Stopping the Power Running Offense with the 4-2-5 Part I: Principals

This is part I in a multi-part series. (Not sure how many yet.) In this part I will cover the basic principals to stopping the power running game with the 4-2-5. In part II, I will look at alignments and run fits/techniques versus double tight-I. In the part(s) I will cover unbalanced formations and adjustments like "Flip" and getting the safeties on the LOS to form solid fronts. (ie 4-3 under looks)

People new to the idea of using a 5 man secondary are skeptical, because it seems like it would be difficult to stop a power running team that uses bigger personnel. At times being smaller can put the D at a disadvantage, however, with proper game-planning and practice the 4-2-5 can become an excellent defense for stopping the power run.

I am going to cover some principals and show alignments with run fits versus different schemes. There are so many scenarios and play variations in football it would be impossible to cover them all. Understanding the principals and their applications to various formations in plays will put you on your way to using the 4-2-5 versus power running teams.

PRINCIPALS

1. Align Properly

This is the most important aspect in defending any offense. It is important that you not only align soundly, but align in a manner that the offense is not sure what you are doing.

2. Spill and Overlap

When using a defense based on smaller faster players, you have to keep the ball moving laterally. Having the DE's wrong-arm plays is a must. You could try to squeeze or box pulling plays, but if you run into a team stronger than you, big holes are going to open up.

3. Attack the play before it develops.

There are many things that go into this. If I had to break it down into separate parts, I would say:

-Be Aggressive about getting people to the point of attack. (Be willing to play the secondary on the run more aggressively.)

-Don't let the back hit the hole running full speed. (This is why the spill and overlap concept is a big part)

- Force the back to either dance or make a quick decision into a free defender.

4. Play to win the down and distance game

The other principals are developed from this one. You ideally want the offense to go 3 and out. That can be difficult versus many of these offenses. The power running offense is predicated upon keeping the chains and clock moving. Before I get into the Down and Distance strategy for the defense, I will first look at the strategy for the offense.

Power Running Strategy

On first down the offense is happy getting 4 yards and into a second and medium situation. If they happen to get into a second and short situation they will be really happy. Second and short is the best down for the offense; this is where they will use play action passes and other plays with big play potential mixed in with enough running plays to keep the defense off balanced. If the offense ends up in 3rd and short, they are comfortable running any of their base plays. They feel they can get 4 yards at will with this offense. What they want to avoid at all costs is the dreaded 3rd and long. In this down they can't consistently rely upon their running plays to get the necessary yardage, nor can they utilize their play-action passing game effectively. The options they are usually left with are: 5-step passing, Sprint out passing, screens, draws, and a maybe a spread package. These things are outside the comfort zone of their offense. In short, the power run offense tries to avoid 3rd long more than other offensive systems.

Defensive Strategy

The goal of the defense should be to get the power running offense into a 3rd and long situation. How is that accomplished. Simple by getting the offense to gain 2 yards or less on 1st and second down. OK, its not that simple, but that's the general idea. The best thing the defense can do is get the offense to gain 2 or less yards on 1st down. This will put the offense into second and long, again this is a down that the offense wants to avoid, because it makes 3rd and long a real possibility. The offense has pressure to move the ball on second and long.

The general point is, you want pressure on the offense on 2nd and 3rd down. To accomplish this, you have to be aggressive on 1st down. This is the down to be aggressive versus the run. Most power running teams are not going to go for a pass or play pass on 1st down (unless they feel its high percentage). Because an incomplete pass immediately puts pressure on the offense. They don't want to pass unless its high percentage.

The goal of the 4-2-5 versus power running teams is to get them into a 3rd and long situation.

5. Play to get 3 and outs early in the game rather than later in the game.

This is especially true if you have a decent offense on your team. If you get them to go 3 and out on its first 2-3 drives, while at the same time score 10 or more points, then you have put them in a bad position. 1st, they won't have enough plays run yet to be sure of their adjustments. 2nd, they will not be controlling clock, which is a big part of their scheme. 3rd, they will be playing catch up with a ball-control based offense. If they are down by 10 points or more, then they are gonna have to play more aggressive themselves, this usually leads to turnovers and even more mistakes because they are stuck doing something that they are not as comfortable doing as they are in the running game.

In the next part we will look at the application of these principals by using alignments and techniques versus the double tight I.

Spread Run Variations (Mississippi State/Oregon)

If you have been keeping up with College Football at all over the last few years, you probably noticed that offenses keep getting more creative in their effort to keep defenses off balance. Dan Mullen and Chip Kelly are two coaches who have been some of the most active innovators of the spread running game. In this post I will explore a couple of run variations that these two coaches have used this year.

MISSISSIPPI STATE'S DRAW/COUNTER VARIATION

After looking at this post from thespreadoffense.com, I observed Dan Mullen using some creativity in the way he ran the counter. He used many variations of the play but one in particular stood out to me.

Working from a base 11 personnel formation:

The base way to block the counter to the TE side would be to:

1. Release the TE on the SS
2. Have the PST and PSG Team to the BSLB
3. Pull the BSG to kick the DE out and the BST to seal up on the PSLB
4. The QB would hold the BSDE with the mesh
   
5. WR's Block most dangerous threats

This is nothing revolutionary. The counter has been a staple in football for years. Dan Mullen ran his variation using three simple changes.

1. The person responsible for sealing on the PSLB
2. Backfield action
3. Ball Carrier
   

In his variation the BST stayed to block to the BSDE. When the QB caught the snap he set up and showed pass, and the running back worked behind the pulling guard to seal up on the PSLB.

This draw/counter play puts pressure on the defense. First, if the backers (and safeties) are getting their run/pass reads from the backfield (this is common even in college) , they will be less aggressive on the run. Second, there is a high chance the backers will be caught off guard by who is going to be blocking them. Third, even if backers were alert to the one pulling linemen, it is not a reliable key. Mississippi State had been pulling one guard on Play Action passes throughout the game.

Another thing that worked in this play's favor was the situation. It was 3rd and 2, its a short enough down that the offense had just about their whole playbook to work with. Given the play call range, the Kentucky Defense had to much guesswork. In situations like these, the smartest thing for the defense to do is avoid bringing pressure and play a base call geared towards the run and short passes. For example a cover 1 variation. This was good for the Mississippi Offense because linebackers running through the gaps disrupts these plays.

This video is from www.thespreadoffense.com. The play occurs at about 5:10. The play is run a few other time throughout the game.




OREGON'S STRETCH/MIDLINE VARIATION

Chris Brown at Smartfootball wrote this article about Oregon's Zone Read of the defensive tackle. Oregon ran a variation of this earlier this year and combined it with stretch (outside zone principals. Working from 20 personnel, they aligned in this formation.

In this play the center, Right Guard, and Right Tackle full zone (outside zone). The runningback meshes with the QB on an outside sweep path. Again, this is nothing revolutionary. The creativity came on the backside. The Left Guard and Tackle released inside and blocked the BSLB and Safety. Finally the H works back across the formation and kicks out the BSDE. The unblocked person was the defensive tackle in a 3-technique. This was the QB's read.


Defenses have responded to defending midline plays by squeezing the d-tackle down the line to account for the running back and letting a linebacker work around for the quarterback.


The problem with that plan against this play is that it will not work effectively.

First, there is no way the d-tackle can play the running back (unless the back gets the ball and tries to cutback, not likely). Second, the backer will be getting a fast flow read, and be working to defend the running back themselves. So the play is essentially a ploy to get the D-tackle to do what he has been taught, and then run the QB ball right behind him where a huge hole will be.


The squeezing of the d-tackle opens up the play. Here is another view of the play to demonstrate the positioning of the players when the QB pulls the ball.

This play put pressure on the D, because it uses the techniques they have been taught against them. The reads that each of the defenders get will put them out of position versus the place the offense will actually attack.

CONCLUSION

These plays are examples that offensive coaches are constantly trying to stay a step ahead of the defense. Dan Mullen and Chip Kelly have the reputations they have, because of innovation like this. It will be a ongoing challenge for defensive coaches to constantly adapt and adjust to the offense as fast as the they (offense) has adjusted to the defense. I wonder when we will see these variations down at the high school level. They may already be, who knows. These have been the first times I have seen these particular play variations.

Simple OL/Dynamic Backfield- Add Some Funk to your Spread Runs

Today the spread is all the craze, people want to see 4 WR's with lots of passing and explosive running. The staple plays for spread teams has been the zone read and the counter. Many teams that I have seen have tried to make living running these two plays. Installing the pair is not overly difficult, with enough reps, an O-line can become proficient at blocking multiple fronts for these two plays. We are going to look at how these two blocking schemes can allow you to run multiple plays that will give defenses fits. (Most teams run more than the zone and counter, I want to show how you can get more out of these two schemes.)

The goal for offensive coaches is to appear complex to the defense, but be simple enough to be good at what you do. The challenge for the run game is coordinating the O-Line blocking. The O-line blocking is not the focus of this post, you should be fine if you understand the basic rules of the zone and the counter. The focus here will be how you can get the most out of these plays. Since I will not be discussing the O-Line, the flexibility and innovation of these plays will come from the backfield.

THE ZONE READ

The basic zone read:




Here the line is zoning left and the QB is reading the DE. If he comes down the line the QB pulls the ball and runs outside. If the DE runs up field the running back gets the hand off and finds a hole in the zone. This is a staple play and in 2x2/3x1 formations puts 5 blockers against 5 defenders with a 6th occupied by the QB. On paper this is a TD if the back can beat the FS one on one. The challenge with this play today is teams have geared up and practiced stopping it.

THE ZONE FLIP


By keeping the zone blocking the same, what can be done to put pressure on the defense? As said earlier, make changes in the backfield. The easiest change is to flip the responsibilities of the running back and QB. By flipping the responsibilities, you have the back getting a hand off running outside if the DE decides to squeeze down the line and the QB finding a hole behind the zone if the DE runs up-field.




This can create problems for the defense especially if they are keying the back. Many teams that key the back put their DE on the QB. If the backers flow with the back and the DE runs up-field, the QB will be able to find a big hole behind the zone. The linebackers will have to adjust to this play by playing slower. When a backer has to slowdown and think more the Offense is at an advantage. This is difficult for the backers read even if they slow down. What options do they have, really? One, they can watch the mesh and attack once they see who has the ball. This is slow reaction and leaves them vulnerable to being blocked. Two they can key the line, this will flow them opposite the sweep of the back, so on any give they will be out of position. Even if the backers are prepared it will be hard for them to quickly identify whether or not the play is a regular zone read or a flip.

To make it even more difficult you can run the zone flip from fly sweep (pop sweep) Motion.



This creates the same situation but now with WR motion to get the defense flowing with the motion. Also, the WR has a back lead blocking for him. To go even further you can take this concept out of a 3x1 trips set and put pressure on the defense's trips adjustments.



From the diagram you can see it is difficult for the defense to overplay the trips side. This helps in two ways. #1 You can attack the trips side in the passing game more effectively, and #2 you can run the zone or zone-flip back toward the trips side from the same formation. Look at the diagram below and see how the zone flip toward the trips side is sound when the defense is conscious of runs away from the trips.





The defense is in a tough situation, where they have to pick their poison and play a guessing game. That is the situation an offense wants to put the defense in. Most defenses don't like to see empty formations, especially with running quarterbacks. The zone flip can be run out of empty formations to any of the 3 WR's behind the LOS.




Accounting for the formations and the potential ball carriers (and the passing game) makes these wrinkles to the zone read a problem for defensive coaches.

THE COUNTER GT

The other staple run play in the spread is the counter. In this post I will look exclusively at the Counter GT. The GT is similar to the zone concept other than it is designed to predicate the area the ball will go and uses more angle blocking as oppossed to double teams. The basic GT play is as follows:




Like the zone the DE is the read. If the QB gets a give read the running back takes the ball and runs inside the kick-block and behind the seal block. The QB keep is intended to keep the DE honest and allow the RB to run behind the pulls.

THE COUNTER FLIP

The counter flip works exactly like the zone flip with same back field movements and reads. The only change is the O-Line.



The QB and running back have flipped responsibilities. Now on plays where the DE runs up-field, the QB keeps the ball and runs between the kick-out and seal. To make this play even more difficult for the defense throw in the same WR fly sweep motions



Again this is tough for the linebackers. Regardless if they are reading the back or the linemen, they are going to get conflicting keys. The Fly sweep action is one way and the line pulls are in the opposite direction. Again the backers have to guess or wait until they know who has the ball. Again, advantage offense. It is great out of trips too.




FINAL THOUGHTS

Some people might argue that it is hard to time-up and teach the QB to read on the fly sweep motion. This could be the case for some schools. However, even if you could not teach the reading part, you can still dictate who gets the ball by the play call, and the defense will still not know who is getting the ball.