3-8-3 = 14 Defenders

As always, not many people want to talk...here's the deal. Playing on the Left Coast we run up against the pass happy boys frequently right up to spread, no backs, call everything from the LOS. That's about as spread as you can get.

The question is, what do you do to defense all that?

One of the basic principles of defensive pursuit is to string it out or force the ball carrier into the sideline where he either has to run out of bounds or cut upfield into tackling pursuit for no gain. Aren’t LB’ers taught to stay behind the ball carrier in pursuit, forcing the ball carrier into the sidelines and if he cuts up, it’s into him who makes the tackle? The sideline then, becomes an additional defender, right?

So we incorporated the sidelines and the end line into the defense, especially pass defense, thus gaining 3 more defenders. Experience teaches us that the hardest pass for a QB at any level to complete is the out, especially the deep out. But if you do not cover the receiver, things get a lot easier for the offense.

Game planning for one of these pass happy offenses, we came to the conclusion (all things being equal) that if the pros and college defenses can play 5 Under Man/Zone Deep, why can’t our team?

Experience also teaches us that if you want to stop the out, under it.

So here is the concept that puts 10 defenders into your pass defense: you can play 5 or 6 under man and 2-3 deep zone. Look at the Nickel stunt defense at http://goo.gl/vjXp4.

All the under defenders are coached to play and stay “inside and under” the receivers playing them man-to-man most of the time. The deep defenders are coached to play “outside and over” the receivers.

That means that their QB has to throw the ball over the under defender and under the over defender for a completion. Very difficult for a high school QB to do, especially an average QB.

So, when it comes to throwing the out, the sideline becomes a defender, just like the endline becomes a defender in the red zone. The ball has to be completed in bounds, correct? So for the out, the QB has to throw the ball over the under receiver and under the sideline.

Those are ever smaller windows for a QB to fit the ball into. We call this defense as Nickel Cover 7 = man under/zone deep.

For the simple Nickel call the idea works off the Box & 1 concept from basket ball. On Nickel, we insert another secondary defender to play their best receiver man-to-man all over the field. Everyone else plays regular zone. If we have a blitz on, we can either play man or zone behind it, thus zone blitz.

I am partial to the Storm blitz where 8 defenders attack the QB all at once. We are playing man behind while blitzing the QB. We still feel that the best pass defense is a great rush. It is hard to complete ANY pass when you are flat on your back.

Experience has taught us that blitzes up the middle are handled far better than a blitz by outside #4. Blocking schemes just do not account for outside #4 blitzers.

Now this defense is designed for high school programs that face the spread, pass happy offenses. I do not recommend that Grade 9 teams and below to run this because the competition has not that great a passing attack. They are going to run the ball and this is not the best run defense. Of course, that is the basic premise of the EQualizer Handles Everything Defense: Be ready for the double TE full house attack one week and the no back spread the next week with the minimum number of changes for the defensive players.

And that’s how we get 14 defenders on the field in passing situations. What do your think?