One of the few nice runs that the Pittsburgh Steelers had this past Sunday in their 27-10 over the New York Jets came on the second play of their second drive and it is illustrated in the animated gif below.
On 1st & 10 the Steelers offense was in 21 personnel with fullback Will Johnson lined up in a strong offset eye. Wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery motions to the strong side pre snap.
After the snap the blocking goes into action and is fairly well executed. Left tackle Max Starks has defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson squared up. Tight end Heath Miller turns out linebacker Garrett McIntyre and Johnson powers up into the hole to clear out safety LaRon Landry.
You can see in the gif below that Jets inside linebacker Bart Scott is coming up to fill the hole as he actually has read the play well. Thanks to the blocking of left guard Willie Colon and center Maurkice Pouncey, there appears to be a small crease inside for minimal yardage, but Wilkerson plays off Starks nicely to ensure what is there will not be much. Redman sees Scott coming up to fill the hole so he gives a fake inside which Scott falls for and then continues on through the original hole that the play was designed to go through.
The play went for 13 yards and was the longest one in the game for the Steelers offense. Had Redman just powered straight through the hole off of the snap, the gain would have been minimal as Scott would have easily plugged the hole.
This play illustrates that there is more to a good running than just up front blocking as running backs must have good vision of what is developing ahead of them and how to play off of blocks. This play also is an illustration of one of the few clean releases that Colon had to the second level in the game where he hits his target as designed.
