On Sunday, September 29th 2013, the Oakland Raiders running back Rashad Jennings blocked Washington Redskins Punter Sav Rocca‘s punt which was recovered by his teammate FB Jeremy Steward in the endzone for a TD.
see the whole video here (In the meantime you need to have a NFL Gamepass to watch it 🙁 ).
and here is the crucial phase of the punt block technique cut into 2 sequences from different angles of three pictures each:
The Punt Block Approach
Punt Block Approach
Punt Block Approach – Endzone shot
Here we can see how early the player already starts laying out, and also very important to what point and in what direction. Because you don’t want to lay out towards the punter but across his line and through the “launch point” of the ball, which will be a lot farther ahead of the punter as to where he is at the moment you have to start laying out.
The Layout Phase
Punt Block Laying Out
Punt Block Laying Out – Endzone shot
What we can already see here is, that – even though the punter simply drops the ball, and doesn’t throw it forward – the ball moves forward due to the momentum it gained when the punter took his first step, still with the ball in his hand. In “The Punt Block Approach” pictures the ball is still clearly behind the goalline, on these pictures here it already crossed the goalline, and as you can see in the next pictures (“Taking the ball off the foot of the punter”) the ball is actually blocked around the 1-yard line.
Taking The Ball Off The Foot Of The Punter
Taking it off the foot of the punter
Taking it off the foot of the punter – Endzone shot
These pictures show us not only as already mentioned above the final “launch point” but also, that would the player have tried to block the ball at the point where it was when he started to lay out he just would have roughed the punter, and wouldn’t have blocked the punt.
Punt Block Technique Drills
To teach this punt block technique you have to break the whole down into the different phases of a successful punt block – which do not only consist of what I’ve pointed out here, but also the correct rush technique to get past the blocker quick enough, taking the correct angle, blocking the correct launch point, correct hand-placement, and trust/confidence that you can block a punt and won’t flinch…