When In Doubt, Blitz

JUST BLITZ, COACH!

BY JARRETT M. LAWS, M.ED., SALEM HIGH SCHOOL (GA.) HEAD COACH In 2016, when I was hired by the administration at Salem High School in Conyers, Georgia, my immediate goal was to revitalize the program by introducing an uptempo style of football to a program that previously was a bare-bones 4-4 Cover 3. By year two, we were fortunate enough to reach the Georgia High School Association Class AAAA playoffs for the first time in four years.

We base our defensive pressure package on a concept we call “Deal It”, whereby, when we make a decision to bring pressure to the offense, we make an agreement that regardless of what they present us, we will take it as a “deal” of sorts, and in response, play the “cards” that have been dealt to us.

Nearly 70% of our pressure calls come in situations where we determine down and distance needs. For the sake of this article, we are going to examine our “Zone” pressure checks. So that we can focus on the philosophy rather than the scheme, we will limit our presentations to a few commonplace 10 personnel formations. We will start with the nomenclature of the call.

When we are in “Deal It”, we have decided to align according to what formation is presented to us. Our language is as follows: we use the name and mascot of a team (in this case, “Salem” for the front of the formation, and “Seminole” for the back of the formation) to indicate where the offenses’ protection void is. This is determined by the location of the running back, thus, where we will bring our pressure. We choose to bring pressure away from the RB, or if they have multiple RBs, we will overload the side of the formation where the least number of players are.

In Diagram 1, the formation is 3x1 / RB Near. The front side of the formation is covered protection-wise by the RB, so we would make a “Seminole 31” call, indicating that there is a 3x1 formation, and the backside of the formation is open for pressure. Our front 4 align in a “5-2-2-5” technique set up in order to maintain a balanced look, limiting the offensive line’s ability to make a protection strength call. The Mike and Will LB’s align directly behind the inside defensive tackles in “20” alignments in order to maintain the balance. The Nickel lines up slightly inside of the #2 slot receiver. Our secondary shows a 2-high safety look (which is what we align in when playing a base look). The goal of all our alignments is to originate without a difference between our base and pressure looks. We always have the goal of limiting the keys that are available to the offense with the intent of making their play call as difficult as possible. At the snap of the ball, the front side defensive linemen run an End/Tackle stunt, with the 2-tech first working across the guard and tackles’ faces to the C gap, and the 5 tech working behind the 2’s path to pressure the frontside A gap. The Mike plays a zone-drop coverage, working his eyes for coverage responsibility from the #3 receiver to the #2 receiver. The Nickel and Strong Safety play a “2-Trap” coverage on the #3 and #2 receivers. The frontside Cornerback is in a one-onone coverage with the #1 receiver.

On the “Seminole”, or pressure side, the 2 technique works a “Bull rush” technique on the guard, occupying him from picking up the weak side end, who is working a long-stick route behind the 2 tech to the back side A gap. The Will LB rushes the QB through the C gap, with the goal of maintaining a tight angle to get to the top shoulder of the QB. The Free Safety uses the RB as a key to determine whether he is a blitzer or a cover down player. If he determines that the RB is working across to pick up the “Seminole” side blitzer, he will then blitz the “Seminole” side through the 1st open space that he can see. If the RB stays frontside, he will play a “Robber” technique to assist in covering the “Seminole” side single receiver. The “Seminole” cornerback plays a zone-depth man coverage technique. He knows that he has help underneath, so he only worries about carrying the deeper routes (Go, Post/Crossing, Comeback). This should always guarantee that we are bringing one more player that they can defend, without forsaking Zone coverage principles.