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.

4-2-5 Away Side Run Support

4-2-5 Run Support

One of the biggest questions coaches unfamiliar with the 4-2-5 defense is playing the run. The idea of stopping the run with one less linebacker is scary to some. This is an easy misconception to dispel. The 4-2-5 can be as effective as any other scheme at stopping the run out of standard sets.(Double tight three back sets can call for different personnel if size/strength is an issue.)

First, it is important to note that the 4-2-5 vs 2 back 1 TE sets (21 personnel) acts as a 9 in the box defense versus the run. See Diagram below.

Versus the standard pro-I run strong, the run fits are similar to traditional split-6 cover-3 run fits. There is a major difference, in the 4-2-5 the safeties remain flat footed and do not move until they have a run pass read. It is not unusual to see the safeties making tackles right up on the LOS. The aggressive play from the safeties allows the linebackers to play the run fast because there is a safety covering the cutback.

The aggressive play of the safeties also affects the way you can use your front. In this scheme you can (and should) have your linemen wrong-arm blocks and spill the ball outside. This is advantageous because you have fast-flow linebackers and safeties that can quickly get to run plays that spill outside. Look at the diagram below and see how the outside support can get there quickly.

The linebackers and FS are pursuing the ball inside-out while the WS is forcing the ball back to them. If the ball carrier happens to cutback, the SS is folding to the cutback. However, it is important for the pursuit and alley players not to over-run the ball. It is not sound to put the SS on cutback without any help.

AWAY SIDE RUN SUPPORT VS SPREAD

One of the things that makes the 4-2-5 unique is the run support games and run techniques it utilizes to the away side. The first thing to understand is the positioning of the away side linebacker in respect to the away side coverage and formations it faces.

In this example the away side is in cover blue. The WS is aligned 8-10 yards deep and the C is 4-6 yards deep. It is difficult for players at this depth to play the run quickly while maintain good pass responsibility on the WR's. (If you put either the WS or corner on force/pitch in Cover Blue vs a twins set, you will be short handed.) The away-side linebacker, the Mike (M) in this example, stacks behind the DE to assist here. There are two advantages with his alignment. #1 he is in better pass alignment for pass coverage whether or not he needs to slice under #1, man the back, or drop and cover the middle hole. #2 On weak-side runs that attack outside, he can take the pitch on option and funnel runs back to the other linebacker and FS.

If the away side is in man, he needs to align here as well to cover the back and force the ball inside. Away side man looks like this

On weak-side runs, it is hard to count on the WS or corner to help out on the run, when there are locked up in man. The one thing you can do is teach your WS to read the WR for run/pass. The coaching point here is teaching the WS to read the WR's eyes. If the WR looks at you, it is probably a run, take a step inside to check. If the WR follows your step, get around him and play the run. On the other hand, if the WR is not looking at you, he is most likely running a pass route, because he is looking for his aiming point to catch or break off from his route. Teaching this takes times, and good teams will run your WS off on run plays so, on runs weak the linebacker is needed to force the ball.

AWAY SIDE ZONE

The linebackers alignment can change depending on the zone coverage you use on the away-side. For example, if the call puts the Safety on pass-first and the corner playing the flat/force (squat-halves coverage) the backer may need to play closer to the slot receiver. This allows the backer to wall the slot easier and prevent the slot from catching quick throws. (This is not a necessity but can be a great scheme that throws off the offense.)

This alignment at first glance looks like 5 in the box. For the standard spread team, this appears as an ideal run situation. However, on run plays, the box quickly turns into 7 people. The flat-footed FS and away-side linebacker can quickly fall in. The important thing for the linebacker is that he fall into the B-gap. In this front the nose is to the away-side, so the linebacker is assigned the B-Gap. But, what happens when the Tackle (3-tech) in the B-gap is aligned to the away-side? This can be a problem, but the scheme can answer this. Will Muschamp at the University of Texas (a 4-3 base team) handles this situation by stunting the tackle into the A-Gap, allowing the linebacker less ground to cover on run plays.

Muschamp calls this a "SPIKE" technique (TCU calls this a TAG). The idea here versus the spread is to push the ball to the B-gaps. In split safety coverage this allows the secondary to play the run easier. In MOF (Middle of the Field) coverage, you do not need to do this.

Strong run support and weak run support look as follows with the TAG (Spike) technique. (The Read side is Cover 2 (Robber).)

In weak-side runs it is important for the FS to check the B-gap before pursuing play side. This gives the SS time to pursue to the cutback.

3x1 AWAY SIDE FORCE

In 3x1 sets the WS usually has force. For example, if the trips call is SOLO, the WS aligns 1x6 off the offensive tackle and is responsible for force/pitch. on run read plays his job is to turn the ball back to pursuit. Also, the linebacker can move back into the box over the B-gap, because of the WS alignment.

In this scheme it is important to have good communication between the safeties and linebackers. Even more important on the away-side. The WS needs to let the backer know what the coverage is so he (linebacker) knows where to align and play on the run. Versus spread teams it helps to put the linebacker in similar positions.

I am planning to cover box run play in the 4-2-5, linebacker reads, and squat/halves and blue coverage more in depth in future posts.