How to Run a Middle Cross Zone Blitz

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When you are adding the Zone Blitz to your defensive package, you need to be sure you are able to attack from all different angles. You may not use every blitz in every game (and I do not recommend it), but you will want to use blitzes that attack different areas.

You have seen a Single Edge blitz in the America’s Fire Zone. Here we are going to look at the Middle Cross blitz, which we call Machete. This blitz brings the Strong Safety and Mike Linebacker through the A Gaps and can cause a lot of problems for pocket passers. Enjoy the video!

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Filed Under: Blitz, Fire Zone, Zone Blitz

Zone Blitzing from the 4-2-5 Defense

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These are sort of drawings on a napkin for me, since I haven’t actually run them from a 4-2-5 look. But the idea is to take some of my favorite 4-3 Over zone blitzes and adapt them to the 4-2-5. From the single high safety look, it seems tough to create those great angles that the 4-3 and the 3-4 offer you in the zone blitz. You could roll the Weak Safety back at times pre-snap to take a deep zone, and now you can bring the Free Safety on some new angles (and bring the Corner blitz). If we change to a Cover 0 man coverage, you’ll open up a lot of blitz opportunities. I’ll look at those at a later time, but these are just a few ideas for creative zone blitzes.Inside Blitz [Read more...]

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Filed Under: 4-2-5 Defense, Blitz, Fire Zone, Scheme, Secondary Tagged With:

Cover 3 with the 3-5-3 Defense

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Since we’ve established the fronts with the 3-5-3 Defense and included one or two good stunts as well, I want to talk a little bit on the coverage in this defense. Because of the nature of the 3-man front, and the ability to bring anyone from anywhere, the coverage zones in the 3-5-3 have a slight different from the traditional Cover 3 pass defense.The main difference is that there are 8 players who, in a base defensive call, would drop into coverage. Now you may not use this very much, but you probably will want to at some point – so the players better know how it works. And honestly, its a lot easier to start off teaching Base 3-5-3, Cover 3, than almost anything else (even Man Coverage, in my opinion). Once the players understand the 5 underneath cover zones in the Cover 3 deep, 5 under, they just need to learn a simple little rule and we can run a 3 deep, 4 under or even the Fire Zone concept with 3 deep and 3 underneath coverage players. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: 3-5 Defense, Blitz, Cover 3, Fire Zone Tagged With:

Overload Stunt from the 3-5-3

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The most difficult part of running the 3-5 Defense is deciding how to effectively use your stunts. The first thing to know is whether you are blitzing to get to the Quarterback and stop the pass, or blitzing to stop the run. They require two different style of play call, and ideally two different styles of play from your linebackers (or any other blitzer).I’ll talk about some of the differences in a run blitz and a pass blitz for us later, its more fun to get right to some of the big-time fun blitzes. With all of the excitement about the Zone Blitz, the 3-5-3 is made for it. In fact, we started running the Zone Blitz without even realizing what we were really doing. We would have a 3-deep, 4-under coverage (Cover 3). We had a 5-under coverage, but it was less than 10% of the time that we would not bring at least one linebacker. In any case, when we wanted to bring two linebackers, a 5-man pressure, we had to take care of the coverage. Well, you can either leave a hole in the zone, or you can adjust to fix it. It really just makes sense to adjust to the traditional 3-deep, 3-under Zone Blitz. Players communicate with each other when they are going, and if someone outside of them is blitzing, they take his zone. So if the Lion (Left Inside backer) gets a call from the Sam, the Lion now takes the flat cover zone! The Lion communicates that he is gone to the Mike, who takes the Hook-Curl Zone over there. Now, if he gets a call from the other side too, he’s come back to the Middle of the Field. The only thing he needs to recognize now is – who is the most dangerous man to the M.O.F.? Drop toward him – usually a Tight End poses this threat. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: 3-5 Defense, Blitz, Cover 3, Fire Zone, Scheme Tagged With:

America’s Fire Zone Blitz

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Unless you just have superior athletes on a defense, you know that you are going to have to take some risks to make big things happen. One of the best ways to take a risk is to use the blitz. For most teams, however, blitz packages mean you need to use man coverage. That leaves you open for some big plays. Some coaches just aren’t comfortable with man blitzes. So, use the Fire Zone concept.Fire Zone blitzes use a Cover 3 concept and bring 5-man pressure. That means you have 5 players rushing the passer, with 3 players covering the deep 1/3s of the field. The remaining players are going to be responsible for cover 3 underneath zones as best they can. There are holes! You can teach your guys to “pattern read,” essentially playing man on anything in their area, to make things better – but the fact is, 52 yards across is a lot of ground for 3 guys to cover, when the Quarterback only has to throw the ball 5 or 10 yards down field. You’re relying on the pass rush to make these throws tough. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Fire Zone, Pass Rush, Scheme