by Homer Smith June 27, 2002

The ever-more popular zone blitz gives QBs problems that they had not seen before.

Not really. The blitz sends an unblocked rusher screaming at the QB while a defensive lineman backs out of a fake rush, leaves an offensive blocker standing in air with nothing to do, and tries to get into the lane of the sight-adjusted pass.

For years, on blitzes, LBs have been drawing blocks and backing out. MLBs, especially, have nullified centers and then backed out.

Granted, a defensive lineman drawing a down-block by an offensive tackle and then backing out can do more to interrupt a slant pass than a MLB can.

Regardless, the problem of the zone blitz has yet to be solved.