Its been a while since my last post. I knew it would be tough to get posts up during the season, and this is my first season since starting The Football-Defense Report and GridironChat.com. Now that we’re into our first truly “regular” game week (we’ve been in class for two weeks, but this past week was a bye), I’ll work to get on some sort of legitimate schedule. Later this week, I even hope to get a second post out talking about some blitzes for the 4-2-5 Defense! We’ll see what happens. For now, I just wanted to talk a little bit about making adjustments during the game. This is an outpouring of things I have been thinking about, so it may not be very well organized or even useful, but I hope it has some value to someone.The first key to making adjustments is understanding where your weaknesses are, and anticipating how the offense might attack them. I get really concerned when a coach talks about this “amazing” system that “covers everything.” Before you install anything – a front, coverage, blitz or otherwise – we need to completely pick it apart and recognize that it has weaknesses. After 100 years of football, there’s nothing perfect and nothing really new. Someone would have found the perfect system if there was. You might have incredibly good athletes that make your system look perfect, and if you do, please send me an e-mail! But recognize your weaknesses, and anticipate how they will be attacked.Now that you have your weaknesses, have an alternative… and don’t wait until they start attacking your weakness! As an offense, if I recognize a defense is vulnerable to the run, I’ll keep doing it til they stop it. BUT, as a defensive coach (and this is the Football-DEFENSE Report!), I can’t sit back and wait for them to start attacking that deficient area, or we’ll be down 6 points. Use a variety of fronts, coverages, line movements and blitzes to keep the offense from keying in on your “base” or your favorite call in the game plan. Stay one step ahead, because if you’re once step behind on your adjustments then you are giving up points.The time will come, though, that we have to pull out the whiteboard on the sideline and draw up something new that the players have never done before. You may not have even thought of it ahead of time (shame on you!), but that’s okay. Be sure your thoughts are clear in your head, draw it up and explain it clearly to your players. Make sure it fits with your base principles that you teach your players every day. If someone has been a box player all season, don’t suddenly ask them to spill and expect it to go well! And finally, give it a cool name and write it down somewhere after the game. You may want to use it again later in the year, and the players will remember it if you do. The easiest thing to do is give it the nickname of your opponent. Then down the road you can just say, “Remember the Chiefs adjustments? Next series we’re going to do that” and briefly review it. Now you’re ready to roll. [Read more...]