his offensive coordinator. However, with the addition of rookie Brian Robinson, along with the loss of some of their most athletic offensive lineman, the Commanders have shifted to focus more on gap scheme runs. Turner has done a good job at bringing a diverse package of gap scheme runs to the Commanders offense and it played a big part in Robinson’s breakout performance against the Falcons.
The fundamental schemes people think of when referring to gap scheme runs are power and counter. They are very similar with just a slight tweak. This play, which was the opening run of the game for the Commanders, is an example of counter. The left guard pulls to the right side of the line and kicks out the edge defender, while the tight end follows behind him and wraps around to block a second level defender. On power, the tight end and left guard would essentially swap roles, with the tight end kicking out the edge defender and the guard wrapping around to reach the second level defender.
The NFL is running an increased amount of three-man defensive fronts, with a nose tackle and two defensive tackles all aligned within the tackle box, while two edge players, either defensive ends or outside linebackers, align on the line of scrimmage but much further outside. These kinds of fronts can be hard for zone teams to run on, but gap schemes like this can pin the defensive lineman inside and force the linebackers to read the pulls and get into the right positions quickly. In this example you can see that the Commanders get those three interior lineman pinned inside while the linebackers over pursue to the edge, allowing Robinson a nice lane to work inside for a solid gain.
The Commanders have had a good amount of success with these counter and power schemes, but they’ve also encountered a few issues with them. Their guards aren’t necessarily the most mobile and aren’t the best at pulling to the other side of the line. On top of that, pulling a guard leaves the center vulnerable to the nose tackle penetrating. But the scheme has still been key to their success, so Turner and the Commanders found another solution.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Bullock's Film Room to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.