Defending the Fly Offense

Coach,

In any defensive front, we think the principle is pretty simple (and we've had great success with it):

1. Aggressive run reads through the guards by the ILB's. This helps getting them to the perimeter on the fly AND it helps stop the inside trap play very effectively.

2. Run a 4-across look in the secondary and rotate to cover 3 using "Sky" principles (safeties are the rotate guys) to the side of the fly. The CB's always have deep 1/3, the backside safety has middle 1/3. The playside safety comes flying up on run at a contain angle keeping the sweeper on his INSIDE SHOULDER at all times and avoiding the lead / hook blocker through the blockers outsider shoulder. If it's pass or playaction, the flowside safety has flats (the same safety that comes up in run support).

3. DE's have a helmet key read of the TE. If he tries to hook block, we are screaming upfield through his outside number looking to get about 3 yards (no more) penetration. If he blocks down, we fill hard down to the inside (about to the butt of the adjacent OT) no deeper than 1 yard behind the OL heels.

That's basically it. We've had tremendous success defending this play using these basic principles. In 2003, we actually held combined attempts by all opponents to negative yardage on the fly. In 2004, we gave up some yards, but it was nearly "break even".