Football: Run To Daylight

One of the blocking strategies that came out of the late 60's and into the early 70's was to implement a man blocking scheme by your offensive line that would take advantage of the aggressiveness of the defensive line at the point of attack just by blocking and taking them where they want to go and let the running back read the block and run to the opening or in football terms " run to daylight". This proved to be an effective strategy versus gap attacking defenses of the time, and was the basis of the Green Bay Packer Sweep back in the day, but was more effectively used by the 1972 Miami Dolphins who took a power back in Larry Csonka to a perfect season and super bowl win.

When you think of it, it's also the basis of the zone blocking scheme of today, whereby the offensive line steps down to the play-side, looks for double teams, and washes down the defense while the running back steps to play-side, moves with the flow, all the while looking for a lane for cutback reading the blocks of the offensive line and looks for "daylight" backside.

When he sees it, he cuts back against the flow of the defense!

The strategy was very effective versus gap attacking defenses which led to a change of philosophy at the time and today as well, whereby the defensive strategy became a more gap management system compared to gap attacking. By managing your gap effectively, not penetrating, holding your ground and waiting for the running back to come to you, it became an effective tactic to stop the run to daylight and still is an effective tactic today!

Cheers!