Cover 3 Sim Pressure vs. Empty

Here is a effective sim pressure vs. empty. The Titans are in a 4-2-5 nickel personnel with OLB bodies as the DE's and the field DT in a 2pt stance.

The Rush:

DT's are working strong to balance the pass rush. The pressure side pattern has the Rush up the field and the Nickel through the the heel line of the Rush. The Nickel's path creates a straight line run on the QB.

The Coverage:

4 under 3 deep zone coverage

The slide of the protection goes to the field/strong leading to a triple team on the DT crossing face. The turn of the protection allows for the Nickel to get a clean B gap run through. 

Interesting spacing here from the Titans. Many Nickel packages set the Nickel to the pass strength. Here Tennessee sets the Nickel to the boundary/weak side and bumps a LB body out of the box to the strong side. One huge upside of sim pressure like this concept is the coverage is cover 3 which lets basically any defensive player play the low drops. A linebacker can walk out and play the field side flat. An OLB can drop off the LOS to play the field hook drop. Those players may have difficulty in a matching firezone concept or a man coverage against a WR but they are very capable of execution in a 4 underneath cover 3 zone drop.

Good stuff from the Titans and Dean Pees.

Tampa 2 Corner Sim Pressure

Tampa 2 sim pressure from Tennessee. The Titans are in a sub personnel with  2 DL, 3 LB, and 6 DB bodies.

The Rush:

Corner is pressuring in an inside pass rush lane taking an angle off the DE who is working up the field. The linebacker is working to balance to the rush and the strong DE is contain.

The Coverage:

Tampa 2 concept with the two high safeties both rotating weak to play the weak side flat and half concept.

Pre-snap the coverage looks like a two high concept. The coverage rotates which typically indicates a one high safety concept however this is double rotated with the Nickel to the field also rotating to build a two high coverage. This is an interesting way to generate more pass rush from a four man rush and play Tampa 2. Good stuff from Dean Pees and the Titans. 

Disguising Nickel Firezone

Nice disguised zone dog from the Tennessee Titans. The Titans are in a sub personnel with  2 DL, 3 LB, and 6 DB bodies.

The Rush:

Nickel off the edge with the two DL going up and under. The LB is working across the center to balance the pass rush. The weak side LB is the contain rusher.

The Coverage:

3 under 3 deep firezone with the safeties rotating at the snap. The weak side corner is play a tight aggressive technique on the single WR side.

The pre-snap presentation shows the Nickel as a none blitz threat. With the weak side safety down and a safety in the post the initial sight picture is there will be no roll down safety to replace the Nickel if he pressures.

The Titans do a nice job holding the pressure and rolling the safety late to the strong side seam and using the weak side safety to run out to become the post player. Having a DB body mugged up in the weak side A gap but still having the speed and athleticism to get to  the 3 drop is a big piece to making this call successful. The presence of 6 rush threats at the LOS holds the OL inside and prevents an OL from pass setting out to the Nickel off the edge. The RB does a great job in protection scanning from weak to strong to have a chance to pick up the blitz. The Nickel does an even better job winning the one on one vs. the scanning RB. Good pressure design, disguise, and execution from the Titans and defensive coordinator Dean Pees.