Defending 3x1 Formations Part V

Part V of the series on defending 3x1 sets is dedicated to pressuring your opponent when they choose to line up in some form of trips formation.  As many coaches have asked me over the years "How do you keep your blitzes sound when they go 3x1?".  It's not rocket science, but you do have to be willing to get a bit out of your comfort zone sometimes.  In this post, I'm going to go over some of my favorite pressures over the years and the how's and whys of running them.  Before that, though, I think the idea of why you pressure and when you pressure is essential.

Blitzing With a Purpose
Most coaches think that blitzing is gambling, or "sending the house", while some coaches think blitzing is what defenses do.  The real idea here (and it's one I've harped on in all four of the previous articles) is attacking your opponent based on scouting data.  Obviously, the less you know, the less you want to pressure until you feel you have a grasp for how it is that your opponent plans on attacking you.  With scouting data though, and tendencies, you can now dial up stunts and blitzes that are geared towards making your opponent play "left handed" so to speak.

Last season, we faced an opponent that would get into trips open, with the running back (RB) set to the trips.  When they did this, they would do 1 of 3 things.  First they'd run speed option into the trips.  Secondly, they would sprint out into trips and run a flood pattern concept (shown below).  Lastly, they would fake the inside zone run, and throw a bubble screen to the number three receiver (again, shown below).

That was pretty much all they did out of this look.  They would even flop the RB over and run one of these three plays.  That my friends, is what you call a tendency.  This was something I felt I could exploit, and we did.  We ran a version of TCU's dog blitz, or the good ol' NCAA blitz, but we made sure to have the flexibility built in to the defense to be able to blitz to the RB.  This allowed us to overwhelm them on the option and sprint out, as well as playing man to man coverage vs. the bubble screen look.

Folks, this is nothing new or revolutionary, it's simply using a tried and true blitz, mixed with good scouting data (I had 6 games on them, 5 of which were vs. 4 man fronts).  This took them out of what they liked to do out of 3x1 gun strong.  They tried to run zone read out of this look, but the stunting tackles makes life miserable for the OL, who now no longer have angles and end up pushing the DL into the path of the RB forcing the cutback to the unblocked blitzing LB.  This was not pressuring for the sake of pressuring, but a well calculated risk that ended up paying off in the long run.

Film study folks...that's all it comes down to.

Solid
Solid was introduced to me a while back, and if you are a base nickel defense, Solid is an awesome adjustment to 3x1 sets.  Solid by itself, is just what many refer to as Palms coverage.  The trips side isolates #1 and #2 and plays them in either a Two read, or Quarters concept, while the weak side of the coverage plays some sort of standard high-low, three-on-two bracket on the back and the single receiver.

I can already here the moans and groans.  "Duece, what about handling #3 vertical?".  I get it, hang in there.  Yes, Palms coverage main weakness when played to trips is the ILB having to handle #3 vertical.  Now, if through scouting data, the team you face doesn't do this, your golden.  Simply play your Quarters variant to trips, and then get a good double on the single receiver with any of the concepts listed above.  Sky is obviously a low-high where the safety robs the curl to flat and will help play inside and under the number one receiver.  Cloud is simply this low-high variant reversed.  In either one, you have a deep half player (sky = corner, cloud = safety) along with a hook player (the LB) to give you a three-on-two advantage that a coverage like Solo does not.  MEG is two man.  This is still similar to Solo, but the main difference is the weak safety (WS) does not have to concern himself with covering #3 vertical to the strong side of the coverage.  MEG, allows you to double any deep route by the single receiver, the back or both with a half-field safety.  MEG is an easy installment if you already run Solo.

The real idea behind Solid is the the last three ways of playing the weak side of the coverage.  Smoke, Cowboy and Backer are all pressures built into the coverage.  They are still man concepts, but instead of being three-on-two, you are now bringing pressure from one of the three players, and essentially playing Cover Zero on the weak side.  Smoke, is the weak safety coming off the edge with the LB handling the back and the corner playing man on the single receiver.

Backer is the LB blitzing the open gap to his side.  It could be the A gap, or the B gap.  You can really set it up however you want, I just chose to always blitz the open gap for simplicity's sake.  Now the safety will roll down and play the RB man to man, while the corner remains manned up on the single receiver.

Solid Cowboy is a corner blitz, and is an excellent pressure when brought from the boundary.  The DE fires inside and the corner comes off the edge.  The WS will now man the X receiver while the LB takes the back.

As you can see, this is quite an easy pressure package to adapt to your trips coverage.  The blitz can be game planned, or simply built in as an auto-check if need be.  The possibilities are endless!

Now, for those that aren't comfortable with playing the vertical of the number three receiver with a LB, there is an answer for this as well, and this is why I stated earlier that if you base out of nickel personnel then you're in good shape.  The coverage call is Special Solid.  Special, or what some others call "Mix", is a man concept on the strong side, or trips side of the defense where the corner will play the number one receiver man to man while the invert and deep safety play a Two Read concept to the number two and number three receivers.  When it's all put together you've got quite a nifty little pressure package that's built in to what most nickel defenses already do.

Now you have a way of controlling the number three receiver vertical, as well as still being able to do whatever variant you want on the weak side.  This flexibility is what is needed in today's defenses, when having to contend with no-huddle, up-tempo offenses.  This coverage/pressure adaptation is easily adaptable to many existing coverage schemes out there.

Attacking the Run
In my opinion, every blitz you run should be sound vs. the run, especially the option.  There are numerous blitzes I could go into, but I think you need to look at a few things first (again, blitzing with a purpose) before just wildly firing off at the hip with a myriad of blitzes.  The types of runs you face, are going to, by-and-large effect the blitzes you need to call.

Defending zone schemes with is usually done a few of ways for me.   I have heard this concept called "Flick", "Hawk", and "Press".  Anyhow, looking at the nuts and bolts of the pressure is simple, because it's not really a blitz, but more a leverage issue created by alignment.  It is a read pressure, meaning that if the LB reads pass, he will still get his drop, but if run is read, he will immediately fill the gap he's aligned in.

Pre-snap, the WILB, in the above diagram, simple walks to a toe-heel alignment with the DL and sits in the B bap.  He's reading the OG to his side, and if the OG fires off, he will blitz the open B gap.  As you can see, the OG has no leverage and is in a poor situation.  If the OG comes off, this leaves the center attempting to reach a 2I, and unless, he's one of the Pouncey twins, the likelihood of that happening is slim to none.  On the side of the RB, the offense already has leverage issues because the OG has to try to come under the three technique to get the other ILB.  The ILB plays the cutback to the A, or, if playing TGOG, can play over into the B gap while the three technique two-gaps and ends up in the A gap.  The DE plays a 2-for-one read by squeezing down, keeping the shoulders square and playing for the pull by the QB.  The offense is in a no-win situation, as if the QB gives the ball with the DE's read, or if the OC simply calls the zone to the soft B gap bubble, they are in trouble.  Again, this is an easy install and read for the LB.  If the OG were to high-hat, he would drop out and play his pass assignment.

Another way of defending these zone schemes is with pure inside pressure.  TCU's bullets scheme is a good way to handle zone teams.  I like setting the DT's evenly either in 2I's, or threes and then blitzing or stunting and blitzing to confuse the offense.

The idea here is sheer numbers.  The offense cannot account for 6 players blitzing without somehow adding a lead blocker.  It should be noted that an even more effective way to run these blitzes vs. zone teams is to have the LB's align toe-to-heel with the DL.  This keeps the OL from being able to execute their signature double-and-scrape technique.

Lastly, I like to run what TCU terms their "Smoke" blitz against zone teams.  What I prefer to do is set the front to the back, then slant away from the back and bring pressure off the edge.  What this does is invite the offense to run zone to the soft B gap away from the back (some teams actually check to this).  It also dupes the QB into a pull read that has him running right into the teeth of the blitz as well.

Smoke to back away from trips

Smoke to back set to trips

A schematic point on the Smoke blitz is that when blitzing the back set to trips, it may be a little more convenient to have the SS make a "switch" call to the ILB and send the ILB instead.  Again, this is based on preference and what you are attempting to achieve, but usually the strong side is to the field, and having the SS come from so far, all the while having the WS have to come over and cover #3 strong can be a lot of moving parts for some to handle.  The easy adjustment here is to simply switch the call between the SS and the ILB.

Defending gap schemes can be a bit tougher, due to the fact that determining when and where they will hit can be a bit challenging.  One scheme that comes to mind is Power and Power Read.  The new craze with offenses in the option game is the Power Read scheme.  We faced a team a couple of seasons ago that ran this play, but also ran QB Power and QB Isolation back to the RB.  The Smoke blitz from above is another good blitz vs. gap schemes.  What we ended up doing is setting the front away from the back, and then also slanting away from the back.  We also set the front up with a 1 and a 3 instead of the traditional "G" look.  The reasoning here is that when the offense pulls a lineman, they now gain a full man advantage on you to the side the OL is pulling.  If your numbers were matched pre-snap, you are now one full man down on the side the offense is attacking.  The Smoke blitz allowed us to bring pressure to the side the offense ran Iso and Power to, but by slanting to the Power Read side, we made life miserable for them.  When we called this, the strong end would align wider than normal (about like a 9 technique).  This allowed him to still work on plays away from him, but also put him in great position to attack the sweep portion of the Power Read play.

Two key things I liked about this pressure was this:

1. The ILB's did not blitz.  This allowed them to make their reads, and "clean up" anything the blitz didn't get.
2. It's only a five man pressure.  Against 3x1 formations, you can run a zone concept to the trips side and a man concept away similar to a zone blitz, or Cover One scenario, not leaving your defense as exposed as if running pure Cover Zero.

Another thing I liked about it, was the three technique slamming into the OT, helped pull the guard over, creating a huge gap for our Nose to run through.  The center, assuming he's blocking back on Power Read, missed this block quite a few times that night.  Our Nose had a field day with this call.  You can even run this look against traditional two back power teams.  The idea is that by crossing the Nose from weak to strong, you match the numbers that the offense presents to the attack side by them pulling a lineman.  

Attacking protections

I know most coaches want to hear how to attack specific protections.  For the most part this works, and yes I've got blitzes in my toolbox that work for Slide, Turn back, and Big-on-Big (BOB) protections.  However, I think the protection is only half of the big picture when pressuring the pass.  I think through diligent film study, you need to find the two weakest members involved in pass protection, and find ways to attack them.  Sometimes this can be a undisciplined OL that tends to chase a stunt, rather than pass it off.  This may be a RB in slide protection.  Whatever it is, identify the two weakest elements of the protection and work from there.

When attacking protections, there's a few ways to do it.  I narrow these down to attacking the flaws in the protection, vs. deception.  Most on here, know how or have at least heard how to attack various protections.  The good ol' NCAA blitz to the RB's side in Slide protection is one that comes to mind here.

America's blitz!

Obviously the idea here is to overload the protection by sending four to a side that only has three blockers.  Teams are wising up though, and utilizing Half Slide schemes and vertical set pass protection etc.  I feel more and more, disguise and deception pressures are of more order than simply breaking down the intricacies of the individual pressures.  

One very deceptive pressure, isn't really a true "pressure" in the sense that most think.  Only four will be rushing, but it's a read rush.  What happens is out of  a six man box, the LB's walk up to the outside of the DE's and are on the LOS.  The DE/LB combo reads the block of the OT.  If the OT blocks down, the LB blitzes and the DE drops.  If the OT kicks out, the LB drops and the DE rushes inside the tackle.  This provides a bit of confusion as to who is blocking who on the OL.

This can be a real good empty pressure too, because a lot of times it gets empty teams to check to some sort of hot route, and with two immediate droppers working into where offenses like to throw hot, you can get a free sack by simply confusing the QB.

Another blitz that has been a good one to me, that also has a deception package built into it is Florida's Nickel Tracer.  I wrote about it a while back, with some help from my good buddy Coach Hoover.  This blitz is a good one, in that you really end up running the "Trick" version of it more than the actual blitz.  

Again, not all pressure has to be sending five, six, or seven rushers.  The mere appearance of pressure is sometimes good enough to confuse offenses into checking into a bad call or bad protection.  I know many of us as DC's want to throw a myriad of blitzes at our OC counterparts, but something that has worked for me for years is a call I simply tag "Bluff".  Most of my blitzes are one word calls, so we simply tag the blitz Bluff.  For instance our Will off the edge blitz is WOE.  If we are planning on running that blitz a bunch, then we will also work on WOE Bluff.  Here the WLB walks up as if to come off the edge but backs out at the last minute and plays base defense.  Pretty easy concept to install, and can easily create as much confusion as if you actually blitzed!

"Check, check, 55 Deuce Tampa, 55 Deuce Tampa!!!"

Conclusion
Pressure packages are what send all DC's into a frenzy.  I'm sure if someone studied it, books on defensive pressure are probably the top sellers.  In my opinion, there's no exception for dedicated film study.  A defense that is prepared, and well-versed in what and how their opponent plans to attack them can look like they are blitzing and attacking even when they are playing base defense.  Don't get caught up in all the zone blitz schemes and blitzes-of-the-week talk that has folks so fired up on the Internet these days.  Work the hell out of your base package, do tons and tons of film study and teaching to your players.  All this being said, it is good to have a few things up your sleeve that may help your kids in certain situations.  Again, when and where to use these, are a product of dedicated film study and game planning.

That concludes the posts on Defending 3x1 sets.  I hope you enjoyed them, now I can get to writing about some other topics!  Take care.

Duece

Florida's Nickel Tracer/Auburn's Heat Package



I'm gonna get you sucka!!!


A few years ago, after the University of Florida won the 2006 National Championship by stunning Ohio State 41-14, Doc Holliday came to a Nike Coach of the Year (COY) Clinic to discuss UF's pressure package they used that season.  I happened in on the lecture and learned a very valuable lesson in nickel pressure philosophy.  I will say this, I did not run this blitz to anything but 10, 11, and 00 personnel.  I did not feel that it was a good matchup vs. anything else.  This package does have a "cumbersome" feel about especially since learning TCU's blitz package.  With that being said, you can gain a lot of knowledge, not necessarily from the scheme of things, but from the techniques that are utilized in this pressure package.  As with some of this stuff, resources on this pressure package have been like Osama Bin Laden...hard to find!  Anyhow, Chris Vasseur (vassdiddy) bent my ear a little while back about writing a piece on this particular pressure package, so since I'm doing nothing else, I took him up on it.  Let's see if I can't dissect this pressure package and coverage scheme so that we can understand, and even potentially install this scheme.  Let's roll!




OUCH!


The General Scheme
The general scheme of things is simple, bring everyone who's not covering a receiving threat.  The first item you have to deal with though, is the definition of a receiving threat.  Any eligible player aligned anywhere but the backfield is a receiving threat.  These players will have a dedicated defender, who's sole job is to cover this person.  So, against your standard 2x2 set with doubles on both side, you will have 4 defenders dedicated to covering those 4 receiving threats.  Simple enough right?

Any eligible player in the backfield is handled by the rush.  This is done in 2 ways.  First there are interior rushers who rush the A through C gaps on either side of the offensive formation.  These players, as they rush, if they encounter a running back (RB) on their way to the quarterback (QB), they wrap him up, and take him with them (straight outta Doc's mouth on that one).  This keeps the draw and middle screens from hurting this blitz.  Next is the edge rushers.  The widest rushers are "peel" rushers, meaning they do not allow a back to cross their face.  If a back attempts to check release, or run a swing pattern, they will cover this receiver man to man.  This keeps any quick outlet pass or hot read by the QB from hurting the blitz.  If this sounds familiar this is the exact technique I used to alter TCU's blitz package, so that it was not so intense on the safeties and allowed me to run more man free than pure man the past 2 seasons (go here to read the article).  So, once you've figured the receiving threats, the inside and outside rushers, now it's on to the coverage.

Coverage
The coverage of this blitz scheme is what really caught my eye.  It's man coverage with a twist, and an aggressive twist at that.  On film, it looks simply like off man, which basically it is.  The defensive backs (DB's) align 8 yards off their man, NOT the LOS.  On the snap of the ball, the DB does not gain any depth, yet buzzes his feet and keys the near shoulder of his receiver.  This technique is known as the "Banzai" technique, and is the crux of the coverage.  If this shoulder is going vertical, the DB maintains his inside leverage and as the receiver approaches...he tackles him!  Now I know what you are saying, but that's exactly as ol' Doc explained it at the clinic.  He said tackle them, knock them on their ass, whatever you have to do to keep them from catching the football.  He also stated a 15 yard penalty didn't hurt as much as either a touchdown, or receiver's not being afraid to run down the field.  Now, if the DB reads an inside or outside cut by the receiver he attacks immediately, and again, tackles the receiver, irregardless of whether or not the ball has been thrown.  This coverage scheme is NOT for the squeamish, it is aggressive, get after your ass (GATA) football.  This was proven in the 2006 BCS National Championship Game when Ohio State had no answer to Florida's defensive pressure scheme known as Nickel Tracer.  Of course it helped to have the speed and athleticism the Gator's had, but it's not a bad pressure package.

Alignment and Assignment
As with any defensive package alignment and assignment are vital.  Here are the rules for the Heat/Tracer blitz package.

• Nose: Align in a 2I weak, cross face of guard into B gap.  Listen for a "Gaps" call.  If given a Gaps call, slide alignment to a weak 3 technique and rush the weak B gap.
• Rush (weak end): Align in a loose 5 and peel rush at near shoulder of near back, or near shoulder of QB (if back offset opposite), unless given a "bull" call.  Vs. bull call, bull rush OT, do not allow him to double release on outside defender.   
• Tackle: Strong 3 technique, rush the B gap.  Listen for "Gaps" call, if given a Gaps call, align in the weak A gap and rush the weak A gap.
• Anchor (Strong End): Align in a wide 9 vs. a TE, or a ghost 6 vs. no TE.  Peel rush unless given a "bull" call.  If given a bull call bull rush TE, or free rush (no contain responsibility) QB.
• Sam (LB to strong side): Vs. a TE, align in a 7 technique (stand up, 2 point) and cover TE man to man.  Do not allow TE off the LOS, and control the TE vs. the run.  Vs. no TE, align in a 5 technique.  C gap rush vs. no TE.
• Mike: Align in the A gap on the side of the offset RB.  If no offset RB, align in the A gap to passing strength.  Blitz the A gap.
• Strong Safety ($): Align in A gap opposite the offset RB.  If no offset RB, then align in the A gap away from passing strength.  Rush the A gap.  Be alert for "Gaps" call.  Vs. Gaps call, must go to passing strength and cover #3.
• Weak Safety/Nickel/Will LB (W): Align to passing strength and cover #2 man to man (banzai technique).
• Free Safety (F): Blitz the side of the offset back.  If no offset back, peel rush (give bull call) to the side opposite the Nickel back.  If #2 weak is a WR, then cover #2 man to man.  Vs. trips, cover #3 man to man to trips side.  FS handles all motion.
• Corners- Cover #1 man to man.  Can check corners over vs. closed sets.  Use banzai technique.

Shown below are some of the alignments and adjustments to some popular 2x2 formations:

As you can see, the FS will blitz the side of the offset RB, unless the #2 receiver is split away from the formation.  If the RB were to motion from the backfield in the first 2 diagrams, the FS would take this motion.  If the RB motions in the 2x2 open set example, the SS would have to move out and cover him, and make the "Gap" check mentioned above (and will be discussed later). 

Here are the adjustments to some standard 3x1 formations:

In the first example the secondary plays corners over and the FS is able to blitz the side of the RB.  In the second example of 3x1, the FS is called on to cover #3 strong, and thereby cannot rush.  In the first example it is important that the FS let the DE (A) know to bull so the DE does not peel off if the RB crosses his face.

Next is a look at the adjustment to empty sets.

To be honest, I did not get this adjustment from Auburn or UF, as it is not discussed.  Empty was discussed at the clinic I attended, however it was discussed with a TE and not without.  When I ran this blitz, we made this a "Gaps" call.  Gaps, slide the Tackle over to A gap away from passing strength and put the MLB in the A gap to passing strength.  The Sam, and Anchor would keep their normal alignments, but the Sam would blitz the B gap, instead of the C, and the Anchor was the peel rusher to the strong side.  The Nose would kick over to a weak 3 technique and rush his gap, and the Rush didn't have to change a thing.

Techniques
I used this pressure package in it's entirety for 2 seasons out of the 4-3 package and a nickel package.  You can do it from any front you care to, as it's all about filling gaps, and covering detached receivers...aggressively.  The key to installation, is to divide your defense based on their job.  There are 3 jobs in the Tracer blitz, inside rush, outside rush, cover eligibles.  I'm going to break these 3 facets down, so you can see how to apply the proper coaching of the techniques of each. 

1. Inside rushers- These are rushers responsible for the A through C gaps on either side of the football. 
1. Keys- Near foot of nearest offensive lineman to near pad of offensive lineman. 
2. Reactions- The object is to get into a gap and go, that being said, run plays have to be carefully defended especially zone plays.  Defenders do not want to get washed and need to maintain gap integrity at all times by not getting reached.  This is the key for reading near foot to near pad, so that the rusher can deduce whether or not it's a run play, or pass play.  All inside rushers will spill, so if they trap, or kick out on power type plays, the normal spill reads apply (should be no new teaching here if you are a spill philosophy guy).  Pullers are chased, flat down the LOS and any downblocks are fought underneath and worked laterally.  Vs. a high hat read, or pass set, defenders maintain strict rush lanes and if blocked occupy the blocker and drive backwards in the direction of the QB.  If any defender, upon either rushing, or defeating a blocker, encounters a back, wrap him up (high tackle) and run him to the QB.  Do not release him, and do not worry if he has the ball or not.  If the ball is thrown, retrace your steps, and get to the football.
2. Outside rushers- These are rushers responsible for the D gap on either side of the football and are declared by their width, or basically put, they are the widest rushers.  Outside rushers notify players inside of them, that they are the peel blitzer by an "I'm here" call, letting the next defender inside of him know that they are now a spill player.  If the FS is involved in the rush, he will give the next man inside of him a "bull" call if it is a DE, letting him know to bull rush the OT the DE is aligned over.
1. Keys- Near offensive lineman and Lane of Ball (LOB).
2. Reactions- On run plays toward this defender, he is to work upfield and force, and will take pitch on option.  On run plays away, this player will pursue as deep as the football and look for boot, and reverse before chasing.  On a pass set by the near lineman, this defender will now attack the near back, working upfield executing a contain rush.  If the near back, attempts to cross the face of this defender, the rush is off and he will cover this defender man to man.  If the near back attempts to block this defender, the defender will throttle down, engage the blocker with a high tackle and carry him to the QB.  A good rule of thumb for this defender is do not allow an offensive player or threat to get to their outside shoulder.  The peel rusher should box all trap or kickout blocks by attacking the blocker with the inside shoulder.
3. Covering the eligibles- These are the defenders responsible for the coverage of detached receivers.  These defenders will align 8 yards off their respective receiver NOT the LOS.  Corners will always cover the #1 receiver (numbering from outside in) pre-snap.  Against closed sets, corners can flip sides and play corners over.  The nickel back or OLB responsible for covering #2, will cover #2 to the passing strength.  The FS will cover #2 away from the nickel back, or will cover #3 to the trips side.  The FS handles all motion.  If a TE is present, the strong side LB aligns in a 7 technique and covers the TE man to man.  Vs. empty sets, the SS must be called into action and will cover the #3 receiver to the nickel back's side. 
1. Keys- Inside shoulder of receiver.
2. Reactions- If the inside shoulder works down the field and stops or stutters to stalk, engage the blocker and get eyes inside to the football.  Shuck blocker and support the run only after it has broken the LOS.  Important note here is the eyes don't go inside until the receiver has been engaged, so as to make sure the receiver is blocking.  If the shoulder works vertical up field, and stays vertical up to a point 1 yard from the defender, the defender will maintain inside leverage, and execute an open field tackle on the receiver.  The key is to not take the receiver to the ground, but tie him up in a manner that does not allow for any more depth on the route, and impedes the receiver's ability to catch the football.  If the near shoulder, breaks inside or outside the defender is to drive to a point 1 yard in front of the receiver's direction, and again, execute an open field tackle.  The eyes should never leave the receiver and all DB's should use the sideline for leverage when making this tackle. 
3. Additional notes- The FS handles all motion, either change of strength (COS) motion, or backfield motion.  All DB's will "buzz" their feet and must NOT lose ground, they buzz their feet and react to the near hip (shoulder came from UF, Auburn taught the banzai technique by reading the near hip).

This is the basics of the blitz.  One other item to note, you can stack the SS and MLB over the center and play games with where they go, thereby confusing the center.  I did not do this much, as we stemmed quickly from our base alignment and basically hit the thing on the run.  Yes, Heat/Tracer is a bit complicated, but the major emphasis I liked was the coverage of RB's out of the backfield and how it handled the screen and draw game.  The other key component to this blitz is the "bluff" package.  I called it "Trick Heat", since the blitz to us was "Heat".  Bluff or Trick, whichever you prefer is a must.  When I ran this in a game, I tried to achieve a 1:3 ratio of Heat to Trick Heat.  That means, for every 1 time you run Heat, you then follow that up with 3 times of running Trick Heat.  I'm going to now discuss the nuances of the bluff scheme that goes with this blitz.  Please keep this in mind, Trick and Heat go hand in hand, and are not to be separated when installing this system.

The General Scheme

The general idea behind bluffing is just that, get the offense to think you are coming, and bail out.  With that in mind, you have to have a plan for dealing with what the offense is going to check to if you show the Heat/Tracer blitz.  Most offenses we saw checked to 1 of the following:

1. Slant/Hitch hot route
2. Screen/Swing pass to RB
3. Draw

So, with than in mind, the most dangerous of the above items is the slant/hitch, especially the slant.  Screens and Draws are some issues to, but since you now only rushing 4, you will have more eyes on the RB and more players will be in a better position to react to the screen or draw.  I still told my DL, that if they encountered a RB on their way to the QB, they were to grab him and take him with them.  This little added technique in the bluff scheme really helped against the screen and draw game. 

Ok, so on to the basics.  Basically Trick Heat was a 3 deep zone scheme that had 4 underneath droppers.  They were divided as follows:

• SS/MLB- Hook droppers, dropping to 2 if balanced of rotating their drop to passing strength vs. trips formations.
• SLB/FS- Curl Flat droppers, dropping at #1 to either side.
• Corners- Deep outside 1/3 players.
• Nickel- Deep middle 1/3 dropper.

So, now that we see the basics, let's move on to alignment and assignment.

Alignment/Assignment

This is important, and to me this part of the scheme is what complicates things.  The alignment is not exactly the same as that of the regular blitz.  Here are the alignment rules for the bluff package:

• DL- Align the same as you would for the normal Heat/Tracer blitz.
• SS/MLB- align the same as you would for the normal blitz.
• SLB- algin the same as you would for the normal blitz.
• Nickel/WLB- Align over #2 to passing strength.  Vs. trips, align inside of the #3 receiver.
• FS- Always align on the open side of the formation, on the LOS, or opposite the SLB.
• Corners- Must align on either side of the formation (cannot align in corners over) due to having deep 1/3 responsibilities.  They can stem though (which I had ours do, as did UF and Auburn).

The assignments are as follows:

• DL- rush your assigned gap, use draw/screen protect rules if you encounter a RB.  DE's must contain rush (peel assignment is off however).
• SS/MLB- At the snap drop to #2 to your side.  Do not look at QB, drop to your man and buzz your zone, reacting to your receiver's break.  Vs. trips, MLB drops to #2 and SS will drop to #3 to the trips side.  Treat empty the same as trips and drop to 2 and 3 to passing strength.
• SLB/FS- At the snap drop to #1 to your side.  Same rules/techniques as the SS/MLB.  Only difference is vs. empty the FS drops to #2 away from the passing strength (ignores #1).
• Nickel- Rotate to the deep middle 1/3, must wait until the snap and bust tail to get there.
• Corners- Drop to the deep 1/3 to your side.

Here is Trick Heat (as I called it) to various sets:



The underneath droppers (FS,MLB,SLB,SS) all leave at the snap, they do not leave early (this is important in disguising the blitz, however if they do cheat the snap and get caught, they are not to move up, they should continue to drop out).  They are to drop at their receiver, and expect slant, if the receiver breaks off early, on a hitch the work to the upfield shoulder looking to make a quick open field tackle.  The deep droppers play their normal cover 3 rules, with the WS having the toughest job of the bunch, because of his alignment and having to get to the MOF quickly.  Don't have him cheat though as you will lose the element of surprise. 



Don't leave early!

 




Here are some clips of the blitz in various forms against different sets. 

So to recap, the basics of the package is a "plus one" blitz (bring 1 more than they can block) and a bluff package that allows you to keep the offense off balance.  I liked this scheme, and quite frankly didn't use it enough.  What I really used was the inside and outside rush techniques on the blitz to adapt them to TCU's blitz package to make the alignments and keys of the secondary simpler out of the 4-2-5.  I mainly did this blitz out of standard 4-3 personnel, but I switched the Will linebacker (W in the diagrams, WS in nickel package) with the FS, because I did not have a fully developed nickel package in my defense at the time.  The Will in my defense was a converted DB though, so it still worked out.  As with so many of these things we get from the college game, there is usually some adapting you can do to make it fit what you are trying to accomplish.  This simple switch between the Will and the FS was not a major issue, and fit us better because our FS was used to rotating to the MOF, and playing the deep 1/3 as well as covering receivers man to man.  Later, I did run it exclusively out of a nickel package, but to start I just kept my 4-3 and aligned everything as shown above, with the Will and FS switching roles.  Some other tidbits of information, are that when running this, you need to rep the bluff package 3 times as much as you do the blitz.  The blitz is fairly self explanatory, once you get the alignments down, but the bluff package can take a little work.  The part I had difficulty on was the underneath droppers getting caught with their eyes in the backfield instead of to their receiver.  Anyhow, a very fun and exciting blitz package for those that are in spread heavy leagues.  Hope this helped, and thank Vassdiddy over at the Huey forum for getting me off my duff to write this thing!



Thanks Coach!



Duece