Blitz of the Week #9

This week's Blitz of the Week is a 4 under 2 deep blitz designed to both get pressure and help defend the quick and screen games that are very popular amongst spread teams.

This blitz is from the field vs. a 2x2 formation.

• Field End - Long Stick to A gap
• Nose - Bench A gap
• Bench End - C gap & Contain Rush
• Field OLB - Edge Blitz
• Field ILB - Blitz gap between Long stick and edge blitz
• Bench ILB - Hook-Curl drop off of #2 receiver. Widen alignment to be able to execute drop.
• Bench OLB - C-F drop. Align outside #2 receiver. Drop is underneath & inside the #1 receiver.
• Field Corner - Hard corner. Flat defender
• Field Safety - Invert to the field Hook-Curl. Collision and Carry #2 in the seam.
• Bench Safety - Cheat pre-snap to middle of the field. At the snap open a cross over run to the field Deep 1/2. Get to your divider.
• Bench Corner - Align 1x7 outside leverage on #1. Pre-snap move to 2x 8-10 inside leverage of #1 and be pedaling at the snap. Play the deep 1/2 and be ready to midpoint #1 and #2. You have underneath help on both from the ILB & OLB.

This blitz looks like 3 under 3 deep fire zone with the field safety inverting and the bench safety rolling to the MOF. The field hard corner makes it more difficult to throw screens to the field. All of the quick throws have a defender near them making them more difficult to complete.

VS. trips there are 4 different options.

The first option is to keep the blitz intact and adjust with the bench ILB.

The bench ILB must cheat to get to the field 3 drop. The bench ILB should be arriving in time to separate the #3 receiver from the ball on a hot throw.

The 2nd option is to check the blitz bench and invert the bench safety to the Curl-Flat.

This option allows for more easily executed coverage responsibilities to the field.

The 3rd option is a back side adjustment.

Playing hard corner to both sides is another adjustment to trips. While you lose the illusion from the inverting safety there is an advantage against teams that want to throw single receiver isolation routes opposite 3x1 formations.

The 4th and final option is to check the coverage back to a traditional 3 under 3 deep.

I believe every defense should explore adding at least one 4 under 2 deep blitz to their arsenal to compliment their 3 under 3 deep and man pressure. I believe being able to have hard corners and cover 2 concept with pressure keeps offenses even more off balance. A QB who doesn't know what coverage he is seeing while being pressured is more likely to be sacked or intercepted (the best kind of QB). I also believe this creates a more difficult pre-snap read for offensive coordinators who want to use freeze tempo and check the side line. If that OC sees an invert safety and blitz he now has to wonder is this a cover 3 or cover 2 blitz and is more likely to be frustrated (the best kind of OC).