Jim Schwartz Pressure Philosophy

Coaching the 2-Gap Nose

Even or Odd, that is the question.  With more and more defenses opting into basing out of an odd front, I figured I would pass on some notes of my experiences from a true 3-4 defense.  We've touched on this before, but I believe the true multiple defense of today's game is consists of just 2 interior tackles, 1 defensive end and then 1 hybrid 'tweener' or undersized end/speed rusher.  You can get by with these type of players to get into whatever front you need.  Many defenses base out of these odd personnel groups, but are actually playing an even defense, in the traditional sense. These defenses may play a zero technique, but only require this player to control 1 gap.  In addition, they may cover both guards (2i or 3 tech) and control 2-gaps on a read, but aren't actually using a 2-gap technique. There isn't much out there on coaching up the zero technique.  The only thing I've seen addressing this is the Mike Fanoga's "Developing 2-gap Linemen For The 3-4 Defense" video and I don't know that anyone has garnered anything of value off it.  The video just reviews basic DL drills and Coach Fanoga mumbling through unorganized cutups of his teams with no meaningful coaching points. In this installment, I would like to provide my thoughts on coaching a 2-gap zero technique in an odd front.

Ass-Kicking Defensive Line - Rod Marinelli

Training the 3-4 Defensive Line (Ron Aiken)

BRONCO/SCIF Player

As covered many times in various forms before, the fire zone blitz concept is prevalent in today's game. In this post, we'll cover probably the most under documented aspect of it, the SCIF player. Losing an underneath zone defender to pressure may cause some 'fundamentalist' thinking DC's to lose sleep... "how do you account for the four underneath zones"?

The 5-man pressure package can seem complex or superfluous to many folks, treating it as an alien concept. If you already pattern-match from a MOFC, then adapting to the fire zone for your players and philosophy becomes a natural extension. When players understand zone coverage as it relates to pattern distribution, plugging and playing them into similar roles becomes feasible because of the shared skill set.

When running a fire zone from a coverage standpoint, not much will actually change in the secondary. The fulcrum to this scheme will fall on the integrity of the SCIF/Bronco player, who controls the seams and matches the second receiver in the distribution. This player can be anyone within realistic alignment position (safety, linebacker, defensive end) near the seam. The beauty of the fire zone is its flexibility, you can bring anyone to match / fulfill the 3 underneath players.

If the SCIF player is a member of the secondary, the adjustment is extremely simple. If it is being run out of a 3-man / odd front, there usually is no need to drop linemen to create a fire zone, so you would typically end up with a Dog, Backer, or Safety as the SCIF player. Whoever it may be, the rules and technique will remain the same. The goal is to control the seams, the area between 2 yards inside the hash extending out to the numbers. You are essentially expecting a sack or force a short throw (below the conversion down) and outside (difficult).

This SCIF player must control the seams, which will be immediately threatened by the #2 receiver. On the snap, the defender will keep his eyes on the quarterback, bounce his feet (much like a Cover 4 safety), and easy pedal out with a slide step. Once recognizing drop back action from the quarterback, his eyes will snap to the #2 receiver and continue to slide for depth to stay on top of #2 at a depth of 10 yards.

Because this is a pressure package, the throw, if it occurs, should be quick (under 2 seconds) and not allow the quarterback much time to process through his progressions. If the quarterback's shoulders are directed at the seam, the SCIF player should be expecting an inside or vertical route, to which he has out leveraged the receiver (eliminating the throw). The SCIF defender should know that once the quarterback's shoulders go OUTSIDE the seam (exaggerated toward the flat), there is no way for him to progress back inside (and even if he did, the 'final 3' player would handle it). Therefore, if the quarterback's shoulders turn outside the seam, the SCIF should work parallel (expand width) to the numbers (sideline).

• If #2 pushes vertically on the seam, the SCIF should catch at 10 yards and carry. He is essentially looking to play 'catch' technique on a vertical stem by #2 with inside-out leverage.
• If #2 runs a speed out, the SCIF should slide to his outside foot and bust to the curl route, expecting the #1 receiver to be there on a curl-flat combo. The SCIF should not jump the speed out (but anticipate #1 will be the #2 after the pattern distribution).
• If #2 breaks inside (shallow) underneath 10 yards, the SCIF will attempt to deliver this receiver to the final 3 player in the hole with an outside leveraged collision.
• If the quarterback's shoulders open AWAY from the SCIF player (he is backside), remember, the quarterback won't have time to work back inside, the SCIF should slide parallel inside, no further than 2 yards inside the hash and help squeeze the ball with the 'final 3' player.

Where things get dicey is when you involve a lineman (end) in coverage as the potential dropper / SCIF player. This really becomes a run stunt because being away from the pressure overload, the defensive end's interior linemen will be stunting to his side. The nearest lineman will be looping to his "C" gap contain responsibilities, leaving the SCIF defensive end as a potential "B" gap filler. Below are some reinforcement drills on how the SCIF DE will mirror the back (load/flare) with leverage. The SCIF DE should always think of himself as a run-player FIRST, and a dropper only if there is no run action by the back.

Defensive Line (2001 Chicago Bears)

A little blast from the past here - the dynamic pairing of Keith Traylor (3 tech) and Ted Washington (1 tech) at Chicago.

While I'm not a big advocate of employing two bulky monsters inside (to essentially control B-to_B gap with just 2 defenders) simply because of the scarcity of athlete (not practical), this pairing was phenomenal in controlling the line of scrimmage. The following clips will illustrate how these guys were so successful in being disruptive in the run game; fundamental technique against various blocks.

If time permits, I'll add an addendum including clips of the 2000 Ravens with Sam Adams and Tony Siragusa.

Defensive Line (Pete Jenkins)

Continuing the brilliance of Pete Jenkins, here is his time-tested video of Defensive Line fundamentals.

Important Practice Principles - Pete Jenkins

DL NFL/NCAA Coaching legend, Pete Jenkins (Philadelphia Eagles DL), sharing fundamental principles to be successful with practice.

( click here for audio)

Important Practice Principles
1. Coaching with purpose: Players and Coaches should be on the same page
2. Practice every day with toughness, speed, and intensity
3. Practice what’s important to be successful
4. Simulation is the key
5. Consistency regardless of the opponent
6. Have an advanced plan (weather, school, schedule, etc)
7. Practice unusual schemes early and often (don’t wait until the end of the week)
8. Practice the obvious situations over and again
9. Stress and emphasize the kicking game
10. The questions we all share: what to teach, how to teach, how long and how often

Identify and define positional needs within your scheme of offense and defense

Components of the Pell Method of Teaching Football

The skill – football skills both mental and physical relative to positional needs and successful execution

The drill – the teaching process designed to help your player understand and become physically proficient at skills and techniques needed to play winning football

The time – based on two factors:


1. How well or how poorly players are executing

• Good execution – polish the skill
• Poor execution – coach and rep skill

2. In season, the specific nature of the opponents offense or defense

Pass Rush (IA Hawkeyes)

Continuing a theme from the Hawkeye Defensive Circuit, here are clips of fundamental DL work courtesy of Ron Aiken;

Be sure to check out previous DL entries here , here, and here.

More GATA Drills: (UGA DL)

UGA DL @ Yahoo! Video

Defensive End Speed Rush

Remember the good old days when the Saints actually had a pass rush and not two overpriced fat bodies?

DE drills courtesy of Darren Howard

Get Back To Fundamentals: Defense

EVERY DAY DRILLS FOR DEFENDERS

C/O Coach Charlie Means & Texas Tech

Defensive Line


Linebackers


Corners


Safeties

Get Back to Fundamentals: Escape!

Getting OFF of blocks is not exactly intuitive, especially at lower levels.
The get-off, separation, and escape have to be conditioned into defenders as the rhythm in which they operate....if they are STILL ENGAGED with blockers after the 5th step, you have problems. Those offensive linemen / blockers don't have the ball!
There shouldn't be any thinking involved in this equation at all though. The WAY they are supposed to be playing the position should require very little mental processing, because it should be the same every snap;

• Align
• Stance
• Get-off
• Punch / separation
• Leverage
• Escape

Anything more than that, and its a waste and inefficient (Olinemen don't carry the ball). The Oline's job is to tie up, get in the way, block the defenders.....why are we wanting the Dline to block the Oline, who are blocking the Dline?
Escape requires no more thinking than a hand strike block in Karate.....that's all this is....muscle-memory response

Also, we should be conditioning them to accomplish each movement in coordinated footsteps. This isn't unmetered "free time", it is a choreographed dance they need to be working with. They should be making contact on the first step, seperating/leveraging on the 2nd step, etc....just teaching get-offs on air has really no game time application. Getting them from the coiled hips (stance), to contact, to extension (seperation) is what is going to determine the line's success on game day

Just be sure the DL is gaining separation from the Oline at the snap. Getting off and into Olinemen is not what you want. Once they have uncoiled their hips (after get off) they are already beat (there is no way to work an escape if the hips are not coiled). If they do this, then it just becomes a wresting match of fatties (common at lower levels). Dline should keep their hips away from the oline at all times, and only close that distance when they are working an escape (and then push their hips tight past the Olineman's hips).