slant technique

Right arm I believe.

Coach Mac,

If your tackle is slanting to C gap and then faces a downblock from the tight end, what do you teach him to adjust? I presume the initial rip move is to defeat a reach block by the OT. If the OT goes down to the MLB, does your DT then have to adjust his rip technique to defeat the TE?

If I'm reading Titus' post right the DT is slanting into C gap probably from a 4 or 5 tech. I believe that Golla still has the D-linemen reading the man he is over as he is executing his rip move. If the OT veer releases inside the DT plants on his outside foot and goes for penetration looking to knock off a puller. It's been a while since I last watched his video, however, so I may be wrong.

I think 44attack is right. The down block by the tackle and TE indicates the offense attacking the outside or D gap. If the tackle pushes through the TE to the D gap this would leave a huge cut back lane for the back. The DT should breakdown hold ground and look inside for pulling guard or runningback.

We have been a slanting team for years and have slowly worked towards attacking a surface more. The things I like about slanting is that your D-line is on the move upfield on the snap of the ball and are very aggressive. I feel that we forced teams to narrow their gaps against us which I believe is a victory on our part. We limited them on what they would do. We used this, in part, because we were usually smaller and thus quicker than most teams that we played. I should also mention that we did a lot of blitzing along with our slanting. We will do more slanting against teams that we do not match up well with size or strengthwise.

As far as keys go we basically went with, "attack your gap and get your eyes inside". The goal was to get penetration, disrupt the blocking schemes, and look for what may be coming to you. Golla's tapes do a much better job of describing keys. We are definitely going to be implementing a ton of his surface attacking and slanting techniques and keys. He goes much deeper than we will ever get but I feel that he makes it easy to use what you want from him and decide what is best for your D.

We slant quite a bit, but our goal is NOT to get vertical and not to get 'up' into the gap. I want my guys to play on the heels of the OL. No more than 1 yd deep.

In many of our fronts, out DT or DE (a 4 tech or even 3 tech) will use these slant steps/techniques. His goal is to read the "V" of the Guard. If Guard blocks down - we squeeze to A gap and take on option of FB or trap for example. IF G traps, we follow. If he pulls to the outside, we redirect. I agree with the earlier post above about the 6 inch lateral step with the inside foot. Outside (2nd step crosses over) and the third step is going to get the DL's shoulders parallel to LOS. We are ripping for a few reasons. First, the rip is going to get the body across the LOS in a hurry. This is just a matter of physics. Secondly, if the OT (against us that we are NOT reading) is zone blocking or trying to get inside up on LB, we will prevent him from doing so. Eyes should always be on the G the entire time. On the first step, I tell the DL guys to cock the rip arm back, on the second step we "bring it" low and hard and all the way through to the sky. We practice this by having them rip their arms through shields or dummies. We also slant our NT and he must use these same techniques to read the G's as well. It is the hope that this slant or pinch can 1) get our DL moving off the ball so they dont have to 2-gap a big OT, 2) Keep OL off of our LB as we hope they disturb the blocking schemes and 3) take away inside trap, option stuff that we see quite a bit in our league.

As far as the TE washing him down, we angle towards the TE. So hopefully this cannot happen. However, I have seen some wing-t teams that do some double tight/double wing bucksweep that is lethal. In this case we practice and have the DT/DE redirect, roll out vs the down block of the TE.

We teach these techniques to NT, DT, DE, and OLB's as we feel reading 'the next guy down' is an important part of our Defense. Our LB's on the open side will key the hips of the OT and will use these steps and techniques as he has to be low, square to LOS when he takes on G-kickouts, counters, FB kick outs, and option play. We want him tight to the hips of the OT as closes down.

I think we are of the same thinking. I probably did not explain myself as well as i would have liked. By no means do i want the DL holding up OL. But aiming at the "v" of the guards will get my guys into position and to the ball. If he can get a piece of the G, well great and if not, oh well. But I do want the DL's eyes on the read on the first 2 steps and after that - it is "find the football". I think all of us coaches spend countless hours on teaching the right reads, footwork, etc and after that first second of play, it is all instinct and getting after it.