Had this series a lot last year and frankly, sorta forgot about it. So with a late-ish kickoff today, some football reading to get you ready.
It’s appropriate to choose this as our topic because you’re likely to see both teams use this today.
Simply put, and I know there will be more in-depth breakdowns of this elsewhere, pin and pull involves more than one linemen pulling from the backside with the frontside (the direction the run is going) linemen down blocking. It’s like a trap block on steroids.
We actually wrote about this last year after the Pittsburgh Steelers lost Maurkice Pouncey and how his absence would take this scheme out of the playbook. With his return, it’s back.
I’ll repost the drawing I made of one possible look last year.
Like I said, with #53 in the lineup, we’ve seen a good bit of this scheme from Todd Haley/Mike Munchak. In last year’s version, I only supplied still shots from the TV angle. So let’s get a much better view of it. Here is Pittsburgh running in last week against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Again, it’s Pouncey and David DeCastro pulling. With some nice blocks, DeAngelo Williams is able to reel off an 11 yard gain on a day where yards were tough to come by on the ground.
The Eagles run this scheme even more, led but their equally athletic center Jason Kelce. Here it is from Week One.
So if you see a 53 or 63 out on the edge, you can almost bet what the scheme was.
