Defending the c gap against power type teams

RIP,

What we had some success with vs this, was to pull our Stud (Spur) down over the TE to keep him down from downblocking on the PSLB. It also allowed us to be able to spill the play a bit to allow the Mike to be able to flow and scrape to the edge. It's not 100% perfect, but we had luck with this.

We run what we call a "storm" blitz. When we think they are going to run power off tackle, we send the backer into the "C" gap and bring the spur off of the same edge. We spin the FS down into the hook to flat right over the top of the TE and the backside spur into the FS spot. That puts 5 defenders near the "C" gap. We call it "Tight Storm 3 spin".

We don't usually make calls for our defensive lineman. They really have one rule, slant away from your nearest blitz. So the answer is, yes, the entire defensive line slants away from the TE in a "Tight Storm 3 spin". The weak side DE would have C gap contain away from the blitz. We are a little vulnerable if they run weak. That's why more often than not we actually run "Field Storm 3 spin". So if they do run away from the Storm, we have the boundary to help. Just like anything else, you can't live in it but it will force the offense away from running off tackle. As you can imagine, that blitz destroys any strong side run play. Sweep, power, counter, dive, option, you name it.