Improving run defense in 3-4/5-2 defense

Lou,

Give the 30 stack( 5-3) a look and see if it will help you. IMO, the 5-3 is the best run stopper ever invented!

JC

our base is a double eagle (DT's 3 tech's-B gap w/a quick nose -0- either A) w/ TE-DE-6 (some say 8) tech and 5 away. we are a more or less 5-4-2. we have different alignments up front- 2-0-2 (slanting and DT's attact out) 4i-same as base but loose to help vs getting washed; 4-more slanting, pinching-this incorperates the DE's. i don't particarly like the DC to do this a lot. the pinch is the most effective-DT's & DE's attack in. the nose picks his gap in all stunts but slants. one variation of the nose is back the nose 1/2-1 yard off the ball and read the center if you get a solid brake-down of center blocking back/playside (great adjustment for wing-t teams). my DC doesn't like this but i love blitzing WILB (mike)-either A or opposite A gap. hope this helps

Coach,

Don't change your defense mid-season (3-3, etc.). Find a way to modify your existing defense. We run a 4-across coverage with our safeties up in tight. The safeties have to be good athletes and aggressive hitters, though. From this look, you can get 9 men in the box against any base 2 or 1 TE offense with 2 backs. You can stay with 8 in the box against 1 back.

From here, you can run any coverage you want and all the looks are disguised. The rotation of those two inside safeties is the key. They have to be tough on run support but also capable of rotating out into coverage if it is a pass. We switched to this look last season and knocked almost 100 yards off our per-game average.

The DE's / OLB's are also a big part of it. Don't play them passively. If you have a power off tackle type team that likes to kick out a lot (G block like on WingT Belly, kick out with FB, etc.) put those guys down in a low 2 point stance with shoulders and feet parallel to the LOS. Have them crash through the outside shoulder of the TE to an imaginary point one yard behind the near Offensive Tackle's butt. They are looking to force an early kick-out and blow the play up by constricting the C gap. They are coming upfield just far enought so they cannot get logged, but not so far that they leave a seam. RB's will either have to jam it up into a constricted hole or they will have to go off track and bounce to the outside, by which time your safeties and ILB's will be in position to make a play. If you face a team that runs outside a lot, have a call in where you can blitz either DE / OLB upfield. Have them come straight upfield through the outside shoulder of the TE, and keep their feet under their bodies and maintain all ballcarriers on the inside shoulder. This will force a cutback on all the outside plays like zone, toss, and buck sweep.

The DL has to be trained to feel and force double teams. I know that sounds obvious, but you actually have to drill it to death. We teach our DL to feel the double team and press into it, forcing the OL to stay on the block rather than combo off to our ILB's.

Our ILB's read the feet of the guards and react to their action. We do this exclusively. We have a 15 minute "inside run group" session every defensive practice with the DL and ILB's vs. our opponent's blocking schemes. No backs, no WR's, and no QB. We're just having the DL force the double team and making the ILB's read the guards. Our ILB's come downhill on everything. No scraping or lateral movement at all. You have to get your angles and landmarks perfect, and that is why it takes practice time. If the G double teams, we blitz that hole like a firecracker was up our butts. If he pulls across the formation for trap, counter, sweep, etc, we blitz hard with our heads up and look to chase (we've had many tackles for loss on sweeps and counters already this year. If he pulls playside (G), we come downhill to the inside hip of the TE looking to blow up a toss / buck sweep or an off-tackle G Trap play. If they come straight out, we fit into our assigned gap. Obviously if they pass set or playaction, we drop into hook / curl zones. If they zone block we come downhill at 45 degrees to playside. All these reactions happen immediately and on exact angles. The angles have to be designed to get your LB's to the play quickly but also to avoid down blocks and so forth. We drill the hell out of it, but it is worth it. If you do it, you have to committ to it. It is that simple. We also underkey the near back, so we are always reacting immediately to guard action, but our heads are in the backfield AS we react.

If you do this you have to not only have the time and dedication to coach it, but you also must have the people who are willing to properly read the keys and believe in it. We tell our LB's "there are no misdirection offenses" because the blocking schemes have to tell you where the play goes. Even if teams "false pull"...they're really just playing 10-on-10 by taking a potential blocker out of the equation at the expense of drawing the LBer off course. We've been doing it for 3 years and we've yet to have a team false pull on us. We held the Jet / Fly sweep to negative net yardage against us (and we face 5 wing-T teams) last year. No body has even run it against us this year. We have played one Wing-T team that is VERY guard oriented, and we held them to 27 total yards.

Now, the downside to this is you give up a bit on pass defense, because you are essentially committing your safeties to the run. But, if the down and distance dictate an obviousing pass situation, change your coverage and alignments with defensive calls.

Coach, this is what has worked well for us running the 52 / 34 defense. It takes a lot of coaching and discipline, but we fully believe in it and our kids believe in it.

Good luck!

Lochness - I agree, reading the guards and taking on kickout blocks is huge. I wanted to thank you again for your help with the double dive. It has been a great series for us. Through 4 games, we already have a back who has rushed for 1000 yds. The give to the FB was deadly last game because of all the attention they gave our TB. The keeper has also caught a few teams off guard in key situations. Thanks again for your help. The double dive is exactly what we needed offensively. I hope your season is going well.

Talent is nice, but having kids who've paid the price is even better. We're 3-1 right now. Lost a tough game against a ranked team 26-30 in week 2. A double wing team... we blew assignments on 3 plays on D and gave up TD runs of 99, 65, and 30. We also fumbled the opening kickoff, a punt, threw a pick and had a our first two punts were 10 and 12 yards after 3 and outs. The kids really battled back and played a great game despite everything. We got stopped on the 1 yard line twice, including to end the game. From everything i just said you'd think we played terrible, but we outgained them 531 to 287 despite the big plays. Our district is super tough, but I guess if you had to pick a game to lose and still feel like you were a good team, that was it.
We're actually trying the PA pass of the double dive this week. We'll see how it goes. take care coach.