Matt Waldman’s RSP Boiler Room shares the details he seeks when studying running backs in pass protection using the tape of Ole Miss running back Scottie Phillips (Ole Miss) against Alabama.

I love watching running backs face defenses that outmatch that runner’s teammates. The disadvantages played out on the field provide a great environment to see how backs process information and find solutions.

My friend, Matt Caraccio often discusses football from a solutions-based perspective at his SaturdaytoSunday website. If finding solutions to problems is the quality scouts should be seeking, then the concept of integrated technique is one of the solution-based tools: Drawing from every athletic, theoretical, technical, and conceptual skill area to identify a problem, process a solution, and execute it in a timely and effective manner.

Players in situations where their team is overmatched will be pushed to use integrated techniques to have success. We see this with Phillips as a blocker against Alabama.

In this episode, I discuss several things about pass protection at the running back position:

• The target area of a good cut block.
• The mechanics of an effective punch.
• Footwork with setting up blocks.
• Footwork to transition from one assignment to the next.
• Prioritizing the difficult situation of assignment vs. critical need.
• Why ‘the will to block’ is no longer enough for running back prospects.
• The invisible thread of integrated technique and solution-finding that runs through good football players.

Phillips isn’t the best blocker I’ve ever seen at the position. He is one of the best of the 25 prospects eligible for the 2019 NFL Draft that I’ve studied at the position.

Phillips has a mind for the game and it has taken him far in his young career. Stay tuned for more about Phillips as a runner between the tackles.

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