gap scheme

Offense

also: gap-scheme run game · man-gap scheme

Run blocking built on down blocks and a puller, aimed at winning one point rather than displacing the whole front. Power, counter, trap, buck sweep and pin and pull live here.

Offense

gap scheme, the run family

A run family in which linemen block down toward a gap and at least one lineman pulls to lead or to kick out, creating a numbers advantage at one point rather than displacing the whole front. The defining features are the down block and the puller, and the running back's path is largely predetermined rather than read.

Also calledgap-scheme run game
Not to be confused withzone scheme, man scheme, duo

See it in a play

  • Trapinside run, backside guard pulls to trap the first man past the holeWing-T
  • Buck sweepoutside run to the wing, both guards pullingWing-T

A note on how the term is used

The common gap-against-zone split is a simplification, and a coach will meet the fuller version: gap, man and zone as three families, with the puller as the thing that separates gap from man. Duo is argued over across all three at once, including by an NFL offensive line coach against a major analytics outfit, so it is genuinely unsettled rather than merely confusing.

Where you will hear it

  • Wing-T
  • power and counter offenses
  • Double Wing

By level

Often taught before zone scheme at lower levels because the assignments are fixed, so a lineman who is beaten is beaten on effort rather than on a read he got wrong.

Related terms

  • zone scheme
  • man scheme
  • duo