5 Up Cover 1 Twist Pressure

The Patriots are in a Dime personnel with OLB bodies at DE on 3rd & 14 vs. 11 personnel.

The Rush:
Strong side 3 man twist game with the DT & Mike working out while the Rush is up & under to the midline pass rush lane. Weak side it is a 2 man twist game with the DT penetrating while the Rush LB engages the Guard before looping to contain.

The Coverage:
Cover 1

The 5 up alignment by the defense puts the OL into man protection rules create 5 games of 1 on 1. Weak side the DT and Rush job swap allowing the bigger more powerful DT to be the penetrator while the faster more agile Rush LB is the looper to contain. Both looping Rush LB do a nice job timing their stunts attacking up the field before wrapping tight off the penetrating rushers working up the field. All 5 pass rushers continue to get vertical push of the pocket while exchanging rush lanes laterally. The Dime personnel allows the defense to match up with DB's across the board including the TE and RB.

Nice pressure design from New England and Bill Belichick. 

Align to Win Part 3

This is the third installment of the align to win series (Part 1 and Part 2).  The focus of part 3 is running America's blitz from the odd front spacing. 

This is a basic version of the pressure. The DL is in a standard 5-0-5 alignment. When thinking about blitzing we plan not only what pressure but how to align to win when running the pressure.

From a 5 the DE has a difficult task. The long stick technique isn't easy. The DE is moving two gaps. The challenge comes in part from getting all the way down to the a gap.

On zone blocking away for example the DE on the long stick can be stressed. As the End goes on the movement the End can get caught up on the guard. 

Even when the frontside of the defense fits the zone the DE is in a bind. If the DE tries to go over the top (our side of the LOS) of the zoning OG he may get caught up and not make it to the A gap that is now moving away from him on the zone. Also if the DE attempts to slip the guards block by going off his hip and into the backfield the OG's body may keep the DE from getting to the A. When the DE doesn't get there the ball can hit on the midline. 

Getting cutoff from the A gap often sends the signal to the DE he must go harder and fast down inside on the movement. This can get the DE washed.

When the DE gets too aggressive on the long stick technique it can be difficult to fight pressure. The OT may wash an aggressive long stick past the A gap. When the zone running back winds the play back there will be an alley. The inside blitzer is now stressed to bend down off the block of the OT tight enough to take that alley away. 

One solution can be to change the DE's alignment. Putting the DE into a heavy 5 for head up 4 may work but the challenges of a 5 tech may still exist.

Aligning the DE in a 4i may help the DE to avoid being cut off by the guard but also have great leverage on the OT to avoid being washed.

Aligning or stemming down to a 3 technique is also a solution. Getting the DE down to a 3 technique allows the DE to use a one gap movement short stick technique instead of a long stick. In our defense our DL get many more reps of the short stick because we use it on more calls. Finding more situations for our guys to use what they do best/practice most is our goal. 

The Nose's alignment can be adjusted as well.

Some noses are excellent on the move and are great slanting from a zero alignment others are not. A nose getting caught up on the block of the Center can create creases for the RB away from the blitz. If the Nose is struggling on the movement he may need to cheat to a heavy shade to get to his movement.

The slight shade by the Nose can make all the difference in allowing the Nose to succeed on the movement and avoid being caught up on the Center.

The Nose may be a big body knock 'em back player who the OL struggles to move. We probably don't want to put him on the move. You can't fight physics. An object in motion stays in motion. If the OL cannot move our guy why would we help them by moving our hard to move guy for them? In that case the Nose can align in or stem to a shade away from the blitz. This allows the Nose to play base non-movement technique.

The Nose gets himself out of the movement all together by aligning or stemming pre-snap to where he would be moving to post-snap.

These types of align to win adjustments may not be universal. Some DE's are great on the long stick. The guy he splits time with may need to stem to a 3 technique and short stick. The starting Nose may be a no movement align in a shade guy because he is a big guy who doesn't slant. Other noses who play may be excellent on the move. The align to win plan for each guy is built for that guy to do what he does well. Different guys may be running the same call from different alignments in the same game/game plan to help them succeed. Also the align to win plan for the blitz may vary by game situation. Regular down and distance blitz call may have a set of align to win rules but those rules may change if the blitz is called in obvious pass situations. 

Align to Win Part 2

What is the difference between personnel and spacing? As there is no universal football terminology, I'll start with how we define these terms.

Personnel is the people on the field. If we want to substitute a player into the game because that player has a skill set for the job at hand, we can do that with a personnel group change. Need an extra DB, sub one in with a new personnel group. Need your best pass rushing DL on the field, sub them in with a personnel group on 3rd & Obvious Pass downs. Bottom line Base personnel subs out for a specialized personnel group. Could be a a 1 for 1 sub or a mass substitution. 

Spacing is how the defenders line up. Can a 3-4 personnel space like a 5-2, 5-3, 4-3, 4-2, or 3-3, yeah absolutely. Can a 4-2-5 with a hybrid player at DE morph into 3-4 concepts, definitely. As a defense, we are not bound in any way by the idea that personnel dictates spacing. If we have versititle players, specifically hybrid DB/LB or LB/DL we can play any number of spacings with the same personnel on the field. 

Got a sub group of elite speed rushers, great, create a 3rd down specialized pass rush package and go sic 'em. But what if your best 11 are just that, your best 11. This is where spacing and align to win come together to help create specialized pass rush opportunites with base personnel.

FRONTS

Take a base 3rd down pass rush alignment. The DT's widen to work pass rush against the guards and the DE's are outside against the OT's. If the DE's are the best rushers and the guards are the weaker protectors it's possible the offense has exactly the matchups they want (G's vs DT's and OT's vs DE's).

With a simple call the defense can instead flip the DL alignments. This is still a 4 man front spacing with new roles for the DL.

Now the interior OL has to contend with the better rushers. The DT's soak up the better pass protectors on the outside. The DT's likely can align with width and keep contain. This alignment also lends itself to still running pass rush games.

Ultimately this stunt gets the DE back out to the outside.


Maybe the defense wants to attack a specific side of the protection. Again a front adjustment can help.

Nothing says the defense cannot align with both DE's on the same side. The DT's can  contain and build a backstop opposite the Ends. The DE's can now work base pass rush or pass rush games and attack the weaker side of the protection.

Change the Spacing

Another option is to build an X rusher package. The idea is simple if you have a good rusher to sub you can sub for the X. If you don't you use your base 4 DL as the 3 down linemen and declare one as the X rusher. Who should be the X? Possibly the best rusher because the X can align anywhere and has good rush opportunities. Is is also possible to use the 2nd best rusher as the X. This allows a slightly lesser player to get and advantage in the rush and have the best chance to succeed. Meanwhile away from the stunting X can be the best rusher working in isolation.

Edge - X off the edge

The X can align off the edge and rush like a OLB type pressure. The X makes an Edge Left or Edge Right call to declare where he is aligning and rushing. The front works away from the X's call.

The Nose and DE opposite can also work pass rush games to create good matchups opposite an edge call.

Gilligan - Guard on an Island

The X can walk up an isolate the Guard with a two way go. Again the Nose and End opposite the X can work base pass rush or a rush game. The X calls Gilligan Right/Left. From the same X on the guard alignment the X can work pass rush games with the End or the Nose. 

Another option is to build a choice package for the X. For example:

 Against sets with the RB set to the boundary or other drop back pass indicators the X calls Gilligan to the weakest OG.

But against sets with a threat of sprint out pass the X calls Edge to the sprint out threat. With a little planning the defense can be in a best rush situation with a simple set of weekly rules.

A defense can easily build multiple pass rush stunts by aligning the X rusher where ever the defense wants. The spacing choices are endless. X can line up as a Stack LB, 2 point or three point, stem around pre-snap, blitz into the rush, etc.

The X package can be a way to get great spacing multiplicity without subbing new personnel. The defense can easily use the X package to also build in various 5 man pressures and 6+ blitzes with the multiple spacing options of having the X rusher anywhere. When thinking about aligning to win, the defense has no rules about # on the LOS or structure of our alignments. Why does our best pass rush DE have to line up on an OT?

Align to Win Part 1

In an effort to give our defensive front the best chance to win, we try to coach the game within the game. The offense has tendencies based on how they line up and we are going to use those tendencies to help ourselves do our jobs. Good defenses react, great defenses anticipate. 

Take a standard 4 man even front with a 4-2 box. The easy alignment explanation is:

DE's - 5 technique 
DT - 3 tech
Nose - Shade

LB's - Ability to play open A and B Gap.

But do those simple alignments give us the best chance to win each play? If you watched a cut up and keyed the DT in a 3 tech, is he always aligned the exact same way?  Should he be? Maybe a 3 technique isn't always just outside shade on the guard. Maybe there is more to it.

Take a formation with the back aligned to the 3 technique side. The most obvious play, but certainly not the only play, for the offense is the inside zone read. With the back aligned away, the Nose and End will widen their alignments. Those 2 know the OL's blocks are coming to them with the RB aligned away. The Nose in a Wide alignment may align physically where a 2i would align but will have inside hand down inside foot back keying the Center. This alignment allows the Nose to leverage the Center's block well and control the A gap. The End has the width to set the edge. The Will is protected by the width of the Nose's alignment, as the Guard doesn't want to hang the Center out vs. the Nose 1 on 1. The result is the Guard is typically not too fast to work up to the Will backer because he is providing body position for the Center. 

The alignment also effects the Mike fast flowing the A gap. The Center is forced to zone hard to the wide alignment nose opening the A gap for the Mike to press the LOS. The backside Guard is forced to zone hard to the Mike. This is why the DT has widened to a 4i. He is now 1 on 1 with the OT and wants to put is eyes on his work. Hands and eyes go to the OT and we expect to win that 1 on 1 consistently. The DT has a leverage advantage. The backside DE is a shuffle square player for QB and cutback. The 4i DT makes the cutback very difficult.

What if the defense wants to chase the DE to the dive instead. The Nose and DE would still go wide. The backside DT will go heavy 3 (almost head up) to force the OT and OG into an aggressive scoop block. The backside DE will heavy up and chase hard. The LB's now align in 20's to allow the Mike to scrape exchange for the QB. The Will plays B and rocks back. The Nose's wide alignment will force the ball to cutback to the chasing DE.

Inside zone read isn't the only play for the offense. 

If the back is flat the offense may be running stretch and is much less likely to run inside zone read. The DT backside will heavy up to make the backside scoop block as difficult as possible for the guard and tackle. Frontside the Nose will slide to a G (2i) alignment. By changing eyes and hands of the Nose from the Center to the Guard the Nose has a much better chance to beat the reach of the Center.

Another play from the flat back alignment is the power read play. Again having the DT in a heavy and the Nose in a G is advantageous. The DT is much better position to squeeze the block back by the Center. The Nose is much firmer against the down block of the guard in a 2i by bringing his eyes and hands to the guard. 

These simple adjustments can go a long way to helping defenders make plays. It is always the temptation as a defensive coach to think about all kinds of exotic schemes and stunts. Often times the best answer is your base defense. One strategy in game planning can be to avoid the "what call should we make here?" conversations and focus instead on how will we coach our guys to align to win.