The 46 Nickel and the Flexbone...Defending Against the Adjustments

In part one on the series on defending the flexbone with the 46 Nickel, we learned how to handle the base offense, and the inside veer.  Now for the "cat and mouse" game to begin.  Any good triple option offensive coordinator (OC) is going to roll the dice and adjust to what you are doing defensively to take away the flexbone's base play...the triple option. 

There are two methods this OC can perform to try and outmaneuver what the defense is doing and these are:

1. Formation the defense into a bad situation
2. Run plays that attack what the defense is doing to take away the triple option.

This post will look at both these adjustments by the offense, and show you exactly how to react to them out of the 46 Nickel.


Formation Adjustments
The easiest method for the OC to employ, is that of utilizing formations to hurt what the defense is doing to take away the triple.  A couple common formation adjustments are listed below:

1. Ends Over
2. Trips (Open and Closed)
3. Nasty
4. Heavy (Tackles Over)

Ends Over

Trips Open

Trips Closed

Nasty

Heavy

Now, let's look at how you should attack each of these formations adjustments.

Ends Over
The Ends Over, or Over adjustment, is meant to give 8 man fronts a problem, and will if you don't adjust in some manner.  The simplest manner is to treat this as a twins closed formation and go corners over as shown below:

The defense is balanced with 6.5 defenders to the offense's strong side and 4.5 defenders to the nub side.  I like to play my corner on the outside shade of the inside receiver.  This gives you a good leverage point to defend the pitch, and to defend any screens the offense may try to use out of this Over formation.

Trips Open
Trips Open, is a tricky formation to defend.  On one hand you can simply move the Whip and Spur over to the trips side, however this leaves the offense with some good angles to the weak side.  What I prefer to do in this situation is use the Jayhawk adjustment and have my defense use Saban's "Mable" adjustment to trips formations.  What this does is keeps the defense sound against any of the trips passing game, and gives the offense poor blocking angles to the weak side.

The reason for this adjustment is the threat of "return" motion.  Return motion has become popular in recent years with Georgia Tech. leading the pack at the FBS level.  Return motion is simply where the middle slot in trips motions to the backfield, but the play "returns" to the side he came from.  This makes life difficult for teams looking for a key on overplaying the flexbone's motion ability.  The problem is, if you simply treat this formation as a twins open formation, you are down in pass responsibility to the trips side.  The key here is to gamble on what you are facing.  You are NOT facing a prolific passing team, usually, and sometimes you have to roll the dice.  I say, make them beat me passing, and see what happens.  So I DO treat this as a twins open formation, and that is why the adjustment above is shown.

Return Motion





With motion trips open becomes twins open



Trips Closed
Trips closed is a set rarely used by Flexbone teams, however, it can be a tough set to defend if you are not prepared.  The key to the trips closed formation is not to treat it any differently than the over formation shown above.  They are one in the same.  The only thing I would do, is bump the Whip down to a seven technique and have him plug the C gap, playing off of the block by the offensive tackle.  If the OT blocks down, have him take dive and utilize the BDSD principle discussed here before.  The coverage should be the standard 3 deep 3 under fire zone match up man coverage.  The only difference is, the inside corner and the FS will trade assignments.  So the inside corner is the MOF player, while the FS will take all of 1 vertical.   The Whip safety will take #2 out only, as he drops off the LOS.  If #2 is not out, then you can have him rush, or better yet have him spy the QB (we all know Flexbone QB's are usually runners first, so not a bad idea to spy him).

Nasty
The Nasty formation is just as it sounds...nasty.  The main reason Flexbone teams use the Nasty formation is when they are facing a defense with the force players on the LOS.  There are a couple of ways to defend this, the first is to simply widen your force players.  This is a simple adjustment, but does have the drawback that the WR's now have some clean shots at some players to the inside.

The other option is to align these players in their normal alignment and utilize a combination of two calls we learned about in a previous post.  The Jet call puts the OLB down hard inside looking to take dive to QB (whichever shows first).  The Heavy call, puts the OSS driving hard down inside for the very same thing as the Jet call.  Combining the two calls into the "Blood" call looks as follows:



Blood Stunt

The FS must see the block by the slot on the OSS and get on his horse to get to the pitch, as running this stunt will usually result in a quick pitch.  Now if the offense decides to crack the OLB with the WR and still load, my advice is to simply run the Jet stunt shown below:



Jet Stunt

Here the FS fits inside the load and plays the outside half of the QB to pitch.

Finally, if the offense chooses to align this way, yet leave your force player alone, and use a "double load" scheme as shown below, then utilize the Heavy stunt mentioned in a previous post.  Now the OSS is inside the load and the FS will overlap and play outside the load. 





Heavy Stunt

Now we all know the old saying "He who has the chalk last", however, the more bullets you have in your gun, the better off you are in a gunfight is my motto.  Only having one way of defending the triple option is exactly what the person meant when they described someone "Bringing a knife to a gunfight".  I prefer to have some answers, and the three stunts mentioned above are good ones (Jet, Heavy and Blood).

Heavy
Heavy or Tackles Over is the toughest formation to defend.  Upon recognition of this set, the defense should check into a front called "Kick Strong".  Kick is a term in the 46 Nickel that "kicks" the front 1 shade to the call side.  So out of our base three-zero-three alignment, the new alignment would be four-eye, one, and two-eye as shown below.

The coverage must change as well.  The coverage is a rotated zone based on motion.  If there is motion to the weak side, the corner will take the first receiver outside and will carry the second receiver through the zone (swing deep of 2).  The FS has the first vertical.  If there is no motion, then the weak corner takes the flats and the FS will take the weak half of the field.  The Whip is the hook to curl player and Mike plays the low hole.  To the strong side, that corner is a deep half player.  The OLB will take the flats, and the Spur will take the hook to curl zone.



 Vs. motion, the coverage "morphs" into a two by four zone coverage as follows:



Looking at run assignments, there must be some calls made to help the defense be in a better position to defend the triple option.  Looking to the strong side first, if a team tried to run the inside veer, there must be two things they can do.  First, if they choose to run the veer scheme, then the option simply becomes a double option and the offense is playing right into the hands of the defense (the defense has taken away the dive by alignment).




Inside Veer Strong

The ideal play for the offense to try and run is the outside veer.  The best stunt to call in this situation is either the Jet stunt, or the Blood stunt.



Jet Stunt vs. OSV



Blood vs. OSV

 
To the weak side the offense will think it has easy pickings for the inside veer play, but the Jet and Blood stunts will quickly deter them!






Jet vs. Heavy ISV Weak





Blood vs Heavy ISV Weak

As you can see, the Heavy formation is not as tough to defend as some might think.  The defense is also very sound against some of the other staple run plays of the Flexbone offense.  The key here is getting the players to recognize the alignment of the offense and check into the proper front (Kick Strong). 

 Play Adjustments

Flexbone coaches will not only adjust with formations, they will run complimentary plays that attack other areas of your defense to attempt to take away what you are doing to stop the triple option.  Some of these plays are:

1. Midline
2. Triple Pass
3. Rocket
4. Counter Option or Counter Iso

Knowing the opposing coaches' counter moves are essential to defending the offense you are facing.  The Flexbone is no different, so let's break these plays down and see how the 46 Nickel defends them.

Midline
Midline is one of the toughest plays in football to defend.  There are several ways to run midline and they are listed below:

1. Midline blast (double power play-both slots inserting)
2. Midline load (double option, only one slot inserting)
3. Midline fold (double option, backside slot goes for pitch, front side inserts)
4. Midline arc/switch (triple option)

So now that we know what we are facing, let's look at how the 46 Nickel handles each of these situations.  First to the Midline blast.  Blast is one of my favorite plays (for more on midline, go here) in all of football.  It combines power football and option football all in one play.  The good news for the 46 Nickel, is that with the standard three-zero-three look, that makes life tough on midline football.




Midline Blast

 The key to defending midline is for the OSS's to key the OT.  If he fans, and the window opens, they fill it.  If the OT blocks down, they fill and the window closes, then they fill outside (see Veer examples above).  Here, you can see, the Spur, inserts because the B gap window opens.  This puts a defender outside the lead block by the slot.  The Mike inserts and is inside the lead block of the folding slot and outside the lead block by the trailing slot.  The End and Nose make up the two defenders inside the lead block by the trailing slot.  You also have the FS filling to the ball as your "plus one" player.  The offense has chosen to put 2 blockers in one gap, thereby creating three more gaps to that side, but you have countered that by having one more than they can block by the play of the FS.

Now let's look at Midline Seal.  Flexbone teams that see you keying their slots will attempt to "load" or seal the LB with the slot instead of folding as shown below.  The idea here is that it removes a player from the B gap so the QB is free to run.  Again, this proves useless because of the reads by the OSS and the FS.

Midline Seal/Load Scheme

Flexbone teams are notorious for switching players assignment, as to try and confuse the defense and get a defender out of position.  The next tactic they utilize is that of folding the front side slot and having the backside slot go for pitch. 






Midline Fold Scheme

Once you've finally frustrated the offense, you will now see the wrath of the dreaded Midline Triple.  Midline Triple, or "mid veer" as I call it, is not an easy play on the offense.  This play puts tremendous stress on the option quarterback as the reads happen so fast.  A defense must be careful in the way they handle the mid veer play, because if not handled properly this play can "get out the gate" on you in a hurry.



Mid Veer

The FS will more than likely be slightly out of position as he's used to jumping motion (most Flexbone teams run this play with counter motion), however he's more than likely having to deal with being blocked by an OT, a match up I would hope most FS's would win in the open field.  The keys to defending this play is that you have your players inside and outside the dive (End being read and OSS away from action).  You have a defender inside the load and outside the load (Mike inside OSS to option side outside), and a player inside and outside the second load by the slot (OLB is outside, and FS is inside). 

There is nothing wrong with stunting this play either, and a good stunt is the Jet stunt.  This forces the QB to make instantaneous reads and will more than likely result in the ball being pitched on the ground. 



Jet Stunt vs. Mid Veer

Triple Pass
Good Flexbone coaches are going to notice the FS in the 46 Nickel scheme and try to exploit his aggressiveness.  Again, with a solid foundation of keys and reads, these tactics should not thwart the attack of the 46 Nickel.  The two most common versions of the Triple Pass are to run the play side WR on a takeoff route with the slot mimicking a load block and running a Whip route.  Secondly, some coaches choose to send both the WR and the slot on takeoff routes to try and put an aggressive safety in a bind.  Both passes, and how they should be defensed are shown below.




The FS's read on the play side slot is what will save the FS from being burned deep on the second diagram.  The FS must know, he has time to react to this route and must always approach the LOS patiently until he has diagnosed the play correctly.  The famous phrase "Don't go til' you know" rings very true when defending the Triple Pass.

Rocket
Once the Flexbone OC has seen you are stunting to stop the triple option, more than likely you will start to see a heavy dose of Rocket toss.  Rocket is a play that can really hurt a defense if their force players are not coached very well on defending it.  Some keys to teach your players when looking to defend this play are:

1. Situation- If the offense has been routinely stuffed when trying to run the inside veer, outside veer, or midline (whatever their staple option plays are), then you can expect Rocket.  To the OC, Rocket is a "cheap" play as it's easy to install, and can get some big yardage against teams stunting inside against the option.
2. Motion- The motion by the slot is usually "tail motion" as opposed to two-step motion that is utilized on the triple option.  This is not always the case, but another difference is the motion once it hits the heels of the fullback (FB).  On Rocket, the back will turn his shoulders to the sideline which will be a dead giveaway that the play is Rocket, or at the very least the force player is about to see a pitch back come his way.  If the shoulders turn up field on the motion, you are getting some sort of inside lead play by the slot.
3. Near Slot- It is important to note that the force player in the 46 Nickel reads the lane of the ball (LOB), but against the Flexbone, he should make this read, through the near slot.  If that slot is attacking at him, he knows, the play is Rocket. 

Once the force player recognizes the motion, he need not take any steps forward, yet must keep himself flat and in outside leverage on the pitch back.  Even if he has to turn his shoulders to the sideline that's being attacked to outflank the runner, he should do so.  All other players should run to the football.  Now, they do not run blindly, but find open windows and play the Rocket inside-out.  The FS is the alley player and should fill the void between the force player, and the inside spill players.  You have now successfully eliminated the Rocket toss from the Flexbone's arsenal.



Defending Rocket Toss

Counter Iso
If the backside of your defense begins to fly to the football and are making plays on the front side of option plays, you had better expect the counter iso play to be come soon.  First off, this play does not need to be handled by scheme, but merely by coaching.  You are seeing this play because the backside of your defense is playing unsound.  Looking at the diagram below, we can easily see how if players are not in the proper position, the offense will have leverage on them with the counter iso play.




Counter Iso

The reads are what is key to defending this play.  Again, as with midline, the OSS sees the B gap open up, then he should fill it.  You have two players on either side of the lead block (the DE and the OSS) and you could add the Mike depending on whether the Nose prevented the jump through block or not.  The only player who should be slightly fooled by the motion and counter direction of the play is the FS.  The FS is aligned at enough depth though, to effectively redirect and fill to the football as needed.

I know this one was a long post, and I probably should have divided it in two, but things didn't quite work out that way.  Anyhow, that's how the 46 Nickel breaks down the flexbone offense.  Now as with anything, there is no substitute for fundamental football.  No scheme works if you cannot run and tackle, and that is what 99% of defensive football is all about.

Duece

The 46 Nickel and the Triple Option...Myths Debunked!

For years I was one of those coaches who always thought the 46 Defense (sometimes called the Bear), was no match for the dreaded triple option.  A few years ago in a spring scrimmage we played a 3-4 team that kept shifting to the 46, and it completely wrecked our gameplan.  The only success we had was attempting to run Rocket toss as well as getting in a "Heavy" formation and trying to run outside veer (OSV).  By the time the adjustments were made, it was too little too late unfortunately and we lost the scrimmage.  I had never really faced the 46 as an offensive coach, and I have always been interested in why we didn't have that much success against that defense.  Well as most know from this story, I came upon the 46 by sheer necessity to stop the bleeding a couple of seasons ago.  Well, not facing many option teams where I'm at led me not to worry about the old myth that the 46 can't handle the triple option.  Anyhow, as with anything I run, I research the heck out of it and over the past few months I've been wearing out grease pens attempting to break down this myth that the 46 cannot handle the triple option.  So that's what this post will be about, and most notably, the triple option from the flexbone offense.

Rule #1...Set the Coverage First!

As with defending any offense, you must set your coverage first.  The 46 Nickel bases out of man free, or what some call Cover one.  I'm not a fan of man coverage when facing the option, as I want all 11 eyes on defense being able to see the offense.  So, I fall back on one of my old coverages (which you can read about here), known as "3 Robber".  Simply put this coverage is based on whether or not the offense motions.  If the offense motions, you are playing standard Robber Coverage.  If the offense does not motion, you are playing a three by three fire zone.  Here are the pass responsibilities for each defender depending on which coverage is used (motion or no motion):

Robber (vs. motion)

• Corner- Deep 1/2 all of #1 vertical
• FS- All of #2 vertical (away from motion), 2 not vertical rob curl to post of 1.
• SS/WS- Curl/Flat/Swing deep of #2
• Mike- Middle hook, all of #3 vertical



3 Robber vs. Triple Pass


Cover 3 (Offense did not motion)

• Corner- Deep 1/3, all of #1 vertical
• FS- Deep middle 1/3, all of #3 vertical
• SS/WS- All of #2 vertical or out
• Mike- Middle hook, disrupt any crossing routes (do not chase)



3 Robber vs. 4 Vertical


The coverage sets the front, so now that we have set our coverage and how we are going to play these respective players, now lets look at the front.

Front

The front is fairly standard when you get down to it.  I treat this as a one back offense, so the Mike LB will align over the single back which would be the flexbone's B back.  The defensive line (DL) will align in their standard three, zero, three alignment, while the outside linebackers (OLB's) align on the line of scrimmage (LOS) two yards outside the end man on the line of scrimmage (EMOL).  The strong safety (SS) and the weak safety (WS) will align at LB depth, over the slot to their side.  The corners can align any way they want so as to disguise where their zone responsibilities are.  The FS aligns over the center, no deeper than ten yards off the LOS. 



Base Alignment

 Now the variations are numerous to the base front.  In this post, however, I'm only going to concentrate on how the base front will handle the flexbone.

Rules for Defending the Inside Veer

The Inside Veer (ISV) is the basis of the flexbone offense.  This is the heart and soul of the flexbone.  To defend this offense, you MUST at the very LEAST slow down this offensive play.  How do we do it, let's look at the guiding principles in which the flexbone offense is going to attack the 46 Nickle.

First, with the 46 being predominately a one-high (better known as MOFC) defense, the flexbone offensive coordinator (OC) is usually going to treat this as an eight man front (and rightfully so).  Here is how a typical flexbone team will run the ISV at the 46 Nickel:

Inside Veer vs. 46

Nothing surprising here, the playside tackle (PST) and playside guard (PSG) are going to attempt to move the three technique and combo to either the Mike LB or the WS, depending on whether or not the Mike scrapes or fills.  The playside slotback (PSSB) will load the Mike LB if he scrapes, whereas he will stalk the FS if the Mike fills.  Everything else is pretty standard flexbone stuff.

The guiding principle is this, there must be a dedicated defender to defend the inside and outside half of all three phases when defending the triple option.  What does that mean?

• There is a defender inside the load block (dive).
• There is a defender outside the load block (dive).
• There is a defender inside the QB (cutback).
• There is a defender outside the QB (spill).
• There is a defender inside the pitch (alley).
• There is a defender outside the pitch (force).

Now all we have to do is get the right pieces in the right place!  So how do we do that.  It's quite simple actually, and here are the rules:

• Nose- Hips to the hole, close the A gap, if overtaken, make a pile.
• End (to action)- Hips to the hole, do not allow PST off to Mike, if you feel movement, make a pile.
• End (away from action)- Don't allow jump through, look for pull coming back to you (trap) and play dive cutback.
• OLB (to action)- Feather pitch, don't allow pitch back to gain outside leverage on you.  Keep shoulders square to the LOS at all times.
• OLB (away from action)- Squeeze down inside, keep shoulders square and play BRC (boot, reverse, cutback).
• OSS (to action)- Fit off the load block, play inside 1/2 of QB.
• OSS (away from action)- Scrape and stack the BSG, play cutback all the way.
• MLB- Fit in open window (A open, fit inside dive/A closed scrape and play outside dive to inside 1/2 of QB) to flow.
• FS- On motion, slide over guard in direction of motion, eyes on #2.  If #2 is vertical, man #2 per Robber rules.  If #2 load blocks, fill outside load block and play outside 1/2 of QB and rally late to pitch.
• Corner (to action)- Drop off #1, if #1 stalks, rally outside late to pitch, must ensure it's not veer pass.  If #1 cracks, replace and run to pitch.
• Corner (away from action)- insurance rule, get in pursuit angle.

So, who fits where?




Make it fit!!!

Inside the Dive
Nose/End
Outside the Dive
Mike/OSS
Inside the QB
Mike/OSS
Outside the QB
OLB/FS
Inside the pitch
FS
Outside the pitch
OLB

Not only do you have at least one player dedicated to each half of each phase, in some cases there are even two players dedicated!  This is an important factor if your defense is to break down the triple option rushing attack.

What makes this defense so special against the option compared to others I've run is the DL play.  If the nose does his job he leverages any cutback by the B back on the give portion of ISV.  However, coupled with the Mike play of filling the open window to flow, of the Nose DOES get reached, then the Mike simply fills this window.  The Mike is your "plus one" player you always hear me talking about when facing the triple option.  The key component to making all of this work is that action-side three technique.  He cannot lose ground, and must make a pile in the B gap.  Most triple option QB's are not going to give the ball when there is a mess in that B gap.  What makes this tough is that you MUST find a kid who's willing to sell out and make that pile all night long, because if not, the scheme will be severely compromised.

Adjustments

So, now that you've shown your hand in the first series, how are you going to deal with adjustments by the offense?  The way to handle this cat and mouse game is to adjust first!  The Jet call is the first adjustment that I would use.  Jet is simple, all jet does, is tell the OLB and OSS to exchange responsibilities.  So now the OLB is going to slam down off the load block and play inside 1/2 of QB, while the OSS is going to auto scrape and play outside the pitch back.  One coaching point is to school the OSS to get on his horse as there will probably be a very quick pitch, so he needs to get out there and maintain leverage on the pitch back.



Jet Call

 
Another call that can be utilized is the "Heavy" call.  Heavy puts the OSS to the action side down hard inside off of the down block by the PST, and has the Mike scrape hard across the load and take the FS normal job.  The FS now fits inside the load block on the Heavy call.  Again, just another way to "mess" with the triple option QB.



Heavy Call

As you can see, the 46 is actually quite sound against the triple option.  In my next post I'm going to explain how to play some of the other formations that flexbone teams will throw at you, as well as some of the other plays such as midline, rocket, and the dreaded outside veer (OSV).  Until next time!

Duece

The 4-2-5 vs. Flexbone

The one topic not talked about much is the 4-2 and the way it defends the flexbone.  I have some insight into the way TCU does it, and some insight in to the way I did it this past season and at other places I've been.  I want to share with you these methods, as it appears good ol' option football isn't going anywhere for a while!

TCU
What I can gather from my research on TCU, is that they will remain in a 2 high look vs. flexbone teams, which purely makes sense, due to the fact that the offense presents 4 vertical threats out of the basic double slot formation.  Georgia Tech. has shown the ability to have a very prolific passing game from their flexbone, so I do agree with Patterson's philosophy on keeping an even shell coverage.  Let's see how they defend it and then move on to the way I would suggest you defend the offense at the high school level.

TCU, simply put, kicks the front to mirror the famous Over front of the Miami 4-3.  The linebackers (LB's) will slide opposite of the read side (which is exactly what Patterson teaches vs. your standard 2x2 sets, you can go here to see more about how TCU handles 2x2 formations) giving them the traditional look of the Over front.  This allows them to keep 7 in the box, while having a 2 high shell with safety support behind it.  The free safety (FS) still aligns inside of the #2 receiver and plays traditional robber coverage (what TCU calls cover 2).  The kicker here is the alignment of the FS, it allows him, on motion, to attack both sides of the offense, being what I call the "plus one" player.  On motion by the slots, which simply turns a 2x2 set, to a 2x1 set, the FS will change the read side on the move.  This is very important, as it allows you to have 2 players on the option QB,  a MUST when playing against this type of option offense.

The read side is exactly the way it would be vs. a standard 2x2 set.  To the read side, against your typical inside veer (ISV) play,  the SS is the curl/flat/swing deep of 3 player, and will take pitch on option, as he's the force player.  The FS will rob the #2 receiver, and will play quarterback (QB) to pitch.  The read side LB, will play dive to inside 1/2 of QB, with the defensive end acting on his block down, step down (BDSD) rules.  No big deal here right?  Right!  The other thing Patterson will do with the front is he will keep a 3 technique to the field most of the time.  The B gap lineman makes life a little more difficult on triple option teams.  Patterson will also play slant games with the line based on field and bench tendencies (which I will not go in to for this post). 



2 Blue vs. Flexbone



The away side is in Blue coverage.  Now, Patterson can also play a coverage he calls "25" (said two five) where the read side plays robber (their cover 2) and the away side plays 5 (squat 1/2's, corner force).  Most of the time, they are going to play 2 blue, to keep safety force.  Anyhow, the weak safety (WS) will align 10-12 off #2 and will play his normal blue reads of 2 (to see these reads go here).  The WS is the force player to the away side and will play the pitch.  The away side LB is playing outside 1/2 of QB to pitch, and the read side LB, on option flow to the away side, will play dive to inside 1/2 of QB (if this sounds familiar I already went over how the 4-3 defends the option here).  That's basically it! 



ISV Strong



ISV to the away side does not change much, the away side LB will take outside 1/2 of QB to pitch, the read side LB will go dive to inside 1/2 of QB, and the WS rolls down to take the pitch.  The FS then rotates over and will execute his robber technique to the "new" read side, which changed because of the motion by the slot.  The FS will play outside 1/2 of QB to pitch.  The SS will slow play the cutback and look for counter iso, GT counter or counter option coming back his way.


ISV Weak

 All of this information is great, but to be honest, how useful is it to convert to high school football?  Some of the college schemes adapt very well to high school, and some do not.  With that being said, I want to share with you another method of defending the flexbone offense from the 4-2-5.  Please, I'm not knocking TCU, by all means, their success speaks for itself, I just wanted to post something I did last season that had good success against the flexbone.
Background
Several years back, we used to play a wishbone team that ran the triple option, and they ran it good.  We were a 4-3 team, running Quarters coverage back then, and they used to get the best of us for some reason.   Sadly, they didn't usually have better athletes than us, for some reason we struggled at making their QB indecisive (which is key when facing good triple option QB's).  My defensive coordinator (DC) at the time, kept begging me to get into a 4-4 look and play robber coverage.  Well, I was against, but after getting tagged 2 years in a row by the same team, I felt we needed a change.  His front, moved the Sam and Mike in the 4-3 to 30 techniques over the guards.  The Will LB moved to 3x3 outside the weak slot, and the SS did the exact same.  The FS would play over the center of the formation, and would rotate based on action (he keyed the QB).  The corners were essentially in man coverage, except if the #1 receiver went inside.  Again, we were not facing flexbone, but wishbone.  Anyhow, our base reads for the ISV were that the DE took the dive, the ILB would take dive to inside 1/2 of QB, and the outside linebackers (OLB's) would take pitch, while the FS filled the alley and played the outside 1/2 of the QB.  The first way we switched things up, was to send the ILB straight to the dive, almost like an auto blitz.  The DE sat for the QB and the OLB took the pitch.  The second adjustment we made, was to send the DE directly up field for the pitch, the ILB still had the dive, and the OLB slammed down the line of scrimmage (LOS) for the QB.

In the game we played against them, we ran the first set of reads (our base reads) for the first quarter.  We did very well however we did give up 1 big run by the QB that had them up by 6.  In the second quarter, we switched to the second set of reads, and all hell broke loose!  We force 2 turnovers on back to back possessions, and scored off both of them to take a 14-6 halftime lead!  In the second half, we switched to the third set of reads, and blew their minds, we force 2 more turnovers and scored of both of those to lead 28-6!  We ended up winning the game by the final of 42-6 and they had less than 150 yards of total offense.  After that night, I swore I would always give my defense at least 2 sets of reads to defend the triple option.


8 Man Front Defends the Option
So, how did I do this past season, facing 2 flexbone teams out of the 4-2-5?  Well, here's what we did!  For the most part, we set the front to the field, putting the 3 technique to the field, making ISV somewhat tougher to run.  We utilized our "Ted" stunts along the line (for more about these stunts go here) to help discourage midline and QB follow.  The LB's aligned the same as we had before, both in 30 techniques over the guards (I treat the Flexbone as a 2 back offense, because of the motion so I do not slide my LB's).  The two outisde safeties (which are named Spur and Whip) aligned 3x3 off the near slot.  We put our FS over the center 10 yards off the ball.  The corners played 8x2-4 yards INSIDE the #1 receiver and were deep 1/2 players.  That was our basic alignment to the offense.




"3 Robber"


The Base Reads
The base reads did not change for our front.  The DE's would still execute the "Ted" reads and play the dive on ISV.  The LB's would play dive to inside 1/2 of QB.  The outside safeties (OSS's) would slow play the pitch.  It's very important that these players do not over commit to the pitch too early, as it will not allow enough time for the FS to get his reads.  The FS, would key motion, and then slide over to inside leverage on the #2 receiver on the side that motion was GOING to.  The reasoning for this, is that once this offense motions, it's basically a pro set.  I know many critics will argue, but it is going to be very difficult for the slot that motioned to run down the seam, after he's motioned into the backfield (I've never seen it).  So, we were basically back to a 4-4 robber concept.  The FS keyed the #2 receiver and if he blocked down inside, he filled the alley and played outside 1/2 of QB to pitch.  The safety away from the action was critical in defending the counter game employed by most flexbone teams in our area (GT counter and counter iso).  He was to stack the DE to this side and look for boot/reverse/cutback (counter is included in his cutback reads).  The crux of the defense is the FS's ability to get to either side of the offense, to allow your defense to be "plus one" against the triple option.

Vs. Inside Veer

The reasoning behind the coverage is simple, I liked the ability to switch up our front 8's responsibilities (which you will see later) and still have a middle of the field safety (MOF) that play the QB or pitch to either side of the formation.  I also have not seen a high school flexbone team that could pass their way out of a wet paper bag, so the 4 vertical threat did not concern me.  For those that it does, by all means, play 2 Blue, and have a great day, as it's a VERY sound method of playing the flexbone.  However, if you look, 4 verticals out of the flexbone, is a slight misnomer, in that the 2 inside vertical threats are so close to the FS.  Even if they work to the hash, they can be collisioned enough by the OSS's and LB's that their routes are altered.  Most of the time this rerouting allows time for your pass rush to pressure an offensive line not used to pass blocking.  All of these things add up to wins for the defense. 

We call our coverage "3 Robber" as that is exactly what it is.  In my defense, any coverage tagged with a number is a 1-high safety coverage, that is NOT split field.  The reason we double name the coverage is that if the offense does not motion, then we play standard cover 3 (what some would call "country cover 3") which is basically all you need to defend the flexbone.  If the offense motions, then we simply slide the FS over to the side motion is going to, and play robber coverage.  My robber coverage is an automatic "sky" structure on the away side of the coverage.  Since I called the coverage by number, both OSS's know they are in "low" (inverted) alignments.  I will play the OSS's anywhere from 5x5 to 3x3 (the latter being more common) off the near slot.  I do this differently than TCU for 2 major reasons.  First, our run fits are consistent, no matter what, both OSS's are "fitting" identical to the other.  During game week you are not going to have much time to work two different fits (even though they are similar), so these cuts down on some learning, AND this scheme means you can plug any OSS in at either position.  Secondly, it is easier to play the "switch" game with option assignments from this look than from the way TCU does it.

3 Robber pass reads vs. motion



3 Robber vs. 4 Verticals

 Switching Assignments
When facing good option teams, it is critical that the defense be able to switch their assignments to keep the offense on it's toes.  So introduce my three stunts against this offense, Switch, Sift, and Slice.  Each of these three change which defender takes what assignment against the triple option.  Now a word of caution, I have these in my arsenal, however I usually go into a game with a base way of defending the triple option, and one major chageup is all.  Three are a bit much for high school kids, however I have gotten away with playing with two extra stunts in some cases.  Let's take a closer look at these!

Switch
Switch is exactly as the name implies, two defenders are "switching" assignments.  In my defense it is the FS, and the OSS to the side the ball is being run to.  All the other defenders react in the same manner, however the OSS to the side the ball is being run, will come down inside and play outside 1/2 of QB to pitch.  The FS will overlap the OSS and rally to the pitch.  This is a good stunt to run if your FS is having trouble getting to his normal assignment, or getting "cloudy" reads from the slot that is load blocking down inside.  The OSS is taught "quick to the line of scrimmage (LOS), then settle and feather".  This gives the QB the illusion of some sort of outside blitz, but allows the OSS to maintain leverage on both the QB and the pitch. 

Switch

Sift
Sift is a stunt that I commonly used against read option teams (to see how I run it vs. spread run teams, go here) with excellent success.  Against the triple option, this involves the LB and the DE to the side the ball is being run.  The DE, will mash the offensive tackle (OT) down inside on a veer release, however he will "squat" on the LOS once the OT is at his inside hip and play up field for the QB.  The LB to the side of action will come hard down off the hip of the offensive guard (OG) and play the dive.  The FS and OSS to the run action side will execute their base assignments vs. the triple option.  This has been good to me against teams that like to run the point mesh method, or "no mesh, mesh" method of reading the triple option (for more information on this technique read these posts, or go here).  This creates a "cloudy" read for the QB, which usually results in a pull read, leaving the QB running right into the hands of the DE. 

Sift

Slice
Slice is an aggressive stunt that is extremely effective against option teams that either do not pitch the ball much, or are not adept in the pitch phase of the triple option.  This stunt involves the DE to the side the ball is being run, blowing up field after jamming the OT.  The DE will disrupt the pitch after a quick shiver is applied to the OT.  The LB to the action side, will still slam down off the hip of the OG to his side, just as he did in the "Sift" stunt.  The OSS, however, will come screaming down the LOS in order to force a hard and quick pitch by the unsuspecting QB.  The FS will overlap this stunt, and will take pitch all the way. 



Slice

Now, I usually take two of these into a game with me on game week.  Three, in my opinion, is too much for the high schooler to memorize in 1 week.  I have even done this with just 1 stunt in my game plan.  No matter, you need to be able to have a way to "switch up" the reads or an option team will eventually pick at your perimeter run support and find a way to outflank you.




Looks like 1 too many stunts...


Let's Review
Whichever way you choose to play this offense, the key player is the "plus one" player.  The defense must always have a sound way for getting the extra defender across the midline of the formation to help in playing the option.  This is done in robber coverage with the FS.  He has to be able to react to motion, and move to the new read side and play the QB.  If you do not have 2 players on the QB, you will not have success against this offense.  I hope this helps, and keep checking back here for more.  Please, keep hitting me up on the emails and comments, let me know what you need and I'll keep digging to find it.




"We're gonna keep digging..."


Duece