I thought I would have some fun with a running joke that we’ve had around the office. Sometimes when we’re trying to grade out an offensive lineman (particularly a center), it can be tough when you get some film of a submarining nose guard. You know the one – the undersized kid, probably wrestles, and they stick him down at nose guard to just destroy your line’s knees and make piles.Well the funny thing about it is that I was that guy in High School. Not a wrestler, but everything else fits. And I loved it. First of all, how can you screw it up? On an average play, one guy was falling on top of me (and I’m holding on), and on a great play two or three of them went down. I had games where I graded out at 95% and had 1 tackle. By the way, I always argued that if they fell into the pile, I deserved a portion of the tackle. But I didn’t usually get that credit.So just for fun, here are some tips that I learned playing the position. I don’t know if this’ll actually help anyone, its just something that I did that seems fun to talk about.The Basics [Read more...]
8 Tips for Using the “Shooter” Nose Guard in your Defense
8 Man Pressure Blitz Concept
I was looking at some man blitz cut-ups from Arizona State and saw a couple of variations that were really different from anything I had looked at before. After watching a number of the clips, I think I have some idea of what was going on.
Starting with a 4-3 Defense, the End slides down and the Nose goes to head up, creating a sort of Bear front look. You can do any number of things with these guys, but in one variation the two 3-techs are working to the TE side (so the weak 3 is going to A-gap, the strong 3 to B-gap). The Nose is going to twist with the weak 3.The Will Backer will walk up in a weak 5-tech and come off the edge. It would make sense that he has blitz peel, though I don’t know that I ever saw him do it. This means that if the back flares to his side, he will break off his blitz and pick up the back man to man.The Sam Backer, Strong Safety, and Defensive End form the really unique thing about this blitz – one that I think makes it special. Of course, I’m not positive about which positions are doing what, so I’m guessing on that. The Sam (in my drawing) is walked up inside shade up the TE, while the End is in a 9-tech on the TE. It makes sense that the Sam may be the Strong Safety instead – based on what happens when this was run against 10 personnel – so keep that in mind. The Safety (in my drawing) is outside of the End, coming off the edge. On the snap, the Sam has eyes on the TE and steps to him. If the TE releases, he will pick him up. If the TE sets to block, the Sam blitzes the C-gap. The 9-tech will use up the TE if he blocks, meaning to occupy him so the SS and Sam get a free run. But if the TE releases, the 9-tech End is now blitzing. Finally, the SS is coming off the edge and has blitz peel, just like the Will backer. This is another reason why it makes sense for the Sam to be where the SS is – the backers have the same job in this blitz.The last part of the blitz is a blitz through the open A-Gap by the Mike Backer. The other possibility is that he’s man on the back, and blitz-engages when the back sets up. That would take away the blitz peel responsibility of the outside rushers. Either way, you’ve got an 8-man pressure if they try to keep 7 in to block. [Read more...]
Defending the Spread Offense Shovel Option Play
Sitting here snowed in today and I ran across a video of Utah’s Shovel Option on the Spread Offense blog. This is a great play, though I think you run a risk of putting the ball on the ground, more so than a traditional Triple Option (of course it is an incomplete pass, not a fumble – but still a no gain play). But the play has become a favorite in spread offenses around the country and one that our own team ran, so we saw enough of it in practice.
To defend any option team, whether out of a spread offense or otherwise, your team needs to have option rules. The best way to defend the Shovel Option is to not panic, play your rules, and be disciplined. First of all, here is how the play would look in blocking a base 4-2-5 Defense playing Cover 3:
Base Option Responsibilities vs. Shovel Option
For our base option rules, the two backers and the Nose and Tackle are playing the dive. In a traditional Read Option play, the dive would be coming across the QB’s face and the pitch man looping behind him. For this play though, the read we are getting is more a speed option look on the play-side. Our backers would read the near back, who becomes the pitch man on the play-side. They have to recognize the difference though – a speed option out of 1-back, but more likely a shovel option out of 2-back. They check the backside back and pick up the shovel.
Kamikaze Kick-Off Teams
I thought I would post something on a defense special team, as I was looking through some old film and remembered this one. The Bomber Kick-Off is stolen from someone, no doubt. We used it for one season and I got chicken after that, but it was a huge success for us. No kicks were returned for touchdowns, and we made most tackles inside the 25 yard line. We made a number of stops inside the 20.The BasicsThe Kamikaze Kick-Off was the name I used because it not only is the name of one of the key players, but it fits the idea behind the design. There’s a definite high risk to running it, as well as a big reward. It is very aggressive, which fits my mentality toward the kick-off. We want to make a statement!
The ball is going to be placed on the hash and kicked between the hash and the sideline. It’s really important that your kicker can directional kick with accuracy – if he starts putting a lot of balls in the middle of the field you’ll have a disaster on your hands. For the first four games, we lined up on the left has and kicked it down the left hash every time. Teams started to take advantage of that, so we switched it up later in the season and eventually put the ball in the middle of the field – but we had a very good kicker.
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Defending the Spread by Identifying Weaknesses
If you’ve got to defend the spread offense, the first thing you have to find out is if they are a passing spread or a running spread. Even teams that are a good 50/50 balance have one thing or another that they just do better. Even if they do both equally, your defense probably defends one or the other better.Recently, speaking with a coach who was considering changing his offense from a ground attack to a spread game, he mentioned that he had to have someone to throw to. You can spread your own guys out around the field all day, but if you have 4 little guys running around aimlessly on the perimeter, you’ll still get 7 guys in the box shutting down your rushing attack.That’s good advice for defensive coaches. What is the team good at? Where do you need to overload your guys? If there are only 2 legitimate receivers – and that is often the case, if not only one – then why are you committing 5 or even 6 guys to coverage?The moral of the story is, they can’t spread you out if they can’t run and pass. And if they can’t do one or the other very well, then be sure to take away whatever they do best. And if you don’t defend one or the other particularly well – then take away what you can stop, and then overemphasize the other.
