I'm a bit worried about the blitzing. I'm watching film of last season to get used to the 8/9 age group, and I have seen some film of this defense. This Defense seems really strong against inside runs, but a run just outside the tight end scares me a little. By filling all the gaps, you're giving the offensive lineman outside leverage. I really like the slant play because if an offense has a strength you can attack that, and so many offenses seem to rely on formation mechanics to get a sweep.
I assume this is a well discussed topic with this defense. I see it in every film. A tight sweep with a wing seems to be a tough stop. Now it's tough for many defense at this age... but most are focusing on stopping that alone.
So my question is this, what specifically are you having your blitzers do? It seems like if they're getting too much depth, that's a mistake. I was thinking about doing a lot of defensive pursuit drills where we have them blitz through the gaps and then chase the rabbit. My thoughts are that that will teach them to find the ball and case.
However does that go against the philosophy of the defense? Do you care about the depth of the stack?
Live by the blitz....die by the blitz....so learn to die as little as possible.
This is not a 30 front. This is a clever 60 front that will confuse the jebezus out of the young blockers.
You cannot allow the "LB'r" to tap and then step back even one step. Death. They must be literally on the DLM's heels and go hard on any ball movement.
You cannot overload their minds with calls. Death. Mathematically 3 stacks will fill 6 gaps so let each individual "LB'r" in each individual stack decide which gap he wants to attack and insist they mix it up. The only override by you....have the OLB's take the outside gap if they are sweeping you. This puts more speed on the edge(s) but the better teams that sweep put better blockers on the edges. A very quick LB'r hitting a C gap should be good enough.
Draw it up. No matter what the blocking surface...your 3 stacks aligned 404 will independently fill 6 gaps as long as each stack fills the immediate gap to their left and right. Some LB'rs will want to two gap on you or bail out and scrape. Eventual death. They MUST trust the system. Selfish players are....death.
Make sure your DLM cover their man. If they align odd the stack fails. Its also best to have the DLM getting tapped go in the same direction of the tap and the "LB'r" go opposite. Then you can freely rotate Minimums on the DL. They only need to get good at one thing...go in the direction they just got tapped as fast and violently as they possibly can. Now they are absorbing blockers and creating mayhem and are a value to their Brothers. Size at these 3 positions is irrelevant. Get off with purpose is all that matters.
More snaps than not... one of your 6 in the stack is coming free. If you do not teach them to break down when that happens its....death. They will run right by the football. So...eyes up immediately and pump the breaks a tad if you do not get blocked. This is VERY hard to teach.
With the Smurfs running this D we have won some close games and lost some close games yielding ZERO total yards. How? 25 plays go for a negative 200 yards total while 5 plays go for a positive 200 yards total....scoring 3+ times.
Its the nature of this D.
What is beautiful, lives forever.
Pretty much everything Mahonz said, with a few observations of my own. Kent and I ran this defense for a couple of years, then went to Jack's 63 so we could have the option of going "black" aka "real OLBs" instead of all out blitzers. This was in response to getting gouged off tackle. Your concern is very valid. JJ''s "for sale" manual had some adjustments for off tackle, but I can't seem to find. My memory is crap, but it had a lot to do with what you did with your outside stacks. We tried it. Didn't work for us.
If I had it to do over again, I would my 2 best defenders at corner. You can stop off-tackle if your corners learn to read the Dog and support the run accordingly. Our corners back then were speedy, athletic ball hawks, but not the run stuffers needed to support power off tackle.
Anyway, stacks over-running the ball was a huge problem for us. We tried having them buzz feet once they got through. Didn't help. Unless the BC ran right into them, they took themselves out of the play. I suspect the root cause is that the stack players, especially DL would get pre-occupied by blockers instead of focusing on the football.
Stack backers tapping the same way all game was a problem. It took me years, but I finally learned the root cause. My DT ratted out my OS. OS would pick the "easy" route all game. See Mahonz' comment on selfish players.
Stack backers "dropping into coverage" was a problem. The better the player, the less likely he is to do his job consistently. At some point, he will decide that he knows better. Murphy's law dictate that this is the point where the offense will run through the now empty gap.
I firmly believe that Dogs/force defenders are born and not made. I prefer them to be taller. I am not a fan of putting studs at the position. They will get bored taking on lead blockers or slow playing runs away or anything else that does not yield the immediate reward of a TFL. When we played a stud at DOG, we were BCR bait. I prefer discipline. When we got our Dogs rocking, the only time we got beat on sweeps was when the other team cheated. Our Dogs were illegally cut, held, tackled and hell, once we had a kid who would try to take our Dog's mouthpiece on every play. Our Dog being stubborn sat there and played "tug of war" with the kid on every play using his teeth. I may even have film of it. I definitely have film of the illegal cut blocks.
Lastly, if you take JJ's advice and put MPP types in your middle stack, you will reap what you sow. Defense is for football players.
When in doot . . . glass and oot.
Sounds like my off tackle and sweep concerns are pretty legitimate, which is strange because most youth teams try to run there. I assume that's why the dogs are supposed to be the best.
As far as MPP kids, we've got 18, so I'm sure we'll have trouble with that. I'm used to teams with twice that, so statistically speaking I'm going to feel like I have a team full of MPPs.
My plan is to have a period where they blitz through the line and then execute pursuit drills. I'll try to disguise where the ball is, boot or sweep type of stuff. We'll coach getting through to heel depth, stopping, and finding / chasing the ball. Then we'll do the same thing with the back 5, but they'll do run / pass reads / CBR.
I bet it will still be a problem, but if we address it from day one, they'll probably start to learn.
Live by the blitz....die by the blitz....so learn to die as little as possible.
This is not a 30 front. This is a clever 60 front that will confuse the jebezus out of the young blockers.
You cannot allow the "LB'r" to tap and then step back even one step. Death. They must be literally on the DLM's heels and go hard on any ball movement.
You cannot overload their minds with calls. Death. Mathematically 3 stacks will fill 6 gaps so let each individual "LB'r" in each individual stack decide which gap he wants to attack and insist they mix it up. The only override by you....have the OLB's take the outside gap if they are sweeping you. This puts more speed on the edge(s) but the better teams that sweep put better blockers on the edges. A very quick LB'r hitting a C gap should be good enough.
Draw it up. No matter what the blocking surface...your 3 stacks aligned 404 will independently fill 6 gaps as long as each stack fills the immediate gap to their left and right. Some LB'rs will want to two gap on you or bail out and scrape. Eventual death. They MUST trust the system. Selfish players are....death.
Make sure your DLM cover their man. If they align odd the stack fails. Its also best to have the DLM getting tapped go in the same direction of the tap and the "LB'r" go opposite. Then you can freely rotate Minimums on the DL. They only need to get good at one thing...go in the direction they just got tapped as fast and violently as they possibly can. Now they are absorbing blockers and creating mayhem and are a value to their Brothers. Size at these 3 positions is irrelevant. Get off with purpose is all that matters.
More snaps than not... one of your 6 in the stack is coming free. If you do not teach them to break down when that happens its....death. They will run right by the football. So...eyes up immediately and pump the breaks a tad if you do not get blocked. This is VERY hard to teach.
With the Smurfs running this D we have won some close games and lost some close games yielding ZERO total yards. How? 25 plays go for a negative 200 yards total while 5 plays go for a positive 200 yards total....scoring 3+ times.
Its the nature of this D.
You know, I'm thinking if we simply moved the stack over the TE on occasion, it might give me what I'm looking for... but as it sits I planned to have 4 calls. Base D, Slant right, Slant left, Wide, which has the OLB and DT cut outwards, essentially making a 62 style defense.
I fully expect many teams are going to be BAD at running inside. And when they do run inside, they line up in something like a power I, signaling it. I'm not even so worried about the counter.
Sounds like my off tackle and sweep concerns are pretty legitimate, which is strange because most youth teams try to run there. I assume that's why the dogs are supposed to be the best.
As far as MPP kids, we've got 18, so I'm sure we'll have trouble with that. I'm used to teams with twice that, so statistically speaking I'm going to feel like I have a team full of MPPs.
My plan is to have a period where they blitz through the line and then execute pursuit drills. I'll try to disguise where the ball is, boot or sweep type of stuff. We'll coach getting through to heel depth, stopping, and finding / chasing the ball. Then we'll do the same thing with the back 5, but they'll do run / pass reads / CBR.
I bet it will still be a problem, but if we address it from day one, they'll probably start to learn.
Off tackle, for sure. Sweep . . . depends on the back. Dog attacking the near/deep back sounds like a good plan until you have a back who will take 1 step upfield, then laterally without slowing down.
One thing that has always ALWAYS improved our 33 is the gang tackling concept. I stole a "2 whistle" concept from someone several years ago. When you are running any live tackling, blow the whistle when the ball is down, then loudly count down from 5. Any player who isn't touching the downed ball carrier or sprinting full speed to the ball does pushups.
When in doot . . . glass and oot.
You know, I'm thinking if we simply moved the stack over the TE on occasion, it might give me what I'm looking for...
Murphy's Law. If you leave a gap uncovered, the ball will find it.
I fully expect many teams are going to be BAD at running inside. And when they do run inside, they line up in something like a power I, signaling it. I'm not even so worried about the counter.
We either crushed inside runs, or they went to the house. Part of the problem was playing kids at NT and MS who probably weren't ready for defense. Another part of the problem was that our Reapers couldn't see through the chaos. Fixed that problem by playing our Reapers at 7 yards. Most frustrating was when we had 4 kids in position to make a TFL for -5 and the tailback juked, spun and stiff armed his way to a TD.
We struggled big time with BCR (Bootleg, Counter, Reverse). Dog would do his job while watching 3 dives before deciding he wanted to get in on a tackle. That was the exact moment the QB would fake and bootleg around our Dog. JJ's manual said to slowly trail the play as deep as the deepest back. I squashed that and told him to stop and do nothing on a run away. Worked 80% of the time, but when it didn't . . . That's why I maintain that Dogs/Spurs/force defenders are born and not made.
When in doot . . . glass and oot.
Live by the blitz....die by the blitz....so learn to die as little as possible.
This is not a 30 front. This is a clever 60 front that will confuse the jebezus out of the young blockers.
You cannot allow the "LB'r" to tap and then step back even one step. Death. They must be literally on the DLM's heels and go hard on any ball movement.
You cannot overload their minds with calls. Death. Mathematically 3 stacks will fill 6 gaps so let each individual "LB'r" in each individual stack decide which gap he wants to attack and insist they mix it up. The only override by you....have the OLB's take the outside gap if they are sweeping you. This puts more speed on the edge(s) but the better teams that sweep put better blockers on the edges. A very quick LB'r hitting a C gap should be good enough.
Draw it up. No matter what the blocking surface...your 3 stacks aligned 404 will independently fill 6 gaps as long as each stack fills the immediate gap to their left and right. Some LB'rs will want to two gap on you or bail out and scrape. Eventual death. They MUST trust the system. Selfish players are....death.
Make sure your DLM cover their man. If they align odd the stack fails. Its also best to have the DLM getting tapped go in the same direction of the tap and the "LB'r" go opposite. Then you can freely rotate Minimums on the DL. They only need to get good at one thing...go in the direction they just got tapped as fast and violently as they possibly can. Now they are absorbing blockers and creating mayhem and are a value to their Brothers. Size at these 3 positions is irrelevant. Get off with purpose is all that matters.
More snaps than not... one of your 6 in the stack is coming free. If you do not teach them to break down when that happens its....death. They will run right by the football. So...eyes up immediately and pump the breaks a tad if you do not get blocked. This is VERY hard to teach.
With the Smurfs running this D we have won some close games and lost some close games yielding ZERO total yards. How? 25 plays go for a negative 200 yards total while 5 plays go for a positive 200 yards total....scoring 3+ times.
Its the nature of this D.
You know, I'm thinking if we simply moved the stack over the TE on occasion, it might give me what I'm looking for... but as it sits I planned to have 4 calls. Base D, Slant right, Slant left, Wide, which has the OLB and DT cut outwards, essentially making a 62 style defense.
I fully expect many teams are going to be BAD at running inside. And when they do run inside, they line up in something like a power I, signaling it. I'm not even so worried about the counter.
Middle Stack cover A Gaps....Outside Stacks cover B and C Gaps....Dogs and Corners cover D Gaps....Reaper has the kill shot.
Make that happen and you have a solid D.
The philosophy with this D is that it is insanely aggressive. Vs the poor teams and the average teams...the Offense will give up. It will seem like they simply cannot get out of their own way. Vs the better teams...some plays will squirt thru and probably score. But its still complete and utter mayhem for any Offense to block this Defense.
Think about all of the very basic blocking rules to include block somebody. Full taps stresses every single one of them for the young mind because its a real task to dial in on who is blocking the "LB'r". Hence having each "LB'r" mix up his direction independently. The blocking surface becomes so uncomfortable they freeze. The only scheme this should fail against is wedge.
A good team should be able to wedge this D into submission. Fortunately most Smurf coaches are not familiar with a great wedge. They will forever and a day look for fast kid left....fast kid right.
I have run a ton of pure 335. Its sweep proof but susceptible to quick Dive plays. The opposite of what you might think. The Stack Attack on paper is no different.
Think about how coaches design their sweeps. If there is a handoff then you should win every battle. If its direct then you might have an issue if they have lead blockers. In that case then I would think about staking over a TE.
What is beautiful, lives forever.
Sounds like my off tackle and sweep concerns are pretty legitimate, which is strange because most youth teams try to run there. I assume that's why the dogs are supposed to be the best.
As far as MPP kids, we've got 18, so I'm sure we'll have trouble with that. I'm used to teams with twice that, so statistically speaking I'm going to feel like I have a team full of MPPs.
My plan is to have a period where they blitz through the line and then execute pursuit drills. I'll try to disguise where the ball is, boot or sweep type of stuff. We'll coach getting through to heel depth, stopping, and finding / chasing the ball. Then we'll do the same thing with the back 5, but they'll do run / pass reads / CBR.
I bet it will still be a problem, but if we address it from day one, they'll probably start to learn.
Off tackle, for sure. Sweep . . . depends on the back. Dog attacking the near/deep back sounds like a good plan until you have a back who will take 1 step upfield, then laterally without slowing down.
One thing that has always ALWAYS improved our 33 is the gang tackling concept. I stole a "2 whistle" concept from someone several years ago. When you are running any live tackling, blow the whistle when the ball is down, then loudly count down from 5. Any player who isn't touching the downed ball carrier or sprinting full speed to the ball does pushups.
THAT'S AN AMAZING DRILL holy frigging cow.
Good to hear this is pretty good against the sweep. I'm sort of planning to play my corners more like OLBs if they're double tight... I don't have any issues with losing to a team that wants to pass. I think they might connect a few times for a TD throughout the season, but I think more likely they're going to either drop it / get picked / get sacked / get stopped short.
You know, I'm thinking if we simply moved the stack over the TE on occasion, it might give me what I'm looking for...
Murphy's Law. If you leave a gap uncovered, the ball will find it.
I fully expect many teams are going to be BAD at running inside. And when they do run inside, they line up in something like a power I, signaling it. I'm not even so worried about the counter.
We either crushed inside runs, or they went to the house. Part of the problem was playing kids at NT and MS who probably weren't ready for defense. Another part of the problem was that our Reapers couldn't see through the chaos. Fixed that problem by playing our Reapers at 7 yards. Most frustrating was when we had 4 kids in position to make a TFL for -5 and the tailback juked, spun and stiff armed his way to a TD.
We struggled big time with BCR (Bootleg, Counter, Reverse). Dog would do his job while watching 3 dives before deciding he wanted to get in on a tackle. That was the exact moment the QB would fake and bootleg around our Dog. JJ's manual said to slowly trail the play as deep as the deepest back. I squashed that and told him to stop and do nothing on a run away. Worked 80% of the time, but when it didn't . . . That's why I maintain that Dogs/Spurs/force defenders are born and not made.
I'm sure they'll find the open hole. That being said, there are teams that don't run inside ever.
I've been watching last years film. It's been helpful to get back into coaching. What happens a ton is that teams have THE DUDE in one form or another. They run other plays, but it's really about stopping THE DUDE. Rarely is there a coach smart enough to utilize the dude to enable other players. Most of the time they pick a formation that has good leverage, and they hand it off to him. Then he makes something happen.
Force players require discipline over anything else. You can be a tiny tike who never makes a tackle, but if you take on blocks while maintaining outside leverage, you turn them up into your support, and you drive them deeper on sweeps, then you're the right guy for the job.
I’ve been a 5-3 stack guy for a few years, so I have some ideas, but I’m not a 3-3-5 expert. Obviously our Edge defender makes sweeping against us a little more difficult, so that’s not something I have a ton to add there, but here goes.
We are more of a slant team then a taps system. Something that I’ve noticed is a lot of my DL will be like trains on a track when they beat the OL. By this I mean if they slant left to the strong or wide side, they just keep drifting that way even if the play goes away from them. A good drill is to have them slant on bags or cones, then find the ball carrier which can just be a coach walking one direction or the other from 3-4 yards deep. Make sure the kids are breaking down behind the line and able to change direction. Our main calls are now Left or right, pinch which sends the DTs in B gap and out which sends them into C gap. We call a lot of Out against teams that are running off tackle and wider, but remember that may be different for you because that would probably send your stack backer inside, not where you need him. Stacking of the TE sounds like trouble. That would open a huge bubble.
I’ve used MPP type players along my DL, but I’ve put players at LB. I don’t prioritize MLB, in fact I think the outside stack backers are my best athletes and my stand up DE (DOGS, but a bit different) are my best big bodied football players-OT or DE types usually that, like Mahonz said, have to be disciplined.
I don't have any issues with losing to a team that wants to pass. I think they might connect a few times for a TD throughout the season, but I think more likely they're going to either drop it / get picked / get sacked / get stopped short.
So oddly enough, we were lights out vs the pass. On 60% of pass plays, a defender was the first to touch the ball. This is something that Mahonz and I never saw eye to eye on. For Kent and I, it flat friggin worked.
When in doot . . . glass and oot.
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