So what is it about Mike Shanahan’s wide zone based scheme that makes it so hard to defend? Every team runs wide zone runs (also called ‘outside zone’ runs), so what is so special about an offense based around this play? What is it that made Mike Shanahan tell SI, “if you really believe in the outside zone, if you can use those techniques in the running game successfully, you can adjust against all those defenses. It starts on a day-to-day basis, believing in what you’re doing.”