DE Play

One of the things we did defensively that greatly improved our DE play was to play our DEs in 7 techniques - Always. We also assigned them two responsibilities: 1. protect the C-Gap; 2. Rush the QB from the outside in, for contain. That's it. It allowed them to be more aggressive. This would fall into one of those K.I.S.S. simplifications. Playing the DE inside actually gave our secondary a faster truer run/pass Key so they could get into their pass responsibilities quicker. It also helped them keep their shoulders square to the LOS which helps them stuff C-Gap plays better. It also drew the block of the TD on running plays which kept that TE off the LB'ers so they could make their key reads quicker as well. Playing the DEs in a 7 tech will improve the play of your entire defense. There is a short video of this posted below.