Tampa 2 Corner Sim Pressure

Tampa 2 sim pressure from Tennessee. The Titans are in a sub personnel with  2 DL, 3 LB, and 6 DB bodies.

The Rush:

Corner is pressuring in an inside pass rush lane taking an angle off the DE who is working up the field. The linebacker is working to balance to the rush and the strong DE is contain.

The Coverage:

Tampa 2 concept with the two high safeties both rotating weak to play the weak side flat and half concept.

Pre-snap the coverage looks like a two high concept. The coverage rotates which typically indicates a one high safety concept however this is double rotated with the Nickel to the field also rotating to build a two high coverage. This is an interesting way to generate more pass rush from a four man rush and play Tampa 2. Good stuff from Dean Pees and the Titans. 

Disguising Nickel Firezone

Nice disguised zone dog from the Tennessee Titans. The Titans are in a sub personnel with  2 DL, 3 LB, and 6 DB bodies.

The Rush:

Nickel off the edge with the two DL going up and under. The LB is working across the center to balance the pass rush. The weak side LB is the contain rusher.

The Coverage:

3 under 3 deep firezone with the safeties rotating at the snap. The weak side corner is play a tight aggressive technique on the single WR side.

The pre-snap presentation shows the Nickel as a none blitz threat. With the weak side safety down and a safety in the post the initial sight picture is there will be no roll down safety to replace the Nickel if he pressures.

The Titans do a nice job holding the pressure and rolling the safety late to the strong side seam and using the weak side safety to run out to become the post player. Having a DB body mugged up in the weak side A gap but still having the speed and athleticism to get to  the 3 drop is a big piece to making this call successful. The presence of 6 rush threats at the LOS holds the OL inside and prevents an OL from pass setting out to the Nickel off the edge. The RB does a great job in protection scanning from weak to strong to have a chance to pick up the blitz. The Nickel does an even better job winning the one on one vs. the scanning RB. Good pressure design, disguise, and execution from the Titans and defensive coordinator Dean Pees. 

Tampa 2 Sim Pressure

Here is a well designed sim pressure from the NY Jets.

The Jet are in a nickel personnel with 2 DL, 3 ILB, 1 OLB (X) and 5 DB bodies.

The Rush:

Up & under pass rush from the DE's and edge pressure from the nickel and weak side safety.

The Coverage:

The pre-snap presentation is 1 high. Post snap the coverage rotates to a Tampa 2 variation.

The walked up LB bodies inside help hold the protection inside. The up & under by the DE's helps create short edges for the DB's. Creative design with excellent disguise from the Jets and Gregg Williams.

Pressure vs. Empty

Here is a well designed pressure from LSU vs. an empty formation from Alabama.

Alabama goes 00 personnel and LSU matches with a multiple DB sub package on 3rd & 6.

There is only one DL body on the field but the front is a very traditional 4 down alignment with two 3 techniques and two A gap mugged up rushers. The difference is 5 of the players at the LOS are in 2 point stances. The presentation is a 6 man blitz with 1 DL, 3 LB and 7 DB bodies on the field. 

The Rush:

The 3 techniques convert from B gap to contain rushers and both A gap rushers are in the pressure. Both of the aligned edge rushers drop to coverage. End result is a basic four man pass rush concept.

The Coverage:

Split field coverage concept with a four over three coverage tool to the field and three over two coverage tool to the boundary. 

This structure allows LSU to rush 4 and drop 7 using a traditional 4 down pass rush and split field quarters coverage on the back end all while creating a run through in an A gap. By using sub personnel the Tigers are able to get skilled players into the coverage drops and still generate a pass rush. For the "Well Bama/the OL should have just...." crowd. The OL is in a big time bind here. They have to block most dangerous as there are only 5 OL for 6 pass rush threats. "Protect inside first...."  sounds like a good strategy until you consider personnel. If the OL slides the protection leaving an edge rusher free the inside rush would in principle be blocked. In that situation the OL would also be freeing up either #3 (currently leads LSU in sacks) or #18 (4th currently on LSU in sacks) off of one of the edges. The OL doesn't know if one, both, or neither of the edge guys will drop. Which is the bigger threat: A gap mugged DB or a top sack guy off the edge? Good design and usage of personnel from Coach Aranda and great execution from the LSU defense.