4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - DB Play / Coverage Fundamentals

Introduction

Chris Vasseur will write this piece at a later date, but I wanted to add a couple of diagrams to go with the video.  The FS destroying the QB on the Gun Triple Option is a beautiful thing, as you will see when you watch the cut-ups.  However, it is a bit susceptible to Play-Action as you will also see.

Quarters vs. Gun Triple Option

Quarters vs. Play-Action

Pre-snap:

 

Post-snap #1: FS must honor the threat of the run and he bites hard on the Play-Action fake.

 

Post-snap #2:  The spacing in the diagram is good, but in the cut-up, the #3 WR for Oregon did not work to the opposite hash to stress the SS who is trying to midpoint and cover both  the #2 and #3 WRs.  Oregon completed this pass despite the fact that both WRs were in the same area.  The Oregon passing game is much improved this year and Chip Kelly will be looking for similar big play opportunities in the Play-Action game to exploit the Auburn safeties when they get too nosy against the run.

Here are the cut-ups:

DB Play vs Oregon Spread from Barry Hoover on Vimeo.

DB Play

1.  Quarters Safety - Primary Force and Handle Gap Exchange
2.  Quarters Safety - Primary Force, CB - Secondary Force - Keep Outside Leverage
3.  Crack Replace
4.  vs. Cut Block
5.  Safety Mistakes - Slow Read / Poor Read
6.  CB Mistake - Keep Outside Leverage vs. Run

Coverage Fundamentals and Mistakes vs Oregon Spread from Barry Hoover on Vimeo.

Coverage Fundamentals and Mistakes

1.  Quarters Coverage - Safety Conflict vs. Play-Action
2.  Qtrs Mistake - CB Cannot Expect Safety Help vs. Play-Action.  He Must Stay on Top of
     Post Route.
3.  Qtrs Mistake vs. Play-Action - Safety Must Get Over Top of #2 on Wheel.
4.  Quarters Mistake - Flat Player Lost Outside Leverage
5.  Qtrs - Mike Mistake - Not Getting Enough Depth
6.  Qtrs - Mike Mistake - Slow Pass Read
7.  6 Read - Boundary CB Takes #2 to Flat

8.  6 Read Mistake - Boundary CB Cannot Let WR Release Outside, FS is Too Slow to
    Jump #1 When #2 Goes to Flat

9.  Cover 6 - Boundary Safety Play

10.  Cover 2 Safety Mistake

11.  Cover 2 LB Coverage

12.  Cover 2 - Mike Mistake - Not Getting to Middle of Field vs. #3

13.  Quarters Mistake - Flat Player Lost Outside Leverage

14.  Cover 2 CB Play

15.  Cover 2 LB Play - Rally to the Ball

16.  Cover 3 - FS Mistake

17.  Cover 3 Mistake - No Flat Player to Field Side

18.  Man Coverage - Vulnerable to QB Scramble

19.  Tampa 2

20.  Field 8 Sky - Quarters - to Field, Man - to Boundary

21.  Quarters Change-Up

22.  Don't Leave WRs Uncovered

This is the last article on Defending the Oregon Spread with the 4-3 Defense.  Wednesday morning, January 12th  will start the six-part series on Defending the Flexbone with the 4-3 Defense.  The Saturday posts will go up after lunch time, so each post will get three and a half days on the blog.  I 've been hyping this thing for a while because it is really going to be good!  There will be some tremendous guest writers who will contribute to this series.  I will reveal my dream team staff of defensive coaches one at a time with each post.

4-3 vs. the Flexbone - Schedule of Posts
Wed. January 12 - DT Play

Sat. January 15 - DE Play

Wed. January 19 - Mike Play

Sat. January 22 - OLB Play

Wed. January 26 - FS/SS Play

Sat. January 29 - CB Play


Hey, Deuce has a blog now!  Check it out: http://footballislifeblog.blogspot.com/

More new football blogs!
http://hit-emhard.blogspot.com/

http://runaction.blogspot.com/
http://strongfootball.blogspot.com/ 

4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - Defending Bash and Midline

Introduction

Bash and Midline are two plays in the Oregon Spread offense that are giving a lot of Defensive Coordinators headaches.  Both plays have recently burst onto the scene, but they both have actually been around for some time.  I saw Texas A & M run a form of Bash in their 2006 bowl game and North Alabama ran the Midline from Gun as far back as 2003.  I will talk about Bash and Midline, but I will talk about defending Midline only.

Bash

Let me apologize beforehand to all the defensive coaches reading this that my knowledge of this play is primarily from an offensive standpoint.  The word Bash stands for Backside Sweep and it is a tag that the University of Florida used in their run game during the Urban Meyer era.  The first team I saw running this type of concept was Texas A & M (actually the play I saw them run was Flash, which is a tag that stands for Frontside Sweep).  Bash is also a play tag concept used successfully by the Oregon offense, although they may call it something else.

Meyer got a lot of mileage out of the Zone Read play at Utah, which had a big Fullback-type at RB, hitting the defense between the tackles and Alex Smith, a thin and athletic-enough QB to pull the ball and hurt the defense on the perimeter when the DE crashed.  Meyer did not have much success duplicating the same formula at Florida and was undoubtedly frustrated by not being able to recruit the big RB to make the Zone Read play work to its fullest potential.

However, in his quest to assemble "the fastest team in college football," he found himself with an abundance of smaller skill guys who were extremely dangerous with the ball in their hands—Percy Harvin, Jeff Demps, and Chris Rainey.  These guys were capable of playing RB, but they were not capable of withstanding the pounding of running between the tackles for an entire year.  Meyer and OC Dan Mullin had a Fullback-type, but he happened to be their QB, so they installed Bash and had the QB and RB switch roles to take advantage of their talents: Tim Tebow running it up the gut and Percy Harvin/Jeff Demps/Chris Rainey using their speed on the perimeter.

Oregon runs Bash a bit differently than Florida did.  Florida had their Bash guy line up in the backfield and he left on the snap of the ball.  Oregon likes to start their Bash guy at WR and put him in Jet motion.  The motion is harder to time up, but it really gives the Bash sweeper a full head of steam.  This stresses the defense by forcing the DE to make an even quicker decision on the play.  The RB in the backfield would then be a lead blocker for the Bash sweeper and he would block the Force player.  

Here are some examples of Bash, which is simply a tag put at the end of any QB run:

As far as defending Bash, the key is your perimeter run defense.  Oregon and Florida do a good job of running this play with the RB as a lead blocker.  The teams that do not have a lead blocker are at a disadvantage if the defense has a player in the Alley without anyone to block him.  The defense can have the DE take the QB and the Bash sweeper will have no one to block the Alley player for him.  

Midline

The Midline play is tough on Defensive Coordinators because instead of the offense reading the DE, they read the DT.  The Defensive Tackle is not as good of an athlete and teams like Oregon have made a good living with their athletic QB vs. a slower DT trying to make a tackle in space.  This is definitely a mismatch and the QB is too often able to make a quick move and run through a hole big enough to drive a truck through.

Instead of having the DT trying to make a play in space, it makes sense to have the LB and FS take care of the QB, as I learned from Coach Currier on the Huey site.  This lets your DT obey his Block-Down-Step-Down rule and stay consistent with everything he has been taught.  What the DT cannot do is to come straight upfield (see the USC DT in the cut-ups).  The 4-3 DT should never come straight upfield for any reason. 

The FS still has the QB vs. the Option, so his job does not change vs. Midline.  I said in the  previous article on LB play that the LB does not have to worry about Gap Exchange with the DE vs. Zone Read.  That's because he would have to scrape outside the box, and I want him to be a box player vs. the run so he can be more aggressive.

If the 3 technique DT is to the RB side and he obeys his Block-Down-Step-Down (rule first diagram below), he will become the A gap player.  The Mike LB will start out as an A gap player, but once he sees the DT close down into the A gap, he will Gap Exchange and become the B gap player.  His Gap Exchange will occur within the box.  I would not ask him to Gap Exchange and scrape outside the box, because that's what the FS is for in this Quarters coverage.  The FS must read the OT's block on the DE and fill inside to get to the QB.

The second diagram has the RB flipped to the other side.  Now there will be no Gap Exchange with the NT.  The Will LB must maintain his B gap, but the FS can help him out and become the B gap player if Will is too aggressive and takes the A gap.

Oregon loves this play in the Red Zone.  It is a much more successful option for them than Stretch when they are out-numbered in the box (see for yourself  the Goal-Line / Short-Yardage cut-ups in the second video).  It could be helpful to have the DT that is aligned to the RB side to tighten his alignment on the Guard to almost a 2 technique to help keep the Guard from getting to the 2nd level, much like having a 5 technique DE tighten his alignment to help vs. Inside Veer.  Of course, Oregon could flip their RB to combat this, too.  It is definitely a chess match that I am looking forward to watching Monday night to see how Auburn DC Gene Chizik will try to defend Bash and Midline. 

 Here are the cut-ups:

Defending Bash and Midline

1.  vs. Bash

2.  DT vs. Gun Midline

3.  DT/LB Mistakes vs. Gun Midline

Goal-Line and Short-Yardage cut-ups:

Goal Line / Short-Yardage Defense vs. Oregon Spread from Barry Hoover on Vimeo.

Goal-Line / Short-Yardage vs. Oregon Spread

1. Goal-Line

2.  GL - vs. Pass

3.  GL - Slanting the DL
4.  GL - Bad LB Play
5.  Short-Yardage


4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - schedule of posts
Jan 1 - DL Play

Jan 3 - Zone Blitzes

Jan 5 - LB Play

Jan 7 - Defending Bash and Midline

Jan 9 - DB Play and Coverage Fundamentals

Jan 10 - (National Championship Game - Oregon vs. Auburn - 8:30 pm)

After the National Championship game, I will have an outstanding series of articles and videos with some terrific guest writers.

A very good article on Run COD Hit's blog here that talks about the same concepts.

A nice look at the Auburn run game here: http://offensivebreakdown.blogspot.com/2011/01/auburn-run-game-inverted-veer.html

4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - LB / Nickel Play

Introduction

How you defend the Spread formation depends on what kind of Spread formation you are facing.  Some teams are better at throwing the ball than running the ball.  The Oregon Spread of 2010 is a more dangerous beast than earlier versions in that it can beat you both running the ball and passing the ball.  Still, the explosive Oregon run game is what opposing DCs must stop first.  Most 4-3 teams play Quarters coverage vs. the Oregon Spread to help to defend the run.

LBs like Quarters coverage because it allows them to run and play fast.  The safeties will be involved in run support and they will take care of the cutback, which allows the LBs to attack and play downhill.  The Quarters Safeties will also take care of Gap Exchange and scraping to take the QB on the Zone Read play, allowing the LBs to only to focus solely on the RB and the Dive portion of the Gun Triple Option.

I had to do a good bit of research to write this piece to supplement the video.  I played Inside LB in H.S., but it is the one position I haven't ever coached.  Stuff I borrowed most from was from the 2008 Nike COY book, Pat Narduzzi from Michigan State's talk on The Flexible 4-3 Over Defense.  Also, I got good info from the 2009 Nike book, in talks from Mark Dantonio from Michigan State and Nick Rapone from Delaware, and from the 2010 book, Jay Bateman from Elon University, Mike Cassity from Marshall, and John Chavis from LSU.  I meant to look at Jerry Gordon's book for more info on Quarters coverage, but my 15 mo. old put it somewhere that I can't find it, lol.

Setting the Front

Having two high safeties means that not every WR will be covered by a LB/DB.  The LB can find himself in a catch-22—trying to be in the box to defend the run and out of the box to help defend the pass.  LBs must be able to run to do both vs. the Spread, but how you set the front can help your LBs to do their job.

The defensive call will be "Over 4."  Over sets the Defensive Line and Linebackers to the strength of the formation and 4 is Quarters coverage.  The strength will be set to the TE side.  If there is no TE, the strength will be set to the Field versus 2 X 2 sets (2 WR/TEs on each side).  The 3 technique DT, the 9 technique DE, and the Mike LB will always align to the strength call.   The 1 technique NT,  the 5 technique DE (Fox), and the Will LB will always align away from the strength call.  Arizona also lined up their strong-side DE in a 7 technique instead of a 9 technique quite a bit.

The Nickel/Sam LB will normally align to the Field (except for 3x1 Trips into the Boundary) and  vs. 2 WRs, he will walk out half-way between the #2 WR and the OT.  He is completely out of the box.  His width can be adjusted according to down-and-distance.  He can be walked all the way out over the #2 WR in passing situations or he can cheat in his alignment in running situations.  The Nickel/Sam LB will walk out halfway between the #2 and #3 WR vs. 3 WR sets.   

The Will LB is in the biggest position of conflict vs. 2 X 2 sets, and he will align into the Boundary, away from the strength call.  Setting the strength to the Field allows the Will LB to play the #2 WR and be responsible for the B gap instead of the A gap, so he doesn't have as far to go.  The Will LB doesn't have to walk out half-way to the #2 WR; rather, he can stay in the box to help vs. the Oregon run game.  The weakness of this defense is the Out route by the #2 WR.

Here are some ways to address this coverage weakness while staying gap-sound vs. the run.  The first thing a DC can do is the pinch the DE into the B gap so the Will LB now has the C gap.  I saw Boise St. in a bowl game a few years back actually align their Boundary DE in a 3 technique so their Will LB was able to widen all the way out to the #2 WR since he was a C gap player.  Personally, I prefer to pinch the DE on occasion because you don't give away what you are doing by alignment.  Also, the DE in the 3 technique every play will have a difficult time being the Contain rusher, much less getting a pass rush.

Another thing to do is to employ a "2 Read" concept to the Boundary.  "2 Read" can mean different things, so let me explain.  2 Read is actually Quarters coverage unless #2 runs an Out route, then the CB will break on #2 and the Safety will cover #1.  This is a dangerous coverage if it is only something you only run on occasion because of the risk  of mental busts and giving up big plays.  An easier way to prevent the Out route on 3rd and 4 is to run Cover 6 (Cover 2 to the Boundary and Quarters to the Field).  I personally don't feel that it's worth the risk of  busting a coverage and giving up a big play to stop a 5 yard pass, so I would rather show Cover 4 pre-snap and roll the Corner down to Cover 2 to the Boundary as a change-up to Quarters.

The LBs need to know that the strength call changes vs. Trips sets in 10 personnel (1 RB, 0 TEs).  Now, the strength will be set away from Trips into the Boundary to the 1 WR side.  This is done to help out the Will LB, who again is in the biggest position of conflict.  He must be able to match up vs. the #3 WR in Trips vs. the pass in addition to having gap responsibility vs. the run.  Setting the strength to the 1 WR side allows him to be a B gap player instead of an A gap player to shorten the distance he has to travel between the two responsibilities.

If the Offense lines up in a 2 X 2 set with two TEs, the strength is set to the Field. Trips Empty sets with a TE will still have the strength set to the TE side.  If there is one TE, the rule is to always set the strength to that TE.  

Trips Empty 3 X 2 sets will be the same as Trips 3 X 1 sets, where the strength call will be set away from Trips. 

Also, to the nub (TE only) side, I would check  to Cover 2,  making it Quarter-Quarter-Half or Cover 6 (Cover 2 to Boundary and Cover 4 to Field) to put the Force player, who is the CB, in a position to attack the offense at a 45 degree angle to better constrict our opponents' strongside running game.  I will show the video in the DB Play and Coverage Fundamentals post coming in a few days that shows the benefit of Cover 2 to the nub side.  Also, look at The Force article video I did recently for some good cut-ups of this.

Run Fits vs. 10 Personnel

Quarters coverage allows the LBs in the box to fast flow to the playside because they don't have to worry about cutback.  The Force players to each side (Nickel and FS) will take care of cutback on Full Flow (QB and RB in same direction) run away from them.  Also, vs. Split Flow or Triple Option, the LBs do not have to worry about gap exchange with the DE.  The LBs are only concerned with the RB and they are fast flow.  The FS will take care of the QB on the Option to either side.

Here is the video:

LB Play vs. Oregon Spread from Barry Hoover on Vimeo.

LB / Nickel Play

1.  Good LB Play
2.  Good Nickel Play
3.  Nickel - Force on Run to you, must cover Bubble Screen
4.  Nickel Mistake - Fit outside of RB
5.  Will vs. Power - Shoot thru first playside gap you see
6.  LB Mistake - Backside LB must shoot thru first playside gap he sees vs. Power
7.  LB Mistake - False step
8.  LB Mistake - Stay on feet
9.  LB Mistake - Missed tackle
10.  LB Mistake - No one in A gap
11.  Will LB Mistake - Must attack
12.  LB Mistake - Fill to wide vs. Power, must come tight off double team
13.  LB Mistake - Must get over top of double team
14.  Will LB Mistake - Stay in box, tight D gap

Also, Boise St. got some huge tackles for loss plays by blitzing their Mike LB to the A gap away from the RB.  He may have been just reading it really fast, too.  It was hard to tell.  Check out the cut-ups:

4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - schedule of posts
Jan 1 - DL Play

Jan 3 - Zone Blitzes

Jan 5 - LB Play

Jan 7 - Defending Bash and Midline

Jan 9 - DB Play and Coverage Fundamentals

Jan 10 - (National Championship Game - Oregon vs. Auburn - 8:30 pm)

After the National Championship game, I will have an outstanding series of articles and videos with some terrific guest writers.

New blog I found: http://studentof-thegame.blogspot.com/

4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - Fire Zones and Blitzes

I cut up all the Fire Zones and Blitzes vs. Oregon from the Boise St., Arizona, and USC games from last year.  I don't have time to diagram and talk about each and every blitz right now, but I will try to get more in-depth analysis at a later time.  Meanwhile, make sure to check out Blitzology's blog, which is back rocking and rolling again if you want to learn about the science of getting after the QB.  Some of the blitzes were ran from more than one front and I named these blitzes without naming all of the fronts as I made the video, so I hope the nomenclature police doesn't get after me too bad. 

The next post on the 4-3 Defense vs. the Oregon Spread will be on LB/Nickel play on Wednesday, Jan. 5, and it will have a full-length article to go along with the video.

Fire Zones and Blitzes

1.  Nod 3 Fire (Nickel - D gap)
2.  Bench Wanda 3 Fire (Will and Nickel)
3.  Nickel Over Cowboy 3 Fire (Corner)
4.  Odd Cow 3 Fire (Corner and Will)

5.  Bench Wham 3 Fire (Will and Mike)

6.  Bench Wham Twist 3 Fire (Will and Mike Twist)

7.  Mac 4 (Mike - A gap)

8.  Bench Nod 0 (Nickel - D gap)

9.  Bench Nod 6

10.  Bear Nam 3 Fire (Nickel and Mike)

11.  Wood 3 Fire (Will - D gap)

12.  Over Wolf 3 Fire (Will and FS)

13.  Bear Mac/Mob 3 Fire (Mike - A/B gap)

14.  Field Wolf 0 (Will and FS)

15.  Zone Blitz - LB Mistake - Bad Aiming Point


4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - schedule of posts

Jan 1 - DL Play

Jan 3 - Zone Blitzes

Jan 5 - LB Play

Jan 7 - Defending Bash and Midline

Jan 9 - DB Play and Coverage Fundamentals

Jan 10 - (National Championship Game - Oregon vs. Auburn - 8:30 pm)

After the National Championship game, I will have an outstanding series of articles and videos with some terrific guest writers that Brophy talked about in his blog recently.

4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - DL Play

The Oregon Spread - definitely "blurrier" this year, lol.

I am starting a five-part series on defending the Oregon Spread offense that will run up until the National Championship game.  This series was inspired by watching the DL play of Arizona and Boise St. vs. Oregon last year.  I have always heard that the 4-3 DL's top priority was to not get reached.  This made sense since the 4-3 is a gap-control defense that is dependent on each defender playing his gap.

I heard a different viewpoint of 4-3 DL play last year on the Coach Huey site.  Coach Currier said that he taught his DL to work vertically vs. a reach block.  He also mentioned that this is the way that Nebraska teaches their DL.  I looked at all the Oregon Stretch plays from 2009 vs. Boise St. and Arizona, and these words came back to mind as I saw this same technique being used very effectively.

The video will show how the playside DL will work to push their OL vertical into the backfield vs. the Stretch play.  Fritz Shurmur talks about attacking the offense on their side of the line of scrimmage in  the defensive bible, Coaching Team Defense.  This type of pressure "reduces the angles and options for the offense and makes the gaps smaller.  If players' pursuit lanes to the ball are only lateral and not toward the offense, the chances for the opening up of of wide cutback lanes are greater."

This brought to mind the painful (for a Dolphins fan) Miami Dolphin-Buffalo Bill contests of the early 90s.  The Buffalo Bills used to kill the Dolphins on the Stretch play.  The playside Dolphin defenders would be in their gap, but the Bills OL would push them past the play and Thurman Thomas would cut up the seam and gash the defense time and time again, year after year.  The Dolphin defenders might as well have been on roller skates the way they were being pushed horizontally.  The problem was that the Dolphin defenders were not working to get vertical into the Buffalo backfield.

The playside DL may get reached a bit initially by the OL, but as he works vertically, he is able to re-gain leverage and his outside gap.  Let me use physics to  try to describe how this works.  If the OL is applying force horizontally and the DL is applying force vertically, the resultant vector will be at a 45 degree angle into the opponents' line of scrimmage.  Both the OL and the DL's shoulders will be turned at this angle, and once the OL's shoulders are turned, he is beat.  The 45 degree angle is the exact angle a defender wants to be in to defend the run, and the exact same angle we want our Force player to attack blocks to force the ball to cutback inside  with as little room for the ballcarrier as possible (see previous post).   

 
The playside DL will "set the post," as our DC, Coach Miller, likes to say.  The backside DL then must pursue quickly to suffocate the play, but they must stay in their gap.   It is also important for the backside DL to stay on their feet so they can pursue quickly enough (this is why Alex Gibbs teaches his backside OL to cut on Stretch).  

Everything starts with the get-off and punch for the 4-3 DL.  The DL will get-off the ball quickly to get his hands on the OL first.  He will then "follow his hands."  The DL must learn to trust his hands because they will take him to the play after the initial punch.  The 4-3 DL wants to get vertical against the reach block, but he does not want to get vertical if he is not being blocked.  A DL who gets vertical without punching and getting his hands on the OL will be easily trapped or teams will option him and run right by him.  This is why the hands are so important. to the 4-3 DL  (thanks to Jerry Gordon for pointing this out).

Watch and see for yourself:

DL Keys vs. Stretch

1.  Frontside - get vertical push, Backside - pursue in your gap

DL Mistakes vs. Stretch and Other Keys

1.  Frontside - going horizontal, not vertical; Backside - not pursuing in your gap

2.  DL vs. Power

3.  DL vs. Screen

4.  DL - Ricochet Technique
5.  Hands Up vs. Pass

4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - schedule of posts

Jan 1 - DL Play

Jan 3 - Zone Blitzes

Jan 5 - LB Play

Jan 7 - Defending Bash and Midline

Jan 9 - DB Play and Coverage Fundamentals

Jan 10 - (National Championship Game - Oregon vs. Auburn - 8:30 pm)

After the National Championship game, I will have an outstanding series of articles and videos with some terrific guest writers that Brophy talked about in his blog recently.