Defending Pull Schemes

There are many teams that rely upon pull schemes to move the ball. These schemes create problems for defenses that try to play base gap control defense and read and react. Plays like the dart are troublesome for these schemes. Lets take a look at the couple of typical pull schemes that teams employ.

This is the Dart and it has become a spread staple.

This is a simple fold play.

If you look closely a problem is created. The gap the pulling linemen is going throw gets split into two. This is similar to the problem that the ISO creates. This extra gap gives flexibility to the running back. Usually teams try to leverage their backers to deal with this. However this is not a viable option because the backers create a huge cutback lane, if they do this. Consider these two plays with the backers leveraging the puller.

Lets look at the the problem that is created. First off, consider the # of gaps that are needed to defend the running game.


There are six gaps and in this example we have 6 defenders to cover each of these gaps. So, whats the problem? The problem is that the offense moves where the gaps are on pull type plays.

What makes it a problem for the defense is that the defense does not rearrange the way that the 6 gaps are defended. So essentially, a gap is left open for the ball carrier to run through. If there is 6 gaps and 6 defenders then how is there an open gap?

The pulling scheme puts two players in one gap. The defense needs to avoid this. 2 defenders in one gap is a big problem. A simple and solid counter for these plays is needed. A good way to stop these plays is the fire the backers through their gaps. This allows them to penetrate the backfield before the pullers or double team get to them. However, firing your linebackers constantly is usually not the best idea (unless the team can't stop it).

Another way to defend this is have one of the linemen defeat the linemen at the point of attack. However, this is not the most reliable method year in and year out.

This was a long explanation of some simple plays, but I wanted to establish the problem the offense creates for the defense. The most effective way for countering an offensive concept is to look at the weakness of a particular scheme.

I was beating my head against the wall when I first started dealing with these plays, I tried to rearrange my fronts, stunt backers, and twist linemen. There would be some success, but I would leave myself open to other plays. It was a guessing game, but sooner or later I would get the defense out of position and give up a big play. I needed an effective counter that would remain sound against other plays.

What I realized was that both these plays relied on the guard base blocking the 3-technique one on one. I started slanting the 3-technique from B to A-Gap. This was a problem for guards to pick up because they did not expect a three technique to do this. If I had a tackle that had a problem with this technique, then I would cheat him back a step. This is not a hard technique to execute on defense, an it became my best defense for these types of plays. In one game the 3-tech had 6 tackles for a loss on this stunt.

The best part of it was, I was sound against everything else. The only change in the defensive scheme was that the backers had the B gaps.


If run effectively, the offense will have to get away from the single pull plays rely on counter OT or zone runs to get the ball going. I would rather face those plays. It allows the DE to spill the ball to the Outside guys.

This might seem like an overly simple adjustment. But I have found it to be one of the most effective ways to defend pull schemes. Teams have tried to counter it, but it more or less takes them out of pull schemes. Whenever you run a front with a 3 and a 1, the three technique draws a one on one block. This block is the weakness that the defense can take advantage of.

Even if you pull towards the 3 there is a one on one created. Consider this example.

Still the 3-tech penetrating the A gap creates a problem for this play.

This might have been too long an explanation for such a simple adjustment, but I found it helpful to understand it this way.

4-2-5 Resources

Blitzology posted links to some playbooks for people interested in the 4-2-5 defense.

Also, I have included links to two other files.

First, is a link to a 1997 article by Gary Patterson describing some of the principals and philosophy behind the 4-2-5. If you have not read it, it is a short but worthwhile article on the ideas and benifits that are behind the 4-2-5.

Second, is a link to an AFCA article by David Baliff, the current head coach at Rice University. He is the former D-line coach for TCU and Head Coach at Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State). He currently runs and has run a very similar scheme to Patterson's. This article details some blitz and alignment principals.

Third, is another article by Baliff where he outline some technique and schemes with d-line twists. The information on technique is excellent as well as the simplicity behind the twist game terminology, this is typical wording to anyone familiar with the 4-2-5.

Under Front- Simple Nose Technique

The under front (also called weak eagle) is an excellent front to defend the run, pass, and to put general pressure on the offense. In high school and especially lower level athletics, it becomes a major problem finding people to fit our schemes year in an year out.

I am confident that no matter what, I can fit players into my under-front defense. In the worst case scenario I can get the defensive front going if I can find ONE solid linebacker and a shade nose that can draw a double team.

WEAK EAGLE ALIGNMENT

The nose aligns to the strong side with an end in a 5 and a linebacker in a 9. On the weak side there is a 3-technique and and a loose 5. The key to making this defense go is finding a decent linebacker and a nose that can draw a double team.

Many people got away from the eagle front because it was difficult to find a nose to draw the double team. This is reasonable, because the defense will collapse if the nose cannot draw a double team. The double team that the nose needs to draw is from the center and the strong side guard. If these two players can be tied up to blocking the nose, then the defense is in a good position. This is beneficial for 3 reasons:

1. The backers are free to pursue the ball and only need to worry about the fullback blocking them.

2. The 3-technique is usually put 1 on 1 with the weak side guard.

3. If the 3-technique is double teamed, then the weak side end is usually cut loose.


The nose must force this block! If the nose can successfully do this, the game will be much easier.
How does the nose force this double team?

#1 He can be such a force athletically that he requires a double team
#2 He can be used in such a way that the offense must double team him.

UTILIZING A NOSE THAT CAN DRAW THE DOUBLE TEAM.

Finding such a player to athletically draw a double team is difficult. A good nose must be able to prevent the center from reaching him as well as the strong side guard. If either player can reach him, then the defense will be in bad shape because this will allow one of the linemen to come free to block a linebacker.

General shade nose technique is ideal, however, it is difficult for the nominal athlete to prevent a linemen from reaching him in this technique. Since he must react after the offense he is vulnerable to being caught out of position.

In low talent years this problem can become big! So the solution is to tweak the technique so that different types of athletes can play nose, and force double teams. To faciliate this, a stunt technique is utilized by the shade nose.


The technique involves the nose at the snap of the ball attacking at an aiming point at the butt of the strong side guard. This technique involves enough lateral movement to make it hard for the center to reach him, and at the same time enough vertical movement to make it hard for the strong side guard to reach him. This technique allows the nose to play the run either way.

If the guard tries to come off on the linebacker and relys on the center to block the nose there should be problems for the offense. The #1 reason is the nose will be in a position to play down the line inside-out on running plays.

If the nose can prevent the center from reaching him, then he should be free to attack down the line play-side. All gaps should be covered. On any strong side release like this, the 3-tech will also be single teamed. If one can create a favorable match-up between the backside guard and 3 technique then the defense will be in a great position.



If the play is designed to go weak and the center tries to come off on the weak side backer, then the defense should still be in good shape. Since the nose is attacking the guards butt, he should not be reached. This allows him to ricochet off the guard and pursue the ball down the line inside-out to the weak side.


Because it is hard to reach the nose with the center or guard, the offense will generally need to double team him. By drawing the double team the nose will keep the linebackers free from the linemen and put the 3-technique in a one on one situation.

FINDING THE SHADE NOSE

The beauty of this technique is many body types fit it. A quick end, inside linebacker and even a running back can all play a shade nose. If you have players going both ways, you can use a nose by committee. Coaching the nose in this technique is simple as well. The coaching points are:

1. Force a double team
2. Don't let the guard or center reach you.
3. After the initial attack, pursue the ball down the LOS.

If a nose fails to draw a team, make the play, and allows the backer to be blocked by the OL, then he has made a mistake. This is something easy for any nose to pick up. He should know whether he was double teamed or not. If he wasn't then he should make the play.

CONCLUSION

The aggressive stunting shade nose is a front that can be run when talent is not abundant. This technique will force a double team an cut the linebackers loose. Even with injuries a typical team should be able to find a couple players to fill this role.

Defending the Counter- GT Part I

The counter is a staple plays that is run across many offensive philosophies. It is the hallmark of angle blocking teams. It can cause numerous problems for the defense, and put tremendous pressure on the d-line and backers. Stopping it is a priority for most teams, whether it is run from the I, wing-t, or spread. Defending it well requires sound alignment, gap-control, and a keen understanding of run-fits. The first step to defending it, involves understanding what the play is designed to do and what key things must happen in order for the offense to execute the play effectively.

STRATEGY OF THE COUNTER-GT

The counter blocking assignments are simple. One player is assigned to kick-out an edge defender (most likely a DE), another is designed to seal a linebacker, and the rest block down and away from the play. The backs job is to run between the kick-out and seal blocks.

The rules for the blocking are quite simple. The biggest thing the offense must determine is which player will be kicked out.

The key block in the play is the Double team of the play-side defensive tackle. Whether the tackle is a 3 or shade-nose makes no difference. The goal of the offense is to blast this player backward into the backside linebacker. The aiming point for the double team is to take the d-tackle past the center. This accomplishes two goals. One, it walls off the backside backer from pursuit, and two, it widens the running lane for the back and stresses the play-side defensive end and linebacker.

If the offense can create the above situation, the defense is in trouble. Determining how to defend the counter is irrelevant. Deciding between squeezing and spilling will make no difference, because the play is gonna gain yards period. Squeezing occurs when the "kick-out" defender squeezes down the line (with the down-block) and makes contact with the guard, keeping his outside shoulder free. The idea in a squeeze is to condense the running lane and push the ball to the linebackers. However, if the double team is able to push past the center the running lane cannot be condensed adequately.

Here the DE does a good job of squeezing, however the running lane is too large because of the double team. The back has enough room to make a cut off the seal on the linebacker. The backside backer cannot help stop this.

Spilling involves the DE and backer essentially trading responsibilities. The DE's goal is to get inside the kick-out and spill the play outside where the backer can make the play. Even with a good spill the counter can still go, if the double team pushes the d-tackle past the center.

Even on a good spill the DE has to much ground to cover to properly play inside the kick-out. The back simply needs to hug the line of his center and double team. The Seal block can easily get the linebacker despite the spill.

DEFENDING THE COUNTER

Handling the Double-Team

This might seem obvious to the typical reader, but is the most important principal when defending the counter. DO NOT ALLOW THE DOUBLE TEAM TO GET MOVEMENT ON THE D-TACKLE! This is a must, don't be stubborn about it. If the O-line is strong enough to drive your D-Tackle back, and no technique can prevent it, then have the tackle cut the linemen and create a pile. You cannot allow the offense to put stress on the play-side defenders.

Run Fits

Once you take care of the double team, you can begin to formulate a strategy of how you are going to defend the counter with your play-side defenders. The main ways are to squeeze and spill. Prior to determining those two techniques, it is important to know how your players will fit into the run. The basic run-fits are detailed below:

(these can change slightly when spilling if the Tackle runs around the guard)

Versus any kick/seal play the two offensive blockers create three running lanes or "gaps". A lane on the outside of each of them and one lane in between them. The idea for the offense is to ideally create an open lane in between them. For the defense, you must be able to place defenders in a position to defend these three areas. If you do not have these three covered the offense is gonna have a running lane. Here is an example of the run-fits if the defense chooses to squeeze. (More on the squeeze will be discussed in part 2)

Using this framework, it should be easy to diagnose the problem that occurs when the double-team pushes the d-tackle past the center. Lane #3 is undefended.

CONCLUSION

This is just an introduction into defending the Counter-GT. In this section, I talked about the goals of the offense, the most important priorities for the defense, and the principals for defending the play on the play-side. In part II I will go more in depth into the techniques and principals involved in squeezing an spilling.

Attacking the Away Side : Boise State vs TCU

After looking a little more in depth at the game last week, I really noticed how good a job Boise State did attacking the TCU defense. Boise State runs a similar 4-2-5 Defense and understands the principals of split safety coverage. In addition to this, Boise was aware of the run support techniques of TCU's Front 6. Boise in different parts throughout the game, revealed a plan to attack the away side in the running game, and at the same time run away from All-American DE Jerry Hughes. I will look at one play in particular from the 1st quarter that illustrates this.

Initial Alignment

With the ball on the left (offensive) hash, Boise broke the huddle and aligned in a 11 personnel formation.

TCU front 6 and Secondary call the strength separate from one another. The front 6 (box) calls the strength to the TE (Y). The TE is set behind the LOS, still they treat him as a TE and align the strength to him. The DE #96 Wayne Daniels aligns in a 6 technique head up on the TE. The 3 technique aligns towards the TE along with the Sam linebacker. The nose aligns weak along with DE Jerry Hughes.

The secondary calls their strength opposite. The SS and FS align to the twin WR's while the WS plays to the TE side. The twin receivers are the passing strength and even more dangerous because they are also aligned to the field side.

Attacking the Box

TCU has a great ability to read and attack running plays quickly. Boise State used this ability against them. Prior to the snap the Slot receiver (H), went into motion and the ball was snapped right before he got to the quarterback. The motion and snap was so quick the TCU box did not have enough to time to account for him.

After the snap the OL blocked to the right and the RB ran right simulating a zone run. The Box did a great job of leveraging the Zone run and filled their gaps perfectly.

This play shows how well the TCU D-line is coached. Jerry Hughes sees the Tackle step towards him, and fights up field to avoid getting reached. On the other side Wayne Daniels sees his tackle block down. Daniels wastes no steps here and immediately steps inside and down to leverage his C-Gap and prepare to spill (wrong arm) any pulling play. As the play develops Daniels is down the line right next to the OT blocking down.

The TCU linebackers Daryl Washington and Tank Carder read the run blocks, see the back movement, and immediately leverage their respective A and B gaps. If the back gets the ball he will have nowhere to go.

Unfortunately, the play is not a zone run. The slot in motion gets the handoff from the quarterback and attacks outside. Since the box is tied up defending the zone run, the only players TCU has left to defend the run with, are the Corner and Weak-Safety.

Attacking the Away-Side Secondary

Boise cross blocks them. The WR releases inside to crack the WS and the TE releases outside to block out on the corner creating a running lane. Boise actually uses no one to block the play side defensive end (Daniels). He takes himself out of the play by leveraging down the line on the tackles down-block.

Here is the actual EZ view:

The picture above shows the positioning of the players as the Slot attacks the edge. The TCU box is out of position to defend it. And the cross blocks by the WR and TE create a good running lane for the receiver. The play ended up gaining 18 yards. It could have been more if the WR blocked the WS longer, the WS got off the block and forced the slot out of bounds.


The whole play looks like this.

Conclusion

TCU plays great defense because they read well, and pursue the ball fast. This is difficult for offenses to attack. Boise State put together some good plays to attack TCU. In creating these plays they had to account for the technique and reads of the TCU players. By understanding this, they were able to put together a play, that left a point of attack defender unblocked (without optioning off them). That takes intelligence and a respect for a defender's discipline to execute. Like all things in football, the team that stays a step ahead will find ways to execute.