Bear Front Twist to Attack Counter

Here Alabama is defending a 3rd and 13. Auburn motions in from a double stack formation to a 2x2 hip player formation. Alabama is using a Dime personnel with 2 Rush backers aligned together into the boundary. With the Mike walked up the front is a bear spacing.

The Rush:

5 Man rush with an interior 3 man twist

The Coverage:

Cover 1 man free with a high safety manned on the RB. The DB's are using a TopHat technique on the stacked WR's. The press aligned DB bluffing press on the LOS WR while actually playing man on the off WR. The deep DB is manned on the LOS WR. Good execution of a combo coverage concept.

The defense does a good job fitting the counter. The DE, looping Rush backer, and man coverage safety create 3 vs. 2 on the pullers. With man coverage the defense is boxing blocks to force the run back inside. 

The DE boxes the first puller back, the looping LB boxers back the OT rolling the hole, and the man coverage safety runs inside out staying on the back hip of the ball carrier. 

This call has good play as a pass rush stunt but the Tide defense does a good job fitting counter and getting the sticks to 4th and long.

Good stuff from Alabama and Pete Golding.

Handling Four Strong Route Concepts in Fire Zone Coverage

Here is a fire zone pressure clip from Alabama. The Tide are in a Dime personnel with OLB bodies as the DE's.

The Rush:

The Mike covers the center creating a bear spaced front with all 5 OL covered. The Rush backers on the edges are contain. The strong DT is moving inside to the midline. The Dime  takes a path through the DE's heels creating a full speed straight line run to the QB.

The Coverage:

3 under 3 deep fire zone 

The initial path of the Dime fools the RB into taking a wide path. When the Dime goes through the heels of the up field DE, the RB struggles to redirect and make the pick up.

The coverage does a great job handling the 4 verticals from a 4 strong formation.

The formation presents 4 receiving threats to the strong side of the formation. The Mike is the seam dropper relating to the #2 receiver. In this formation the #4 strong is also #2 receiver weak. Weak side the corner is playing an aggressive man style technique with limited coverage help. To the strong side there is a choice to make about the strong corner's technique. The corner could play a divider zone technique deep 1/3. Instead the corner bails to man style technique leaning on the #1 receiver. The Nickle in the seam is playing match-carry-deliver seam technique. With the #2 receiver vertical the Nickel carries the route. With the RB #4/#2 blocking strong the drop down safety has inside help from the weak seam dropping Mike LB. The safety and LB do an excellent job of passing the route. The Mike gets is eyes outside to see the threat and makes a man turn and rolls back with the vertical from the #3 (once the route distributes it is the new/final #2). The drop down safety is able to pass the inside vertical and zone off over the top of the RB who becomes the new/final #3.

This is a good understanding of a four strong formation and how to pass and match the route distribution from Alabama. Good stuff from Pete Golding and Nick Saban.