Defending spread offense run game

The offense is trying to make you defend every square inch of the field. To help in creating a game plan it is also vital to identify exactly what type of spread you are up against. You must also take into account the tempo at which they run their offense. Hurry-up, no-huddle will definitely limit your play calls and make your defenders have to identify numbers, leverage, and matchup problems much more quickly.

Then you must determine their personnel weaknesses and strengths to understand where you can acquire your bonus defenders from and where you need to put them. Formation, down and distance, and situational tendencies will also allow you to have a better idea of what you need to prepare your players for. Now that you know exactly what you are up against you can start to formulate your game plan.

There are a few things to keep in mind when putting your plan together. In the run game you need to determine how many players you NEED in the box. Can you get away with playing a 5-man box or do you need to keep a sixth guy in there?

You can reduce or stunt defensive linemen into interior gaps in order to push the ball out to your flat defenders, allowing you to play a 5-man box while maintaining gap integrity and keeping good leverage and numbers matchups. You also need to make sure your option responsibilities are covered and well versed among your players.

Our opponent averages 30 points a game, with a ton of passing and rushing yards. The past two games we held them to 20 points or less. We held this team to only 2 offensive touchdowns and did a great job with not giving up the big passing play. We switched from our 53 defense to a 44 defense because these guys are very fast vertically and horizontally. Our keys to defending the spread offense how we slowed this spread team down :. Our two defensive tackles line up in the A-gaps.

The two defensive ends line up on the outside shoulder of the offensive tackles contain. The two middle linebackers would line up 3 yards off the line and over the B gaps. The outside linebackers will line up on the outside shoulder of the two inside receivers containment support. The two cornerbacks would be at 8 yards and have deep 3rd coverage. The middle safety lines up 15 yards deep playing deep middle 3rd. We had our safety line up really deep because this team was super fast.

Having our safety deep allowed him to take better angles to the ball carrier. Having the safety really deep does leave some room for a post pattern. We gave up a huge play when the offense faked a run and then threw a post pattern to the slot, with the outside receivers running off deep.

Here was the play that hurt us:. The defensive tackles will pressure up the A gaps, anchoring and taking away their QB draw and trap. The defensive ends do a hard pass rush, maintaining outside leverage do not let the QB roll outside the pocket. The outside linebackers line up on the inside shoulder of the inside receivers and get real physical.

It is also very important that the defenders get depth on their zone drops, playing the receivers high to low. The middle backers have the hook zones. Left guard: Quick in pass protection and mobile to either reach block the backside of a play or pull to the strong side on a run scheme.

This standard breakdown holds true for many lines and it's designed to combat fronts. Overall they want to be able to hold up to pressure on the left side and blow you away on the right and they are best designed for handling strong 3-tech tackles or blindside edge rushers. The doesn't put all of its eggs in one basket in the pressure game and the fact that so many different players are in stand-up positions makes it easy to move them around and attack where ever the protection is most likely to break down.

With four linebackers near the line of scrimmage it's a simple matter to bring numbers and overload the softest part of the offense's protection, even against spread sets that can counter with hot routes:. The defense can show pressure on the edge from the middle linebacker before the snap, but after the snap they drop three shallow zone defenders to the trips side to take away the quick hot routes as well as another linebacker underneath the X receiver to prevent a quick route from him.

Meanwhile the nose and left end slant inside, requiring some careful communication and movement from the center and the right guard to prevent one of them from quickly blowing through the middle and wrecking the play. Then the buck linebacker crosses the right guard's face and looks to turn up field for quick pressure.

The running back and right tackle are likely concerned with the middle linebacker first and so the blitzing buck has time to attack and his movements are shielded by the DL's slant and the middle linebacker's feint. Blitzes like these are challenging for an OL to pick up, particularly if the attacking players are explosive athletes who know how to disguise their movements, and the 's structure allows these blitzes to attack the OL that are least effective in pass protection.

Even if one the boundary outside linebackers is the strongest pass-rusher on the team the allows the defense to send him flying off the edge, potentially unlooked for, or stunting into an interior gap where the OL is deemed to be weak. The natural response of many defensive coaches against the spread is to recruit speed and find ways to play sound defense while hoping for the offense to shoot itself in the foot or turn the ball over at some point along the way to the end zone.

The more skilled spread attacks are totally unafraid of this approach since it allows them to zero in on weaknesses, put defenders in conflict with the option, and do exactly what they practice every day to do. It's becoming less and less of a good bet that college players will be unable to sustain drives if you hole up and dare them to come after you unless you are recruiting NFL athletes at most positions.

The is going to find more and more usage from defensive coaches that prefer to attack the offense, dictate what they're able to do, and try to see if college players can handle facing a defense that forces them to think through both their own options as well as those of the defensive coordinator.

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Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Flipping the script Defenses have traditionally been defined first by how many down linemen are on the field and then by how many linebackers the scheme employs. Attacking with disguise The obvious advantage of having eight defenders standing up before the snap is that it's hard for the offense to know exactly what you're going to be doing.

The can morph into the look that's become a popular anti-spread approach: The difficulty in this defense is that the offense can put the outside linebackers, in this instance the Buck and Raider, in run pass conflicts with inside runs paired with quick outside passes into their respective zones.

There offense also to be aware of the fact that there might not even be conflict defenders to target because either because everyone's dropping back: Or everyone's coming: There's a wide range of possibilities the offensive players have to be aware of before the snap which can create a mental strain that leads to missed opportunities if not costly errors.

Attacking by dictating The next advantage to building a defense around having eight stand-up players in the defensive backfield is the ability to dictate time and space to the offense.

Let's say the opposing team has a very good slot receiver they rely on to get open in the middle of the field to move the chains: They can rotate into a three-deep zone that brackets that slot receiver with the outside linebacker and down safety playing zone with their eyes on him while the inside linebacker and deep safety help inside.

Let's say that the team's most dynamic feature is the QB and his ability to run the ball on zone read concepts: With the end slanting wide and the whip outside linebacker sitting in the flat the QB will have a clear "give" read on the zone-read and the running back will be forced to make the play happen while the inside linebackers are freely keying off his movements.