4-4 w/ 9 tech?

COACH FOR CHRIST,

I OTEN DO THIS FROM OUR 4-2-5 WHEN THEY ARE HURTING US OFF TACKLE WHERE THE DEFENSE IS MOST VULNERABLE. I MOVE THE 7 TO A 9, MOVE THE TIGER BACK (SS) TO A 70, LEAVE THE 3 WHERE HE IS. ROLL UP THE CB'S HARD AS ALWAYS WITH INSIDE LEVERAGE TO TAKE AWAY THE QUICK SLANT WHERE YOU HAVE MOVED THE TIGER BACK FROM.

Coach Esaton-TIGER ONE

CAVEMAN,

If you put him on the LOS as a 7 tech, you then give up the quick slant where he would normally be. You don't want to play crash end- drop end football anymore as the DE is far more efective coming after the QB off the edge.

Coach Easton-TIGER ONE

IF THEY PLAY HARD MAN ON THE # 1 WR THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION WOULD BE YES, BUT IF THEY DON'T ON THE # 2 RECEIVER ON THE SAME SIDE (TRIPS) IT IS ALWAYS WIDE OPEN (QUICK SLANT).
I OFTEN RUN A QUICK SLANT FROM A WR FLEXED ONLY TO 5 YDS OFF THE TACKLE, AND DEFEND AGAINST TEAMS THAT DO THE SAME THING, WHY DO YOU SAY MOST TEAMS DO NOT DO THAT?
WE SEE IT ALL THE TIME.

BUT, YOU HAVE TO GO WITH WHAT YOU KNOW COACH AND ARE COMFORTABLE COACHING, MORE THAN MY WAY TO SKIN A CAT. WHAT EVER WORKS BEST FOR YOU, GO FOR IT.

Coach Easton-TIGER ONE

Man free coverage would fit well with that front but I like it better from the 70 tech ss instead of the 7 tech simply because if the TE releases to the flat the 9 tech may get in the way of the ss following him to the flat. My thinking was to still play man from the 70 tech but only cover the TE on a release outside the DE leaving the FS to play deep middle. If TE releases inside the DE collision him and turn him over to the FS and look for RB out of the backfield.

ACCORDING TO YOUR DIAGRAM, I WOULD PUT THE FLANKER IN MOTION TO THE LIZ SIDE, FLOOD BOTH BACKS TO THE LIZ SIDE, ROLL THE QB THAT WAY AND TELL HIM TO TAKE HIS PICK OF RECEIVERS.

Coach Easton-TIGER ONE

Coach easton If you motion and we are in man then we will corners over. Not knowing you sprint out protection the 5 tech would play the QB on sprint out. FS is still over the top. 70 or 80 gives us a 5 rusher. Now it comes down to jimmy's and joe's. If you can block my joes you win if not I win.

We ran a 4-3 with the DE in a wide 9 or a wide 5 on the open side and had very good luck with it. The key to doing well though was that they penetrated every snap. They lined up in a tilt and "skinned" the butt of the widest down lineman, with the aiming point of the FB's down hand. The OLB keyed his first step off the TE's or OT's hat. If the TE blocked down, the DE had C gap and the OLB worked over the top to D gap. If the TE turned out, the OLB stepped up into C gap and played the flow he saw. The OT generally did not get to Our OLB because the 3 tech was skinning the guard's butt too. If the OT came out after the backer we had a big boy running around loose in the backfield. The nose played from a 2i and took A gap. Putting him in a 2i helped reduce the trap on the 3 tech by making the nose harder to reach and pressuring the guard. The whole idea was to make the O-linemen declare their blocks by putting pressure on them and filling the gaps with LB's and a supporting Safety. The corners played halves and got help from the safety away from the flow. Using safety support helped shut down the iso at the OLBs and gave us a very solid run stopper.

The OLBs had to have good speed to get to the flat, but by keeping their drops level at 5-7 yards they were close enough to handle flats and screens.

The DEs had to be decent sized and aggressive athletes because they often had to "blow up" a FB or OL, but by penetrating with speed they made those collisions on the offense's side of the ball and tended to get there before their opponent had a really good head of steam up. Usually they gave rather than received a big collision.

We see this pretty often and it is solid against a pro I which we used to run, we went to the spread last year and taking those OLB out of the box really seemed to make them uncomfortable, we were able to turn it into essentially a 4-2 and ran the ball very well against it, usually the OLB are the guys that went out w/our slots and as they were usually the defense's best players getting them out of the box helped a lot. We also had success in the past w/ double tight 3 back sets. Anything in between those 2 extremes we had trouble running.