Even though the Packers had not been successful for a number of years, Lombardi inherited a team in which five players would go on to be Pro Football Hall of Famers. The Packers had just completed their worst season in team history with a record of 1–10–1. In 1959, Lombardi accepted a head coaching and general manager position with the struggling Green Bay Packers. They appeared again in the 1958 Championship Game, this time losing in overtime to the Baltimore Colts. Under his offensive leadership and assisted by his defensive counterpart Tom Landry, Lombardi helped guide the Giants to an NFL Championship in 1956. The phrase "running to daylight" was later coined to describe the freedom the ball carrier had to choose where to run the play. He also had offensive tackles pull from the line and implemented an early variant of zone blocking (blockers are expected to block a "zone" instead of an individual defender) this required the ball carrier to run the football wherever there was space. He started to run the sweep using the T formation and positioned his linemen with greater space between each other. It was with the Giants that Lombardi first implemented the principles that became the Packers sweep. Lombardi's first NFL coaching job came in 1954, when he accepted an assistant coaching job (now known as an offensive coordinator) for the New York Giants. Ī simple T formation, shown here, served as the basis for the Packers sweep. Blaik's emphasis on players executing their job and the military discipline of West Point greatly influenced Lombardi's future coaching style. For five seasons Lombardi served as an assistant coach and further developed his coaching abilities. He moved on from high school to college football as an assistant under Earl "Red" Blaik at West Point in 1948. Lombardi attended coaching clinics during this time, where he continued to develop a better understanding of the sweep, especially the techniques of pulling offensive linemen and having the ball carriers cut back towards openings in the line. With a 32-game unbeaten streak, the school had one of the top high school football programs in the nation. He was promoted to head coach and over eight seasons led St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. In 1939, after graduation, Lombardi began his coaching career as an assistant at St. Jock Sutherland's University of Pittsburgh teams used the sweep extensively against Lombardi's team in an era when the single-wing formation was used almost universally. This was the first time Lombardi witnessed the success of the sweep. He played football at Fordham University on a football scholarship, and was part of the " Seven Blocks of Granite", a nickname for the team's offensive line. The development of what became known as the Packers sweep began with Vince Lombardi. These include running option pass plays out of the same formation, changing which blockers pull from the line of scrimmage, and running the play towards different areas of the field. Various options and changes to the sweep have been implemented to create further deception. It is characterized as power football and usually gives the runner the choice to follow the lead blockers inside or outside, depending on how the defense reacts. The sweep can be run out of multiple formations and go either left or right of the center. This allows the offensive linemen (usually the guards) and the fullback to block defenders before the runner turns upfield. A sweep play involves a back, typically the halfback or running back, taking a pitch or handoff from the quarterback and running parallel to the line of scrimmage. The Packers sweep is a variation on the sweep, which is a basic running play in American football.
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