44 vs the spread

Well... I learned a few things Sunday at the game.

First, if your DEs won't or can't contain, it's going to be a long day.

Second, splitting your OLBs out on the slot man pretty much takes them out of the running game. If they're your best athletes... gonna be a long day.

Third, if your MLBs slide a little to the outside to help contain, the spread can still run up the middle.

Fourth, tackles have to penetrate the gaps. Have to.

Fifth, sending blitzes and pressure is fine, but if it doesn't get there in time you're going to get burned for a lot of yards and your safety is going to be running a lot.

Conclusion? The 44 defense is probably not the best defense to defend the spread option. Lesson learned.

At the beginning of the game we had a game plan on defense that was easier said then done. The plan was simple: Play disciplined, assignment football. I couldn't even count the times that my ends and LBs didn't stay at home and got sucked in by the reverse, misdirection and fakes. The kids were too worried about chasing the ball and making a tackle instead of containing and being where they were supposed to be. It takes a very disciplined defense to shut down this offense.
We gave up 3 scores, 2 in the first half and 1 in the second half, so it isn't like we got destroyed, but unless the offense can keep up it really doesn't matter.

If we play against the same offense again this year in one of our last 4 games I think I'll implement the 3-5-3 this time.

Vs that type spread we play 4-2-5. Like a 4-4 but instead of 2 OLBers we have 2 Strong Safeties. DE's have to be good enough athletes to contain QB.

You can mix up base & blitz. Scheme is SOUND, but kids need to EXECUTE (& play with INTENSITY).

PLAYING WITH MORALE AND INTENSITY (with thanks to Bud Wilkinson)

"Fatigue makes cowards of us all" (Vince Lombard)


There is no magic formula for developing morale, but there is a means of getting consistent effort from your team and intensity is what it is all about. How close do your players come to making their best effort every time the ball is snapped? That is what it is all about, and if your team can do that then they are going to play very well. My theory of judging how well a team is coached is not how many games they won that they shouldn't have won (they upset somebody), it's games they lost when they were a superior team, they didn't play well that day. And why didn't they play well --- nobody got geared up about it. Teach your players to think of the game totally as a chance to find out about themselves --- what kind of a man am I and how well can I play when it is tough to play? You begin by explaining to them that this is a most uncomfortable game to play. There is no way you can play football and feel good. The first two or three plays everybody feels good. But now I am the Nose Tackle and I have got to meet someone me and now it's a sweep and I've got to run 20 yards and there is a big collision and I've got to line up again and meet somebody and run 20 yards and then there is another collision. I do this three or four times and I don't feel good. Now, do I quit at this point and wait to get my breath or do I continue to go as hard as I can to try as hard as I can try? THAT'S WHERE THE GAME IS WON OR LOST! What happens to most teams is they play the first two or three plays as well as they can, then they get to a point, I used to call this the "QUITTING DOWN", where two or three guys tell themselves, "If I coast on this play then I'll be able to go real hard on the next one". They have gotten kind of tired so they coast for a while. So they go hard again but now a few others decide it is time for them to coast and the result of this is that you never get eleven guys going all out.

So to get back to the basic point, if you can convince your people that the reason for playing is for them to find out about themselves and for them to find out how close they can come to playing as well as they can on every snap. Then you can eliminate, I think, that "up and down". So now I have three practices and I get the men together after practice and I ask them, "how many of you think you went as hard as you could every time" and if anybody puts his hand up he is lying. "How many of you did it 90% of the time", I don't think you get any hands if you have an honest relationship. "80% of the time", you will get some hands and you explain to them again, that's not very good if you expect to be a good football team, and we've got to make the effort every time the ball is snapped and if you don't think you can, walk off the field --- it takes more courage than standing out there bluffing. I'm never going to know if you make the big effort, and your teammates are not going to know if you make the big effort, but you are going to know and the whole game is a test of yourself. Now, if your players understand this, and I think if you explain it to them they will, some days they are going to play a guy in a red shirt who is a super athlete, some other day it will be a guy in a green shirt who cannot play a lick but that does not effect your guy's performance at all because his whole purpose is to find out today how close, "I can come to making my maximum effort every time they snap the ball". After the game in the locker room, "Okay how many of you went the best you could everytime", I don't think you will ever see any hands. How many of you went 95%", maybe one. "90%", maybe 4. But this is something that if they understand what I'm talking about, as the season goes along more and more of them will be able to get their hand up and if you can ever get them all giving their best effort then it is going to be awfully hard to beat you. And the major thing that happens is this, if you players begin to think this is just an opportunity to for me to find out about myself, "today, how close can I come to doing the best I possibly can", then it doesn't matter whether you are supposed to win by four touchdowns, because the objective has nothing to do with that, their objective is to find out about themselves. Or, they are supposed to lose by three, that has nothing to do with it. It is simply a question of "today, am I able to beat MYSELF". I'm the toughest opponent that anybody ever had, there is no question about that. If they do honestly believe that, that is the purpose of the game, then I believe they will play consistently with MAXIMUIM INTENSITY!!! Get everyone on the field doing that — it will be very hard for anyone to defeat you!

Hi. Sorry for the delay here, been busy.

What type of plays did they hurt us on, specifically? Heh. Quite a few.

- They would bring a 5th receiver in motion and I had my cover MLB go with him every time. So they would vacate one side of the field of all but a MLB in the middle and my OLB on the slot man, then the QB would run to that weak side. Again, if the ends could contain, no big deal, but since they couldn't he would hit the outside for 5-20 yards a pop. He was fast, my MLB wasn't.

- They would burn us on the reverse with a man in motion, too. They'd also run quick gives to the HB in the Pistol off the outside for big gains.

In our league, we're a feeder program for the HS team, so we HAVE to run their offense and defense. We have a 44, 43 and 53 to chose from.
This week we play basically the same team again, same offense/defense, and I'll be running a 43 where my safeties will cover the slots and my OLBs will remain at home now. I'll be moving some kids around on defense to remedy some of the problems we faced, mostly speed and sight related. Moving some quicker and more aggressive kids to DE, placing my tallest and fastest player at MLB to spy QB so he can not only get to the QB but see him as well.
We really should have ran the 43 last time, but that's how we learn. I'm only in my 2nd year of coaching, and while I can teach assignment football and technique, I can't teach athleticism and aggression, so I'm making the needed adjustments this week to overcome a few of our weaknesses.

This week I'll be blitzing one of my OLBs on every play. If the play is to his side then he'll be in position to contain it, if it's to the other side he will be in position to trail it and stop the reverse.
I have an excellent secondary so I'm not worried about the pass at all.

Most of my team is made up of 3rd graders in their first year of football. I only had 6 kids that were 3rd graders last year, 5 of which came back, so this year is kind of a rebuilding phase. We should be stacked next year though.

Thanks for the replies.