What is the Power concept in 11v11 tackle football?
In 11v11 tackle football Power is the hammer: everyone playside blocks down, the backside guard pulls through the playside gap as an extra man, and the back presses the line and runs off him. It gets the line of scrimmage against a stacked box, which is why it is the call when you need two yards and everyone in the stadium knows it.
Why Power works in 11v11
It cannot exist below eleven players in any form
Flag football has no linemen and no legal blocking, so there is nothing to pull and nothing to block down with. This is not a concept that gets weaker at smaller formats; it simply does not exist there. A coach who has been told to run Power at five a side has been given a play from a different sport.
The numbers advantage is created rather than found
Down blocks take the nearest defenders away from the hole and the puller arrives as one more attacker than the defense aligned there. Most runs need the defense to make a mistake somewhere; Power does not, which is why it still produces against a front that has committed everybody to stopping it.
One player carries the whole scheme
The pulling guard has to move well, find the right man in traffic and arrive on time, every snap, travelling further than anyone else on the play. It is the hardest job on the offensive line, and a Power scheme is only ever as good as the player doing it.
It creates a numbers advantage at one point
Down blocks take the defenders nearest the hole away from it, and the puller arrives as an extra attacker the defense has not accounted for on that side. Whatever the front looked like before the snap, at the moment of contact the offense has one more man where the ball is going.
Down blocks are the easiest blocks in football
A lineman blocking a man already inside him is working with the defender's own alignment rather than against it. That makes Power unusually reliable for a scheme with this much movement in it: the difficult part is the pull, and everything else is the simplest assignment a lineman gets.
It gets the line of scrimmage against a loaded box
Most runs need the defense to be wrong somewhere. Power does not. Against a defense that has put everyone in the box and knows what is coming, it still produces two or three yards, which is why it is the call when everybody in the stadium knows you are running.
How to read it
- 1
The back presses the line before he cuts
Running at the hole rather than for it holds the second level in place. A back who declares his path early lets the linebackers flow to it, and the puller arrives to find the crease already filled.
- 2
Follow the puller, do not pass him
The guard is the lead blocker and the timing depends on him arriving first. A back who beats his own puller to the hole has removed the extra man the whole scheme exists to deliver.
- 3
Take it downhill off his outside hip
The crease opens where the puller makes contact. The back's job is to be one step behind and slightly outside, then turn upfield the moment the contact happens rather than waiting to see how it resolves.
- 4
One cut, then north
Power is not a play for improvisation. The scheme has already decided where the yards are; a back looking for a better crease is running into the pursuit the down blocks were holding off.
What changes in 11v11
It cannot exist below eleven players in any form
Flag football has no linemen and no legal blocking, so there is nothing to pull and nothing to block down with. This is not a concept that gets weaker at smaller formats; it simply does not exist there. A coach who has been told to run Power at five a side has been given a play from a different sport.
The numbers advantage is created rather than found
Down blocks take the nearest defenders away from the hole and the puller arrives as one more attacker than the defense aligned there. Most runs need the defense to make a mistake somewhere; Power does not, which is why it still produces against a front that has committed everybody to stopping it.
One player carries the whole scheme
The pulling guard has to move well, find the right man in traffic and arrive on time, every snap, travelling further than anyone else on the play. It is the hardest job on the offensive line, and a Power scheme is only ever as good as the player doing it.
When not to call Power
It is slow to the edge and always will be
A guard has to travel from one side of the formation to the other before the play can happen. Against a fast, penetrating front that shoots the gap he is vacating, the puller can be cut off before he arrives and the run is dead behind the line.
It asks a lot of one player
The pulling guard has to move well, find the right man in traffic and arrive on time, every snap. It is the hardest job on the offensive line, and a scheme that depends on it is only as good as the one player doing it.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the football play designer, collect them in the playbook maker, and print football play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Open Power in the designer
Opens this exact 11v11 diagram. Move anybody, change the depths, then save it to your playbook.
Open this play in the designerRelated questions
What is the difference between power and counter?
Can you run Power in flag football?
Why is my puller getting cut off?
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Coach Ray Carroll
Coaches 5v5 flag football from kindergarten through 7th grade in San Mateo and San Carlos, California, and built RC Football to design, teach and print the plays his own teams run.