An Interesting Twist on Defensive Line Play in the Four Man Front

I recently had the privilege to sit down with a colleague of mine and share some thoughts about defensive line (DL) play in the four man front.  Both of us have very similar philosophies when it comes to the "big uglies" up front...LET EM' PLAY.  However, we also both agree that a DL cannot just be a loose cannon either.  So we discussed at length what our DL reads, and DL play was about and came to a very startling conclusion.  That is the purpose of this article, is to discuss several aspects of DL play, and how us as coaches can alleviate some pressure off of our DL by using simple rule changes to how we defend our opponents blocking schemes.  I think in the end you will be pleased with our findings, and these findings will actually help speed up your linebackers (LB's) as well.

The Big Four
I have always been a proponent of teaching the "big four" block reactions.  These are as follows:

1. Base block
2. Reach block
3. Down block
4. Pass pro block (high hat read)

As I was taught, here is how the DL should react to all of the following blocks.

1. Base- DL should attack the V of the neck and fight pressure with pressure looking to collapse the offensive lineman (OL) back into the gap to the inside.
2. Reach- DL works laterally to maintain gap integrity and still fights pressure with pressure, but this time in an attempt to not have his outside shoulder reached.
3. Down- DL gets hands on the blocker and mashes blocker down into gap to the inside, and then plays down the line to up the field read looking to:
1. Spill the first puller (trap)
2. Spill the kick out block (power)
3. Tackle the ball carrier (veer/midline)
4. Pass- DL works up field in his rush lane and makes a move to attempt to sack the quarterback (QB).

Defeating the base block the traditional way

Defeating reach blocking

Wrong arming the trap block

I know these are generic ways of teaching the technique, but you basically understand what I was teaching to my DL.  Now let's look at a little history on how my colleague and I arrived at our DL philosophies.

History of DL Play
In my early years, wrong arming was the new wave of things, and the "big four" reads above were just being taught.  I remember sitting in clinics thinking of how simple and sound this stuff was compared to the old DL reads I'd been teaching in the 50 defense (yes, I was an odd front guy, many moons ago, but not by choice).  Anyhow, my defensive coordinator at the time was switching to the 4-3, and all of this made sense and really came into play.  We put teams on their ears as they did not know what to do with this new DL technique.  Wrong arming was especially tough on our opponents.  Back then we taught one-for-one and had our lineman cut any pullers they came up against (we were taught that way back then).  Later on we changed this to "running the circle" and getting a two-for-one advantage. 

Then comes the spread!  Well, being a 4-3 Quarters guy, there were several times we were left with a 4-1 box and had to something to alleviate some pressure on middle linebacker (MLB).  At first we simply ran a stunt we had in our base package called "knife".  The knife stunt simply told the defensive end (DE) to slant one gap inside his normal alignment.  This worked good until you ran up against a QB who could scramble.  The QB simple rolled outside  your DE that had pinched and had no pressure in his face now.  So we came up with a way to keep our base reads, but change the ones that were giving us trouble, by creating a stunt we called "Ed".  Ed stands, for end down and has been talked about in many of my defending flexbone posts.  Basically the "big four" reads remain the same, except for that of the base block.  In the Ed stunt, I had the DL wrong arm the base block, thereby putting them down one gap inside their normal alignment.  It was accomplishing the same thing the knife stunt was, but now on a pass protection read, the DL used the same technique we normally taught and was able to still contain the QB.  Later on, we added the "TED" stunt, which stood for tackle and end down, meaning that both the tackle and the DE's were going to wrong arm any base block they got.  The TED stunt was very good against the midline and counter iso plays I was seeing at the time from some of our flexbone opponents.

Ed stunt vs. base block

I have used the Ted and Ed stunts on and off for the past seven years, with a great deal of success.  We also used these stunts to help protect what some would call, less-than-adequate LB's as well.  These were LB's who could not meet the isolation play consistently at or around the line of scrimmage (LOS), for whatever reason (fear, inability, athleticism, etc.).  The stunt took away the inside gap that was being opened and spilled the ball outside where our lesser players could simply run it down.  The stunt and technique, coupled with safety run support, made for a very sound scheme, even when I didn't have a great corps of LB's. 

Ed stunt protecting OLB

Which leads me to the next historical point of my friend and his conversation with his DL coach a few years back.  Due to his request I will leave my friend and where he coaches out of this, but a few years back he and his DL coach were having a conversation in a defensive team meeting, when they noticed a weak kid they had at DE getting reached constantly.  The young man did good on traps and spilling the puller, and was a pretty good pass rusher as well.  The young man simply could not handle the reach block.  So my friend asked his coach, in preparation for an upcoming playoff game, "Will he get reached?".  To which the DL coach said "yes".  Anyhow, they lost the playoff game (not because of the DE, obviously), and in the off-season, my friend headed out in search of an answer to his troubles.  What my friend looked for were colleges that consistently did not get quite the same talent as those around them, or in their conference, yet were very competitive year in and year out.  Again, for anonymity I will not disclose where he found this technique, but the funny thing is, I had been doing some of it and never even knew it.

This technique is simply known to us as "Two-gap, one gap", and is probably not as revolutionary as some think, however in discussing this with coaches I find not many use this technique.  To look at how things work with the TGOG system, let's take a look at just what the scheme is from the ground up.

The Basic Scheme
The basic TGOG system is very simple.  There will be two one gap linemen, and two two gap linemen in the four down lineman system.  There will also be one of these to each side, so that the defense has a two gapper, and a one gapper on each side of the football.  Now let's look at how you determine which DL play which technique.

The simplicity of the system lies in the lack of specialization.  I used to be a coach that every player had to have a "special" job or quality, but have quickly found out that this leads to a large teaching problem.  Specialization, though it sounds cool, can and will frustrate you as a coach.  The more generic you can be with your coaching, the more you can accomplish with your players.  This is the old triple option coaches axiom of "Multiplicity through simplicity".  In DL terms, this means having two ends and two tackles, not a strong end, weak end, nose and tackle.  Both the tackles and ends should be interchangeable meaning that these players should be able to play both the strong and weak sides of a formation equally.

Ok, so now that the lack of specialization has been addressed, we can now focus on the first part of playing DL, alignment.  The alignment in the TGOG system is very important.  The one gap lineman aligns in a "looser than normal" alignment.  So for the DE, this would mean that if he were to normally align in a five technique, he would align in a seven technique (even if there wasn't a tight end present).  The two gap lineman aligns very tight, almost head up on the OL.  So if a DE were to be in a five technique he would align with his nose on the outside eye of the offensive tackle (OT).  The reasons for this variation in alignment, will be discussed later.

The way the TGOG system works is very simple.  For the interior linemen, if you are in a two technique or higher, you two-gap.  If you are in a two-eye technique or lower, then you one-gap.  So, in our base over front, the weakside tackle is in a one technique and he is a one gapper, meaning he will more than likely align in the A gap (wider than a normal one technique) and is only responsible for the A gap, getting upfield and wrecking havoc.  On the strong side the strong tackle is in a three technique, so he is a two-gapper.  The two-gapper will align much tighter than a normal three technique and will utilize the two-gap technique.  All the DE's have to do is ask themselves this simple question "Is the gap inside of my alignment vacant or occupied (you can use open or closed either one will suffice).  If the gap is open, then the DE is a two-gapper.  However, if the gap is closed, then the DE is a one-gapper (as shown above).


The one gap lineman is quite simply summed up in one phrase...pass rusher.  When you coach the one gap lineman the main goal is to get off the football, get up field and disrupt blocking schemes via penetration.  Now I know many of you die-hards are going "Oh yeah, well I'll just trap your ass".  Well, it isn't quite that easy, however that is the main focus of coaching the one gap player.  The one gap player should avoid blocks, and get up the field.  If the player is the one technique, think penetration and disruption.  The DE is simply turned loose, and allowed to rush around the corner.  Now I know what you are thinking, however there are block reactions.

The one gap DL is very simply put, to maintain the gap they are aligned in.  The reaction to the base, reach and pass set are all the same, get up field and rush around the corner.  The only thing that changes on the down block, is the angle of attack that the DL will take to the football.  When the OL down blocks, the one gap DL will get into "chase" mode and come flat down the LOS.  It does not matter how the one-gapper handles the trap block.  When in doubt, he is to spill if he can, however if he boxes, this is not a problem either.  That is the beauty of the system, let the one-gappers go and wreck havoc.  That's it!  The one gap technique is very aggressive and very simple, which allows you to teach both the one gap and two gap techniques to your DL.

1 gap DE reaction to base, reach and pass set

1 gap DE reaction to down block (chase)

The two gapper, is also every bit as simple as the one gapper.  The two gapper is only a two gapper on paper, meaning he aligns in one gap, but is responsible for another.  When coaching the two gap DL, think King of the Boards drill.  The two gapper is in KOB mode all the time.  The reason for this is simple, in the KOB drill, there is no advantage to either side, it is simply put, man-on-man, may the best man win.  In a game situation however, OL have to react to stunts and movements by the DL to maintain leverage.  Even zone teams, will anticipate certain movements or reactions from DL aligned in certain techniques.  Basically, OL in game situations are more tentative than they are in KOB drills.  The DL however, knowing what he has to do (basically bull rush), is clearly at the advantage.  No matter what the OL does, the DL's job is to drive this defender backwards.  The DL is actually assigned to the gap inside his alignment because of this technique.  So against the base, reach and pass set, the DL will bull rush directly at the OL he aligns over.  Once the block is read, contact is made and the OL driven back the DL will then slip into the inside gap.  Against the down block scheme the DL is still trying to mash the OL back, but will now mash him down inside, thereby physically placing himself looking down the line into either the path of the puller, or the running back.  The key element for two gap players is contact and hands.  Two gappers must always get hands on the OL.  The two gapper cannot run around or avoid blocks, yet he must run through them, at least through contact, before getting into his assigned gap.  I keep the movement into the gap very simple and have the DL execute a rip move inside.  This does two things, it defeats most OL blocks that are base or reach, because the blocker has lost leverage on his backside gap.  This rip move also turns the DL down inside whereas he can still wrong arm any influence trap that may occur.

2 gap DE vs. base, reach and pass pro blocks

2 gap DE vs. down block

The only tweak to this scheme is that of the two gap DE.  The two gap DE, against a pass set will still bull rush, but will not work inside until he's on the same level as the football.  This allows this DE to still keep contain on the QB if he was to roll or scramble to the two gap DE's side.  Once the DE sees the football and can react to it, then he makes his inside move.

Why Choose the TGOG Scheme?
The reason is very simple.  On the Huey board I took a poll to see how many DL coaches had that could consistently defeat the "big four" blocks.  The answers were pretty astounding, as you can see here.  As you can see, most coaches voted for either one or two DL that could consistently handle the "big four".  Basically put, on average only 50 percent of your DL was able to execute sound technique.  I'd be willing to bet, of that 50 percent, half of that could only execute half the time. 

Why is this you ask?  BDSD came from coaches who coach on Saturdays, and make their living finding and recruiting the best athletes possible.  High school coaches do not have the recruitment luxury (unless you are a private school), so what are we left to do?  There are two thoughts here, coach up what you have and let them play and when the fail you can simply chalk it up to lack of talent (see how long you keep your job).  Or, you can coach up your players and find ways to help them succeed.  There is nothing mentioned in the techniques above that a below average lineman cannot do.  However a below average lineman if he's worried about the trap, is going to get reached or kicked out.  If he's now worrying about the reach or base block, then he's susceptible to the trap and so forth.  You can argue this with me until your blue in the face, but you will not convince me that year in and year out you will find four guys that can execute the proper technique 70 percent of the time.

This is because college DL are asked to attack and react, quite simply put.  You must realize, that of all the high school DL probably less than five percent of those make it to the college ranks.  So why ask your Friday night player to do something they see on Saturdays?  Doesn't make sense.  To be honest, I feel this is the number on reason of the resurgence of the odd fronts such as the 3-4, 3-3, and the 3-5.  These schemes, usually, do not read blocks, yet slant their DL to certain areas to create confusion and to level the playing field by also knowing where they are going before the play starts (similar to the advantage an OL should have on any given play).  The four man line is weak in this area, because the linemen are asked not only to attack, but to react, and this puts them in pinch (no pun intended).  My friend and I, through years of watching DL getting reached, or have the trap mercilessly carve up our defenses, have turned the tables and are now able to get our players to attack similar to our odd front cousins.  If I had to choose one of the two traits of the four man DL, it would be that of attack.  I don't want players reacting, I want them attacking.  First off if you are reacting you are already a step behind, if you are attacking you are always a step ahead.

By now having predetermined gaps to go to on the snap, your LB reads can also become quicker and more aggressive.  Again, now you have your players attacking, not attacking and reacting.  The goal here is to remove the reaction as reaction is always a step behind.  A step behind on defense is giving up yardage, something we can all ill afford to do.  I will discuss these LB reads in another post, yet you can clearly see where utilizing this technique can have a major advantage for the defense.

An Added "Twist"
Another technique, that was added by my friend later was between the inside two DL.  The idea here was to always run a twist stunt to keep the OL on their toes.  How it works is when the two gap DL bull rushes and comes inside, he continues to work behind the center and into the A gap on the complete opposite side of the football from where he originally aligned.  The one gap DL will work up the field hard, as usual, but will then work off the stunt by the tackle and cross over the center into the A gap opposite his alignment.  The stunt is shown below.

In Conclusion
Our job, as coaches, is to put our players in the best position to make a play.  Quite simply put, however, how often do you try something you learned from a college coach at a clinic, only to have it fail?  Here is a simple solution to the woes many DL coaches have in getting their players to attack and react to offensive blocking schemes.  Now, by using the TGOG technique, you have the upper hand, and are creating attacking defenders instead of attacking and reacting.  This "is" putting YOUR players in a better position to be successful. 

Well, the off-season has been very quite, not much to do in junior high football I guess, but review film and tweak schemes.  Anyhow, I'm really looking for some aggressive onside kick stuff.  Even onside all the time type stuff.  If anybody has ANYTHING they can share with me, please email me at footballislifeblog@yahoo.com.  Hope all is going well for you and your program, don't snooze though, for many spring football is on its way!

Are you ready for spring football???

Duece

An Interesting Twist on Defensive Line Play in the Four Man Front

I recently had the privilege to sit down with a colleague of mine and share some thoughts about defensive line (DL) play in the four man front.  Both of us have very similar philosophies when it comes to the "big uglies" up front...LET EM' PLAY.  However, we also both agree that a DL cannot just be a loose cannon either.  So we discussed at length what our DL reads, and DL play was about and came to a very startling conclusion.  That is the purpose of this article, is to discuss several aspects of DL play, and how us as coaches can alleviate some pressure off of our DL by using simple rule changes to how we defend our opponents blocking schemes.  I think in the end you will be pleased with our findings, and these findings will actually help speed up your linebackers (LB's) as well.

The Big Four
I have always been a proponent of teaching the "big four" block reactions.  These are as follows:

1. Base block
2. Reach block
3. Down block
4. Pass pro block (high hat read)

As I was taught, here is how the DL should react to all of the following blocks.

1. Base- DL should attack the V of the neck and fight pressure with pressure looking to collapse the offensive lineman (OL) back into the gap to the inside.
2. Reach- DL works laterally to maintain gap integrity and still fights pressure with pressure, but this time in an attempt to not have his outside shoulder reached.
3. Down- DL gets hands on the blocker and mashes blocker down into gap to the inside, and then plays down the line to up the field read looking to:
1. Spill the first puller (trap)
2. Spill the kick out block (power)
3. Tackle the ball carrier (veer/midline)
4. Pass- DL works up field in his rush lane and makes a move to attempt to sack the quarterback (QB).

Defeating the base block the traditional way

Defeating reach blocking

Wrong arming the trap block

I know these are generic ways of teaching the technique, but you basically understand what I was teaching to my DL.  Now let's look at a little history on how my colleague and I arrived at our DL philosophies.

History of DL Play
In my early years, wrong arming was the new wave of things, and the "big four" reads above were just being taught.  I remember sitting in clinics thinking of how simple and sound this stuff was compared to the old DL reads I'd been teaching in the 50 defense (yes, I was an odd front guy, many moons ago, but not by choice).  Anyhow, my defensive coordinator at the time was switching to the 4-3, and all of this made sense and really came into play.  We put teams on their ears as they did not know what to do with this new DL technique.  Wrong arming was especially tough on our opponents.  Back then we taught one-for-one and had our lineman cut any pullers they came up against (we were taught that way back then).  Later on we changed this to "running the circle" and getting a two-for-one advantage. 

Then comes the spread!  Well, being a 4-3 Quarters guy, there were several times we were left with a 4-1 box and had to something to alleviate some pressure on middle linebacker (MLB).  At first we simply ran a stunt we had in our base package called "knife".  The knife stunt simply told the defensive end (DE) to slant one gap inside his normal alignment.  This worked good until you ran up against a QB who could scramble.  The QB simple rolled outside  your DE that had pinched and had no pressure in his face now.  So we came up with a way to keep our base reads, but change the ones that were giving us trouble, by creating a stunt we called "Ed".  Ed stands, for end down and has been talked about in many of my defending flexbone posts.  Basically the "big four" reads remain the same, except for that of the base block.  In the Ed stunt, I had the DL wrong arm the base block, thereby putting them down one gap inside their normal alignment.  It was accomplishing the same thing the knife stunt was, but now on a pass protection read, the DL used the same technique we normally taught and was able to still contain the QB.  Later on, we added the "TED" stunt, which stood for tackle and end down, meaning that both the tackle and the DE's were going to wrong arm any base block they got.  The TED stunt was very good against the midline and counter iso plays I was seeing at the time from some of our flexbone opponents.

Ed stunt vs. base block

I have used the Ted and Ed stunts on and off for the past seven years, with a great deal of success.  We also used these stunts to help protect what some would call, less-than-adequate LB's as well.  These were LB's who could not meet the isolation play consistently at or around the line of scrimmage (LOS), for whatever reason (fear, inability, athleticism, etc.).  The stunt took away the inside gap that was being opened and spilled the ball outside where our lesser players could simply run it down.  The stunt and technique, coupled with safety run support, made for a very sound scheme, even when I didn't have a great corps of LB's. 

Ed stunt protecting OLB

Which leads me to the next historical point of my friend and his conversation with his DL coach a few years back.  Due to his request I will leave my friend and where he coaches out of this, but a few years back he and his DL coach were having a conversation in a defensive team meeting, when they noticed a weak kid they had at DE getting reached constantly.  The young man did good on traps and spilling the puller, and was a pretty good pass rusher as well.  The young man simply could not handle the reach block.  So my friend asked his coach, in preparation for an upcoming playoff game, "Will he get reached?".  To which the DL coach said "yes".  Anyhow, they lost the playoff game (not because of the DE, obviously), and in the off-season, my friend headed out in search of an answer to his troubles.  What my friend looked for were colleges that consistently did not get quite the same talent as those around them, or in their conference, yet were very competitive year in and year out.  Again, for anonymity I will not disclose where he found this technique, but the funny thing is, I had been doing some of it and never even knew it.

This technique is simply known to us as "Two-gap, one gap", and is probably not as revolutionary as some think, however in discussing this with coaches I find not many use this technique.  To look at how things work with the TGOG system, let's take a look at just what the scheme is from the ground up.

The Basic Scheme
The basic TGOG system is very simple.  There will be two one gap linemen, and two two gap linemen in the four down lineman system.  There will also be one of these to each side, so that the defense has a two gapper, and a one gapper on each side of the football.  Now let's look at how you determine which DL play which technique.

The simplicity of the system lies in the lack of specialization.  I used to be a coach that every player had to have a "special" job or quality, but have quickly found out that this leads to a large teaching problem.  Specialization, though it sounds cool, can and will frustrate you as a coach.  The more generic you can be with your coaching, the more you can accomplish with your players.  This is the old triple option coaches axiom of "Multiplicity through simplicity".  In DL terms, this means having two ends and two tackles, not a strong end, weak end, nose and tackle.  Both the tackles and ends should be interchangeable meaning that these players should be able to play both the strong and weak sides of a formation equally.

Ok, so now that the lack of specialization has been addressed, we can now focus on the first part of playing DL, alignment.  The alignment in the TGOG system is very important.  The one gap lineman aligns in a "looser than normal" alignment.  So for the DE, this would mean that if he were to normally align in a five technique, he would align in a seven technique (even if there wasn't a tight end present).  The two gap lineman aligns very tight, almost head up on the OL.  So if a DE were to be in a five technique he would align with his nose on the outside eye of the offensive tackle (OT).  The reasons for this variation in alignment, will be discussed later.

The way the TGOG system works is very simple.  For the interior linemen, if you are in a two technique or higher, you two-gap.  If you are in a two-eye technique or lower, then you one-gap.  So, in our base over front, the weakside tackle is in a one technique and he is a one gapper, meaning he will more than likely align in the A gap (wider than a normal one technique) and is only responsible for the A gap, getting upfield and wrecking havoc.  On the strong side the strong tackle is in a three technique, so he is a two-gapper.  The two-gapper will align much tighter than a normal three technique and will utilize the two-gap technique.  All the DE's have to do is ask themselves this simple question "Is the gap inside of my alignment vacant or occupied (you can use open or closed either one will suffice).  If the gap is open, then the DE is a two-gapper.  However, if the gap is closed, then the DE is a one-gapper (as shown above).


The one gap lineman is quite simply summed up in one phrase...pass rusher.  When you coach the one gap lineman the main goal is to get off the football, get up field and disrupt blocking schemes via penetration.  Now I know many of you die-hards are going "Oh yeah, well I'll just trap your ass".  Well, it isn't quite that easy, however that is the main focus of coaching the one gap player.  The one gap player should avoid blocks, and get up the field.  If the player is the one technique, think penetration and disruption.  The DE is simply turned loose, and allowed to rush around the corner.  Now I know what you are thinking, however there are block reactions.

The one gap DL is very simply put, to maintain the gap they are aligned in.  The reaction to the base, reach and pass set are all the same, get up field and rush around the corner.  The only thing that changes on the down block, is the angle of attack that the DL will take to the football.  When the OL down blocks, the one gap DL will get into "chase" mode and come flat down the LOS.  It does not matter how the one-gapper handles the trap block.  When in doubt, he is to spill if he can, however if he boxes, this is not a problem either.  That is the beauty of the system, let the one-gappers go and wreck havoc.  That's it!  The one gap technique is very aggressive and very simple, which allows you to teach both the one gap and two gap techniques to your DL.

1 gap DE reaction to base, reach and pass set

1 gap DE reaction to down block (chase)

The two gapper, is also every bit as simple as the one gapper.  The two gapper is only a two gapper on paper, meaning he aligns in one gap, but is responsible for another.  When coaching the two gap DL, think King of the Boards drill.  The two gapper is in KOB mode all the time.  The reason for this is simple, in the KOB drill, there is no advantage to either side, it is simply put, man-on-man, may the best man win.  In a game situation however, OL have to react to stunts and movements by the DL to maintain leverage.  Even zone teams, will anticipate certain movements or reactions from DL aligned in certain techniques.  Basically, OL in game situations are more tentative than they are in KOB drills.  The DL however, knowing what he has to do (basically bull rush), is clearly at the advantage.  No matter what the OL does, the DL's job is to drive this defender backwards.  The DL is actually assigned to the gap inside his alignment because of this technique.  So against the base, reach and pass set, the DL will bull rush directly at the OL he aligns over.  Once the block is read, contact is made and the OL driven back the DL will then slip into the inside gap.  Against the down block scheme the DL is still trying to mash the OL back, but will now mash him down inside, thereby physically placing himself looking down the line into either the path of the puller, or the running back.  The key element for two gap players is contact and hands.  Two gappers must always get hands on the OL.  The two gapper cannot run around or avoid blocks, yet he must run through them, at least through contact, before getting into his assigned gap.  I keep the movement into the gap very simple and have the DL execute a rip move inside.  This does two things, it defeats most OL blocks that are base or reach, because the blocker has lost leverage on his backside gap.  This rip move also turns the DL down inside whereas he can still wrong arm any influence trap that may occur.

2 gap DE vs. base, reach and pass pro blocks

2 gap DE vs. down block

The only tweak to this scheme is that of the two gap DE.  The two gap DE, against a pass set will still bull rush, but will not work inside until he's on the same level as the football.  This allows this DE to still keep contain on the QB if he was to roll or scramble to the two gap DE's side.  Once the DE sees the football and can react to it, then he makes his inside move.

Why Choose the TGOG Scheme?
The reason is very simple.  On the Huey board I took a poll to see how many DL coaches had that could consistently defeat the "big four" blocks.  The answers were pretty astounding, as you can see here.  As you can see, most coaches voted for either one or two DL that could consistently handle the "big four".  Basically put, on average only 50 percent of your DL was able to execute sound technique.  I'd be willing to bet, of that 50 percent, half of that could only execute half the time. 

Why is this you ask?  BDSD came from coaches who coach on Saturdays, and make their living finding and recruiting the best athletes possible.  High school coaches do not have the recruitment luxury (unless you are a private school), so what are we left to do?  There are two thoughts here, coach up what you have and let them play and when the fail you can simply chalk it up to lack of talent (see how long you keep your job).  Or, you can coach up your players and find ways to help them succeed.  There is nothing mentioned in the techniques above that a below average lineman cannot do.  However a below average lineman if he's worried about the trap, is going to get reached or kicked out.  If he's now worrying about the reach or base block, then he's susceptible to the trap and so forth.  You can argue this with me until your blue in the face, but you will not convince me that year in and year out you will find four guys that can execute the proper technique 70 percent of the time.

This is because college DL are asked to attack and react, quite simply put.  You must realize, that of all the high school DL probably less than five percent of those make it to the college ranks.  So why ask your Friday night player to do something they see on Saturdays?  Doesn't make sense.  To be honest, I feel this is the number on reason of the resurgence of the odd fronts such as the 3-4, 3-3, and the 3-5.  These schemes, usually, do not read blocks, yet slant their DL to certain areas to create confusion and to level the playing field by also knowing where they are going before the play starts (similar to the advantage an OL should have on any given play).  The four man line is weak in this area, because the linemen are asked not only to attack, but to react, and this puts them in pinch (no pun intended).  My friend and I, through years of watching DL getting reached, or have the trap mercilessly carve up our defenses, have turned the tables and are now able to get our players to attack similar to our odd front cousins.  If I had to choose one of the two traits of the four man DL, it would be that of attack.  I don't want players reacting, I want them attacking.  First off if you are reacting you are already a step behind, if you are attacking you are always a step ahead.

By now having predetermined gaps to go to on the snap, your LB reads can also become quicker and more aggressive.  Again, now you have your players attacking, not attacking and reacting.  The goal here is to remove the reaction as reaction is always a step behind.  A step behind on defense is giving up yardage, something we can all ill afford to do.  I will discuss these LB reads in another post, yet you can clearly see where utilizing this technique can have a major advantage for the defense.

An Added "Twist"
Another technique, that was added by my friend later was between the inside two DL.  The idea here was to always run a twist stunt to keep the OL on their toes.  How it works is when the two gap DL bull rushes and comes inside, he continues to work behind the center and into the A gap on the complete opposite side of the football from where he originally aligned.  The one gap DL will work up the field hard, as usual, but will then work off the stunt by the tackle and cross over the center into the A gap opposite his alignment.  The stunt is shown below.

In Conclusion
Our job, as coaches, is to put our players in the best position to make a play.  Quite simply put, however, how often do you try something you learned from a college coach at a clinic, only to have it fail?  Here is a simple solution to the woes many DL coaches have in getting their players to attack and react to offensive blocking schemes.  Now, by using the TGOG technique, you have the upper hand, and are creating attacking defenders instead of attacking and reacting.  This "is" putting YOUR players in a better position to be successful. 

Well, the off-season has been very quite, not much to do in junior high football I guess, but review film and tweak schemes.  Anyhow, I'm really looking for some aggressive onside kick stuff.  Even onside all the time type stuff.  If anybody has ANYTHING they can share with me, please email me at footballislifeblog@yahoo.com.  Hope all is going well for you and your program, don't snooze though, for many spring football is on its way!

Are you ready for spring football???

Duece

A Great Comeback on an Obscure Rule

Miami Northwestern is probably still wondering what happened this past season, when they fell 36-28 to lowly ol' Belen Jesuit High School.  Hats off to the Belen coach for knowing his rulebook and using the good ol' free kick after a fair catch on a punt.  The 49 yard free kick is counted as a field goal, and capped off a stunning upset of one of Dade County's finest football programs.  The interception at the end was simply the "icing on the cake", but it's very nice to see a coach who knows his stuff.  Here is the rule from the NHFS rulebook (which governs Florida football):

ART. 3 . . . A free kick is any legal kick which puts the ball in play to start a freekick

down. After the ready-for-play signal and before the kick, each player other

than the kicker and holder for a place kick must be behind his free-kick line. A free

kick is used for a kickoff, for a kick following a safety, and is used if a free kick is

chosen following a fair catch or awarded fair catch.

The Miami Northwestern coach argued that the kicker cannot use a kicking tee, and this is clearly invalid, as seen in Article five of the same section:

ART. 5 . . . A kickoff is a free kick which puts the ball in play at the beginning

of each half of the game, after a successful field goal and after any try. A place

kick or a drop kick shall be used for the kickoff.

Again, it helps to know the rules of the game!  Here's the video of the game, the comeback and the final kick to win the game for Belen Jesuit.

So, keep your rule book handy, and ready at all times, you never know when you may need some obscure rule such as the free kick rule!

Duece

The 46 Nickel and the Flexbone...Defending Against the Adjustments

In part one on the series on defending the flexbone with the 46 Nickel, we learned how to handle the base offense, and the inside veer.  Now for the "cat and mouse" game to begin.  Any good triple option offensive coordinator (OC) is going to roll the dice and adjust to what you are doing defensively to take away the flexbone's base play...the triple option. 

There are two methods this OC can perform to try and outmaneuver what the defense is doing and these are:

1. Formation the defense into a bad situation
2. Run plays that attack what the defense is doing to take away the triple option.

This post will look at both these adjustments by the offense, and show you exactly how to react to them out of the 46 Nickel.


Formation Adjustments
The easiest method for the OC to employ, is that of utilizing formations to hurt what the defense is doing to take away the triple.  A couple common formation adjustments are listed below:

1. Ends Over
2. Trips (Open and Closed)
3. Nasty
4. Heavy (Tackles Over)

Ends Over

Trips Open

Trips Closed

Nasty

Heavy

Now, let's look at how you should attack each of these formations adjustments.

Ends Over
The Ends Over, or Over adjustment, is meant to give 8 man fronts a problem, and will if you don't adjust in some manner.  The simplest manner is to treat this as a twins closed formation and go corners over as shown below:

The defense is balanced with 6.5 defenders to the offense's strong side and 4.5 defenders to the nub side.  I like to play my corner on the outside shade of the inside receiver.  This gives you a good leverage point to defend the pitch, and to defend any screens the offense may try to use out of this Over formation.

Trips Open
Trips Open, is a tricky formation to defend.  On one hand you can simply move the Whip and Spur over to the trips side, however this leaves the offense with some good angles to the weak side.  What I prefer to do in this situation is use the Jayhawk adjustment and have my defense use Saban's "Mable" adjustment to trips formations.  What this does is keeps the defense sound against any of the trips passing game, and gives the offense poor blocking angles to the weak side.

The reason for this adjustment is the threat of "return" motion.  Return motion has become popular in recent years with Georgia Tech. leading the pack at the FBS level.  Return motion is simply where the middle slot in trips motions to the backfield, but the play "returns" to the side he came from.  This makes life difficult for teams looking for a key on overplaying the flexbone's motion ability.  The problem is, if you simply treat this formation as a twins open formation, you are down in pass responsibility to the trips side.  The key here is to gamble on what you are facing.  You are NOT facing a prolific passing team, usually, and sometimes you have to roll the dice.  I say, make them beat me passing, and see what happens.  So I DO treat this as a twins open formation, and that is why the adjustment above is shown.

Return Motion





With motion trips open becomes twins open



Trips Closed
Trips closed is a set rarely used by Flexbone teams, however, it can be a tough set to defend if you are not prepared.  The key to the trips closed formation is not to treat it any differently than the over formation shown above.  They are one in the same.  The only thing I would do, is bump the Whip down to a seven technique and have him plug the C gap, playing off of the block by the offensive tackle.  If the OT blocks down, have him take dive and utilize the BDSD principle discussed here before.  The coverage should be the standard 3 deep 3 under fire zone match up man coverage.  The only difference is, the inside corner and the FS will trade assignments.  So the inside corner is the MOF player, while the FS will take all of 1 vertical.   The Whip safety will take #2 out only, as he drops off the LOS.  If #2 is not out, then you can have him rush, or better yet have him spy the QB (we all know Flexbone QB's are usually runners first, so not a bad idea to spy him).

Nasty
The Nasty formation is just as it sounds...nasty.  The main reason Flexbone teams use the Nasty formation is when they are facing a defense with the force players on the LOS.  There are a couple of ways to defend this, the first is to simply widen your force players.  This is a simple adjustment, but does have the drawback that the WR's now have some clean shots at some players to the inside.

The other option is to align these players in their normal alignment and utilize a combination of two calls we learned about in a previous post.  The Jet call puts the OLB down hard inside looking to take dive to QB (whichever shows first).  The Heavy call, puts the OSS driving hard down inside for the very same thing as the Jet call.  Combining the two calls into the "Blood" call looks as follows:



Blood Stunt

The FS must see the block by the slot on the OSS and get on his horse to get to the pitch, as running this stunt will usually result in a quick pitch.  Now if the offense decides to crack the OLB with the WR and still load, my advice is to simply run the Jet stunt shown below:



Jet Stunt

Here the FS fits inside the load and plays the outside half of the QB to pitch.

Finally, if the offense chooses to align this way, yet leave your force player alone, and use a "double load" scheme as shown below, then utilize the Heavy stunt mentioned in a previous post.  Now the OSS is inside the load and the FS will overlap and play outside the load. 





Heavy Stunt

Now we all know the old saying "He who has the chalk last", however, the more bullets you have in your gun, the better off you are in a gunfight is my motto.  Only having one way of defending the triple option is exactly what the person meant when they described someone "Bringing a knife to a gunfight".  I prefer to have some answers, and the three stunts mentioned above are good ones (Jet, Heavy and Blood).

Heavy
Heavy or Tackles Over is the toughest formation to defend.  Upon recognition of this set, the defense should check into a front called "Kick Strong".  Kick is a term in the 46 Nickel that "kicks" the front 1 shade to the call side.  So out of our base three-zero-three alignment, the new alignment would be four-eye, one, and two-eye as shown below.

The coverage must change as well.  The coverage is a rotated zone based on motion.  If there is motion to the weak side, the corner will take the first receiver outside and will carry the second receiver through the zone (swing deep of 2).  The FS has the first vertical.  If there is no motion, then the weak corner takes the flats and the FS will take the weak half of the field.  The Whip is the hook to curl player and Mike plays the low hole.  To the strong side, that corner is a deep half player.  The OLB will take the flats, and the Spur will take the hook to curl zone.



 Vs. motion, the coverage "morphs" into a two by four zone coverage as follows:



Looking at run assignments, there must be some calls made to help the defense be in a better position to defend the triple option.  Looking to the strong side first, if a team tried to run the inside veer, there must be two things they can do.  First, if they choose to run the veer scheme, then the option simply becomes a double option and the offense is playing right into the hands of the defense (the defense has taken away the dive by alignment).




Inside Veer Strong

The ideal play for the offense to try and run is the outside veer.  The best stunt to call in this situation is either the Jet stunt, or the Blood stunt.



Jet Stunt vs. OSV



Blood vs. OSV

 
To the weak side the offense will think it has easy pickings for the inside veer play, but the Jet and Blood stunts will quickly deter them!






Jet vs. Heavy ISV Weak





Blood vs Heavy ISV Weak

As you can see, the Heavy formation is not as tough to defend as some might think.  The defense is also very sound against some of the other staple run plays of the Flexbone offense.  The key here is getting the players to recognize the alignment of the offense and check into the proper front (Kick Strong). 

 Play Adjustments

Flexbone coaches will not only adjust with formations, they will run complimentary plays that attack other areas of your defense to attempt to take away what you are doing to stop the triple option.  Some of these plays are:

1. Midline
2. Triple Pass
3. Rocket
4. Counter Option or Counter Iso

Knowing the opposing coaches' counter moves are essential to defending the offense you are facing.  The Flexbone is no different, so let's break these plays down and see how the 46 Nickel defends them.

Midline
Midline is one of the toughest plays in football to defend.  There are several ways to run midline and they are listed below:

1. Midline blast (double power play-both slots inserting)
2. Midline load (double option, only one slot inserting)
3. Midline fold (double option, backside slot goes for pitch, front side inserts)
4. Midline arc/switch (triple option)

So now that we know what we are facing, let's look at how the 46 Nickel handles each of these situations.  First to the Midline blast.  Blast is one of my favorite plays (for more on midline, go here) in all of football.  It combines power football and option football all in one play.  The good news for the 46 Nickel, is that with the standard three-zero-three look, that makes life tough on midline football.




Midline Blast

 The key to defending midline is for the OSS's to key the OT.  If he fans, and the window opens, they fill it.  If the OT blocks down, they fill and the window closes, then they fill outside (see Veer examples above).  Here, you can see, the Spur, inserts because the B gap window opens.  This puts a defender outside the lead block by the slot.  The Mike inserts and is inside the lead block of the folding slot and outside the lead block by the trailing slot.  The End and Nose make up the two defenders inside the lead block by the trailing slot.  You also have the FS filling to the ball as your "plus one" player.  The offense has chosen to put 2 blockers in one gap, thereby creating three more gaps to that side, but you have countered that by having one more than they can block by the play of the FS.

Now let's look at Midline Seal.  Flexbone teams that see you keying their slots will attempt to "load" or seal the LB with the slot instead of folding as shown below.  The idea here is that it removes a player from the B gap so the QB is free to run.  Again, this proves useless because of the reads by the OSS and the FS.

Midline Seal/Load Scheme

Flexbone teams are notorious for switching players assignment, as to try and confuse the defense and get a defender out of position.  The next tactic they utilize is that of folding the front side slot and having the backside slot go for pitch. 






Midline Fold Scheme

Once you've finally frustrated the offense, you will now see the wrath of the dreaded Midline Triple.  Midline Triple, or "mid veer" as I call it, is not an easy play on the offense.  This play puts tremendous stress on the option quarterback as the reads happen so fast.  A defense must be careful in the way they handle the mid veer play, because if not handled properly this play can "get out the gate" on you in a hurry.



Mid Veer

The FS will more than likely be slightly out of position as he's used to jumping motion (most Flexbone teams run this play with counter motion), however he's more than likely having to deal with being blocked by an OT, a match up I would hope most FS's would win in the open field.  The keys to defending this play is that you have your players inside and outside the dive (End being read and OSS away from action).  You have a defender inside the load and outside the load (Mike inside OSS to option side outside), and a player inside and outside the second load by the slot (OLB is outside, and FS is inside). 

There is nothing wrong with stunting this play either, and a good stunt is the Jet stunt.  This forces the QB to make instantaneous reads and will more than likely result in the ball being pitched on the ground. 



Jet Stunt vs. Mid Veer

Triple Pass
Good Flexbone coaches are going to notice the FS in the 46 Nickel scheme and try to exploit his aggressiveness.  Again, with a solid foundation of keys and reads, these tactics should not thwart the attack of the 46 Nickel.  The two most common versions of the Triple Pass are to run the play side WR on a takeoff route with the slot mimicking a load block and running a Whip route.  Secondly, some coaches choose to send both the WR and the slot on takeoff routes to try and put an aggressive safety in a bind.  Both passes, and how they should be defensed are shown below.




The FS's read on the play side slot is what will save the FS from being burned deep on the second diagram.  The FS must know, he has time to react to this route and must always approach the LOS patiently until he has diagnosed the play correctly.  The famous phrase "Don't go til' you know" rings very true when defending the Triple Pass.

Rocket
Once the Flexbone OC has seen you are stunting to stop the triple option, more than likely you will start to see a heavy dose of Rocket toss.  Rocket is a play that can really hurt a defense if their force players are not coached very well on defending it.  Some keys to teach your players when looking to defend this play are:

1. Situation- If the offense has been routinely stuffed when trying to run the inside veer, outside veer, or midline (whatever their staple option plays are), then you can expect Rocket.  To the OC, Rocket is a "cheap" play as it's easy to install, and can get some big yardage against teams stunting inside against the option.
2. Motion- The motion by the slot is usually "tail motion" as opposed to two-step motion that is utilized on the triple option.  This is not always the case, but another difference is the motion once it hits the heels of the fullback (FB).  On Rocket, the back will turn his shoulders to the sideline which will be a dead giveaway that the play is Rocket, or at the very least the force player is about to see a pitch back come his way.  If the shoulders turn up field on the motion, you are getting some sort of inside lead play by the slot.
3. Near Slot- It is important to note that the force player in the 46 Nickel reads the lane of the ball (LOB), but against the Flexbone, he should make this read, through the near slot.  If that slot is attacking at him, he knows, the play is Rocket. 

Once the force player recognizes the motion, he need not take any steps forward, yet must keep himself flat and in outside leverage on the pitch back.  Even if he has to turn his shoulders to the sideline that's being attacked to outflank the runner, he should do so.  All other players should run to the football.  Now, they do not run blindly, but find open windows and play the Rocket inside-out.  The FS is the alley player and should fill the void between the force player, and the inside spill players.  You have now successfully eliminated the Rocket toss from the Flexbone's arsenal.



Defending Rocket Toss

Counter Iso
If the backside of your defense begins to fly to the football and are making plays on the front side of option plays, you had better expect the counter iso play to be come soon.  First off, this play does not need to be handled by scheme, but merely by coaching.  You are seeing this play because the backside of your defense is playing unsound.  Looking at the diagram below, we can easily see how if players are not in the proper position, the offense will have leverage on them with the counter iso play.




Counter Iso

The reads are what is key to defending this play.  Again, as with midline, the OSS sees the B gap open up, then he should fill it.  You have two players on either side of the lead block (the DE and the OSS) and you could add the Mike depending on whether the Nose prevented the jump through block or not.  The only player who should be slightly fooled by the motion and counter direction of the play is the FS.  The FS is aligned at enough depth though, to effectively redirect and fill to the football as needed.

I know this one was a long post, and I probably should have divided it in two, but things didn't quite work out that way.  Anyhow, that's how the 46 Nickel breaks down the flexbone offense.  Now as with anything, there is no substitute for fundamental football.  No scheme works if you cannot run and tackle, and that is what 99% of defensive football is all about.

Duece