Ruthless & Relentless

Fade Technique

2012-01-02T04:30:00.000-08:00

In this post I will highlight what Coach Cordell from Glenbard West had taken from Air Force and installed into his Cover 3.

I have taken this from him and adapted it into our Cover 3 - Green system.

The need for a new Technique to cover the Fade was needed in the 2011 Season as we faced multiple Offences which flexed our Hybrids out and forced us into a position to play the Fade poorly. We played it poorly as we Apexed (Splitting the distance between EMOL and #2) which caused us, especially when on the Field side, to play #2 very loose. This led us to playing a more Country 3 Fade Zone. The benefit was that we where standard against the Run, but as the League became more Pass orientated something new was needed.

In a short time we had to find a better way to play the #2. During a game I had made the decision to align shaded on #2 and have the Tandembacker/DT play Force. This worked out ok for a Gameday tweak and I had made the decision to find a way to play the Fade better from a shaded Pre Snap alignment.

On Chiefpigskin I found a Video which was exactly what I was looking for.

Basically you are aligning shaded on the #2 WR and getting hands on him then reading his cut to adjust to the Fade.

This is how we play the Fade:

If #2 breaks In then the Hybrid would break to the Fade looking to get underneath #1. "In! In!" call given to the near side Tandem.

If #2 breaks Out then the Hybrid will Match this route.

If #2 breaks Vertical then the Hybrid will get his hands on the route and read #1. If #1 is short then Match the Route and deliver any In routes to the Tandem. If #1 is deep then come under the two Verts.

This technique was installed within a Game week and we practiced against the following Patterns:

#2 WR Only: In, Out, Deep, Slant and Wheel

#1 and #2WR: Square In, Square Out, Smash, Wheel

The Following Cut-Up shows how our Field Hybrid matched up on the first Game after installing this Technique:

Cover 2 - Blue

2011-10-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

This time around I will be talking about Middle of the Field Open (MOFO) coverage’s. How to get into them, what you can in them and why you want them. Note that this information is theoretical, I have yet to implement these ideas. However I will be presenting the Concept in such a manner that it is applicable to the system that I run and as such the concept is practicable.

The Odd Stack lends itself to using Cover 3 and Cover 1. With the basic Alignments these Coverage’s are also very strong against both pass and run. But there comes a time when you need immediate presence in the Flats and two Alley players. This is where MOFO coverage’s come in to the Gameplan. Although you can cover the flats with a Cloud Cover 3 this does not give you 2 Alley players.

MOFO coverage reduces your front to a seven man front, what does this mean for 8 man front bases? Your Force and Alley assignments change. In the case of this Defensive System the Contain (Chase) will also change.

The following Chalkboard shows the Adjustment to get into a MOFO shell versus a 21 Personel Splitback Formation.

The first adjustment is that the FS shifts over to the strong half of the field and the Rover adjusts high to the weak half of the field. Their alignment will be dictated by Apexing them between #1 and #2 WRs. Unless the #1 WR is inside the Hybrids Divider, in that case he will align outside shade.

Both cornerbacks assume an outside shade press position pre-snap.

The next rotation is that the Sam Tandem will Tilt in towards the Deepest Back in the Offensive Backfield from the 7tech. His stance will be based upon a 3pt stance for better explosion.

Now this is starting to look more like a 4-3 Cov2 look, however our Stack has not changed, this is the next and last change required.

The end result will look like this:

We now have a definite 7man Front with 2 Alley players, Rover and Free. We also have 2 new Force players Charlie and Como. Our 3man Line is supported by the Sam, this means that he is now the Chase player and Shark has rush. Stud is our third linebacker and he has been nested by the alignment of Sam and Shark.

The Defensive Line is the only moving piece in the puzzle that has not yet been adjusted. The reasoning is simple; Shark and Nose will now be Defensive Tackles and can change from 3 to 1 tech. Sam and Wolf are now Defensive Ends and can also change between 5 and 7tech, to allow for a variety of different Pre-Snap fronts.

It must be said however that if you’re going to keep the 404 front you are going to be weaker on the backside as the Nose is right on the midline. Although you have 1 more player on the strong side than they can block, you do not have this advantage to the weak side. This gives the Offence an advantage when running to the weak side and gives them free yards when they counter of their strong side runs. If you cheat your (new) Defensive Tackles to 3 and 1 techniques then you maintain your numbers to the strong side, but add to your weak side. Meaning that you now have more players to the Run side than they can block (assuming there are no pullers).

The question however remains: Why go to such lengths to adjust to a 2high shell?

The reason is practical: Time

Time is the foundation of sports. You have a set time to achieve your goals, you have a set time to refine your skills and you have a set time to plan your roadmap. For us as Football Coaches Time represents the amount of reps a player receives in Practice. We can only squeeze in so many reps before our next Practice Block or for many our next Defensive Practice Day. In the age of being Multiple, I place a premium being as vanilla as possible. I want to be true to the base Defence that we have spent the most time installing and repping.

My experiences have shown me that if you haven’t repped good enough for long enough in practice, then it has no place on the Gridiron. The skills our Linebackers and Hybrids learn to play an Odd Front in a Pattern Reading Cover 3 system should be able to be carried over to any other Front/Coverage combination that we install. That there are going to be some greater changes is ok.

The idea is that we reduce the amount of new skills to an absolute minimum, while maximizing the potential of our players to perform. My philosophy is to do this with Alignment. By keeping certain moving parts of the Defence common we are maximizing our Practice time and simultaneously minimizing the skills required.

Run Fits

The Run Fits for Blue and White (MOFO) are similar to Red and Green (MOFC).

As a rule I have tried to keep the LB Positions schematically Analogue to their Alignment. With this Front however we have a new alignment, the 7tech. Let us examine the Run Fits:

Mike: 51

Run To 5tech (C Gap)

Run Away BS 1tech (A Gap)

Will: 31

Run To 3tech (B Gap)

Run Away PS 1tech (A Gap)

Sam: 72

Run To 7tech (D Gap)

Run Away Chase

Stud/Rover: 82

Run To Force

Run Away Collar

Wolf: 52

Run To 5tech (C Gap)

Run Away Chase

NT: 12

Run To 1tech (A Gap)

Run Away BS 1tech (A Gap)

Shark: 32

Run to 3tech (B Gap)

Run Away BS 3tech (B Gap)

What can be seen is that the Run Fit Skill set is Analogue to the Skill Set from our Base Defence. There is not much that needs to be taught outside of the established system. As has been stated the oddity of this front is the Tilt 7 of the Sam.

Pressure

As far as my system goes I reduce the pressure to Dogs (Single Blitzer) exclusively and remove the Sam calls. In this even front there are 6 2^nd Level Defenders for 5 eligible receivers, so you need to plan your pressure accordingly. As far as pressure is concerned in Blue (2 high 4 under Zone coverage), we will always send either Stud, Mike or Will. When we are playing White (2 high man under), we will not pressure with a 2^nd level players.

Coverage

You can run a Cornucopia of coverages out of this shell in a multitude of ways. The aim of this blog is to highlight that you can continue with the underneath coverage that has been installed for the Cover 3. Naturally there are some differences, but as has been said previously, we are minimizing the changes.

We will now look at how we will install Cover 2. The reasons for choosing this coverage are that it complements the weaknesses that the Cover 3 presents, namely the untouched stem of the #1, and the loose protection in the Flats

To echo what was said in the Cover 3 (Green) blog, we use Pattern Reading when playing Zone. As such this post will relate to our Philosophy of Covering routes and recognising Patterns rather than Spot Dropping.

All Coverage is Man Coverage. The time taken to find the Man varies from Coverages. Spot Dropping takes the longest as the Coverage waits for the last Route to develop. Pattern Reading sits in the Middle as the Read is dependent on Routes developing. Man Coverage is the Fastest as the Read and Recognition is made Pre Snap.

Before we go further let us look at the Chalkboard and the Zones we will be covering in Blue:

As can be seen we are colour coding our Zones per Position. When we compare this to the Zones in Green we see similarities, this helps the players get used to the system.

The allocation to who covers where is simple, the Corners cover the Fades and the 2 players on 2^nd level cover the Hook-Curl Zones. As in green we still only have 4 underneath Zones, designated as Fade and Hook-Curl.

As for Green the Principles of Blue are as follows and serves to give a General overview:

Deep: Vertical breaking routes

Hook-Curl: In Routes

Fade: Out Routes

To go into more Detail about the Coverage:

Deep:

Cover the Deepest Route on your side
Maintain Vertical and Horizontal Leverage. Remain the Deepest Man on your Side.
In the Event that there is no Vertical Route sit at the bottom of the Zone and support the and Fade and Hook-Curl Player

Fade:

Reroute #1
Cover the Outside Route
Cover from Outside in and Maintain Outside Leverage
Keep Shoulders parallel to LoS
In the event that two Outside breaking Routes develop play Divider Rule

Hook-Curl:

Cover the Inside Route
Aiming Point (10yds deep inside the Hashmarks)
Read release from #2
Wall all routes back outside, protect the Seams
If there are no Inside Routes, stack back and gain depth reading the QB

INSTALLATION SHEDULE

The Green install covered not just the Formation but also the Fundamentals of our Running and Passing Games. Given that the Run Fits & Zone responsibilities are similar to Green, Blue does not require as intense an Install. It does however require Repetition. As I have stated above, if it hasn’t been repped with continued success then it does not belong on the Gridiron!

2011-08-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

Blocking Zone, Tackle Zone and the Box

The Blocking Zone is defined by the NCAA Rules as:

Blocking Zone

ARTICLE 6.

a. The blocking zone is a rectangle centered on the snapperand extending five yards laterally and three yards longitudinally in each direction.

b. The blocking zone disintegrates when the ball leaves the zone.

The Tackle Zone is defined by the NCAA rules as:

The tackle box is the rectangular area enclosed by the neutral zone, the two lines parallel to the sidelines five yards from the snapper, and Team A’s end line.

Regarding Blocking Below The Waist, the Ruling includes a Depth of 10yards beyond the LoS.

It is interesting to note the difference between the two areas as they do have differing Legal ramifications. The Blocking Zone dictates, for example, who can Cut and Clip and who cannot. The Tackle box, for example, regulates limitations on Illegal Forward passes and Running into/Roughing the Kicker (watch out you Rugby Punters).

Note however that this does not have anything to do with the Defensive Box. There are no NCAA Rules which cover this Counting Method.

The Defensive "Box" is typically an area as wide as the alignment of Opposite Offensive EMOLs and 5yards into the Defensive Backfield. This can vary from one Coach to another, but its reasoning is pretty common. In order to Play the run we place more defenders inside the Box PreSnap, to play the pass we align more players outside the Box PreSnap. The "Box" therefore is a tool used to get a numbers advantage.

The Following Diagrams show how I teach the Defensive Box with respect to various offensive Surfaces. The green area highlights the Defensive Box and the red area highlights the Void area for the Hybrid

(The Void area is an area in which the Hybrid should not align. A hybrid in our system will not align tighter than a 7 tech regardless of depth. Only on Punt Return is it permisable to align closer than an 8.)

OPEN FRONT

PRO FRONT

JACKS FRONT

WING FRONT

DOUBLE WING FRONT

The Odd Stack Defence is made up of 6 Box Players, the Down Linemen and the Linebackers are the only Box players available. Though these Box players are heavily supported by the Hybrid position, the Hybrids cannot be considered Box Personel as they never align inside the Blocking Box (if they did they would loose Force due to Alignment alone). Note that my Strategy is to contain the run and force the Ballcarrier back inside to the teeth of the Defence. In a Spill oriented Defence you could align the Hybrids inside the box.

The Blocking Zone allows the Defensive Front to define the Run Strong side and thus the required Alignments within our Box and the respective Assignment per Alignment. Importantly it allows the recognition of potential Bubbles (Gaps) in the defensive front and any respective Checks that arise due to Defensive and Offensive Front mismatches.

Alignment

Standard Alignment for our Defence is a Stacked 4-0-4. Meaning that the Defensive Tackles are in a 4Tech (Heads Up with the Offensive Tackles) and the Nose Tackle is aligned in the 0Tech (Heads up with the Center). The Linebackers are stacked behind their respective Lineman as a Base. This allows us to Plug the B Gaps with our Stronger but slower DTs and shoot the playside C Gaps with our Faster LBs. Another variant to the Odd Stack is align the DL wider and use 2 DEs in 5Tech and have them go to the C gap and the LBs shoot the B gap. This is not my personal preference as you are showing the Offensive what you are doing PreSnap, which is against one of my principles on Defence: Deception. But more on this in another post.

We only break the Stack in the event of an Over or Under Front, in which case we move the Tandembacker down to the 6Tech on Los and Slant our Defensive Line to create a 3Tech to the Run Strong Side for the Over Front or slant for a 3Tech to the Run Weak side for the Under Front. If we play an Over or under Front we will stack the Mike and Backside Tandembacker in what we call 20Tech. The 20 tech aligns the LB Heads up with the Offensive Guard at reglar depth.

If there is no Split Receiver outside the Hybrid he will Nub. By Nub we mean align on the LoS to the 8Tech or 1st empty Heads up tech outside of the 8. We Nub by coming onto the LoS and placing our Inside Foot forward and our Outside foot slightly behind. The weight distribution is such that the most weight is placed over the front knee. Our inside arm is bent to 90° with the palms out and our Outside arm is relaxed. The Alignment allows us to reduce the amount of Block releases that the Hybrid will have to analyse as well as the amount of blocks. From this position the potential EMOL can only Kick the Hybrid out. It is very hard to Reach against this alignment and it allows for quick seperation and escape from EMOL blocks.

Box Assignments:

Any Defensive is only as good as the execution of its Assignments. As a player the Option Game was a Puzzle to me as I could never figure out where the Ball was going and who it was going to, this was further influenced by a lack of understanding from the Coaches as to how to defend the Option. As soon as you are confused as a Defensive Player you've lost the Down. Its that simple and clear cut. Now we did all the usual and some unusual things in an attempt to stop Option play, but until recently we never enjoyed sustained success through our Scheme.

We have installed a robust system of Assignment recognition:

On Line - Chase

The Defensive EMOL will be responsible for Chase. Note that the EMOL can be defined as a Hybrid although he is not a Box player.

Chase is responsible for all Reverse and QB movement in his direction on any Running and Passing Play.

Meaning that when he is the backside defender on any run play he must look to the WR on the PS to determine any reverse action.

Regardless of backfield flow the Chase player must put his eyes on the QB and go with him on any QB movement his way untill he is sure which Offensive player is the BC.

Off Line - Collar

The Outside 2nd level player will be responsible for Collar. Note that the Outside 2nd level player can be defined as the Hybrid, when he is not aligned over a Slot WR to the Field side.

Collar is responsible for all Cutback action of the Ballcarrier on any Running Play.

Meaning that while the PS 2nd Level is hustling to the BC the Collar player will slow play the BS of the BCs flow.

This is my Philosophical view of the Box and how I use it to strengthen the Defence. I feel that it is important to teach the differences between Box, Blocking Zone and Tackle Box to the players. This will allow the Defence to play quicker within this high contact area once they understand these simple concepts.