Post by lochness on Feb 17, 2005 9:32:20 GMT
Coach,
We run our Belly about 65-70% out of the "Basic" split backs set. We find that many teams will scrape their ILB's downhill hard on us when they see the initial "double dive" action. This typically puts the playside ILB scraping to C gap while the backside ILB scrapes to take the first man away in the A gap. Splitbacks gives you two very good advantages against teams with 2 ILB's (4-4 and 5-2 teams, basically) and try to scrape in this manner to defend your Belly.
First, you are now diving your first back in the B gap area as opposed to the A gap area we typically attack out of the "I". That is a much tougher scrape for the backside ILB to make if your first back is hitting quickly.
Second, the playside ILB is tied-up with the first diveback running directly at him "right NOW", and that's a tough instinct to fight and expect him to scrape over to C gap when the diveback is heading directly at him. So, it really forces their inside LB's to play much more honestly. As you mentioned, it can also get their OLB's to play you more honest on the outside as well, especially if you have the ability to get RB's into the pass pattern quicker or to run a quick pitch out that way. We still like it out of the I, and maybe run it 30-35% from this look. We also run the "W" set with the FB on the midline and the halfback offset even with the FB but behind the weakside OT, like the 100 or 900 wing-T formation.
Our best offensive lineman is typically our RT. We feel that the success of the Belly goes through him. If we're facing 30 / 50 front, he must be able to drive the hell out of that DT in order for the second back play to work. If we're playing a 40 front, he has to be athletic and aggressive enough to get into the second level defender in the bubble. Our TE's are absolutely critical to our success, no question. Last season, we had a 6'4" 240 lb TE (soft hands too) who, in my opinion, was our best run blocker on the team. He would absolutely destroy people. The combination of him and our big athletic RT are probably what made our 2nd back play so effective this past season. It was nearly unstoppable. We typically only ask our TE's to do 3 things: man block, hook block, and down / combo block. We rep the heck out of those skills. We'll miss that kid this coming year, but we have some good alternatives coming up.
A couple of other things:
1. To add even more difficulty on the defense to your "unbalanced set", try trading the TE INTO the unbalance. So, for instance you may have the SE and Z in the twins look to one side and your TE on the other side. On command, trade the TE over into the unbalanced set on the same side as SE and Z. Don't do it all the time, but just every once in a while. This will give teams a lot of headaches, and is a minimal adjustment for you. It's even MORE of a headache if you tend to line up in unbalance to begin with then trade back OUT of it too! We do both of these scenarios, plus just standard TE trading with no unbalanced set involved. It makes them think about all kinds of other things besides making the adjustments to your unbalance.
2. I'd take those two guys who are shafting you in the weight room and cast them aside. That is completely unacceptable. It would be one thing if they were honest and just said "coach, I'm not into lifting," but to lie about it and then show up on the first day of practice is very poor.
3. On the delay, typically those DE's are trying to hold up the TE from cleanly releasing anyway. It's pretty much impossible for the official to tell if the kid was hung up, or if he was engaging and releasing on a delay. We've never been called or questioned on it in over a decade. I think they are more concerned with engaging in second level blocks, then releasing OR with WR's engaging DB's, then releasing. That's a very tough thing to enforce between a TE and a DE.
We run our Belly about 65-70% out of the "Basic" split backs set. We find that many teams will scrape their ILB's downhill hard on us when they see the initial "double dive" action. This typically puts the playside ILB scraping to C gap while the backside ILB scrapes to take the first man away in the A gap. Splitbacks gives you two very good advantages against teams with 2 ILB's (4-4 and 5-2 teams, basically) and try to scrape in this manner to defend your Belly.
First, you are now diving your first back in the B gap area as opposed to the A gap area we typically attack out of the "I". That is a much tougher scrape for the backside ILB to make if your first back is hitting quickly.
Second, the playside ILB is tied-up with the first diveback running directly at him "right NOW", and that's a tough instinct to fight and expect him to scrape over to C gap when the diveback is heading directly at him. So, it really forces their inside LB's to play much more honestly. As you mentioned, it can also get their OLB's to play you more honest on the outside as well, especially if you have the ability to get RB's into the pass pattern quicker or to run a quick pitch out that way. We still like it out of the I, and maybe run it 30-35% from this look. We also run the "W" set with the FB on the midline and the halfback offset even with the FB but behind the weakside OT, like the 100 or 900 wing-T formation.
Our best offensive lineman is typically our RT. We feel that the success of the Belly goes through him. If we're facing 30 / 50 front, he must be able to drive the hell out of that DT in order for the second back play to work. If we're playing a 40 front, he has to be athletic and aggressive enough to get into the second level defender in the bubble. Our TE's are absolutely critical to our success, no question. Last season, we had a 6'4" 240 lb TE (soft hands too) who, in my opinion, was our best run blocker on the team. He would absolutely destroy people. The combination of him and our big athletic RT are probably what made our 2nd back play so effective this past season. It was nearly unstoppable. We typically only ask our TE's to do 3 things: man block, hook block, and down / combo block. We rep the heck out of those skills. We'll miss that kid this coming year, but we have some good alternatives coming up.
A couple of other things:
1. To add even more difficulty on the defense to your "unbalanced set", try trading the TE INTO the unbalance. So, for instance you may have the SE and Z in the twins look to one side and your TE on the other side. On command, trade the TE over into the unbalanced set on the same side as SE and Z. Don't do it all the time, but just every once in a while. This will give teams a lot of headaches, and is a minimal adjustment for you. It's even MORE of a headache if you tend to line up in unbalance to begin with then trade back OUT of it too! We do both of these scenarios, plus just standard TE trading with no unbalanced set involved. It makes them think about all kinds of other things besides making the adjustments to your unbalance.
2. I'd take those two guys who are shafting you in the weight room and cast them aside. That is completely unacceptable. It would be one thing if they were honest and just said "coach, I'm not into lifting," but to lie about it and then show up on the first day of practice is very poor.
3. On the delay, typically those DE's are trying to hold up the TE from cleanly releasing anyway. It's pretty much impossible for the official to tell if the kid was hung up, or if he was engaging and releasing on a delay. We've never been called or questioned on it in over a decade. I think they are more concerned with engaging in second level blocks, then releasing OR with WR's engaging DB's, then releasing. That's a very tough thing to enforce between a TE and a DE.