They run a pistol double tight set with 2 wide receivers. Age 9 years olds. We run 33 stack.
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They motion every play. They either hand it to the motion guy on a jet sweep, or they motion past the QB and run power with the pistol. On the reverse they motion past the QB, and they have the QB run towards the motion, and they reverse it the other way to the WR. From what I see, they rarely run to the middle. Mostly it's sweep, reverse, and off tackle. They don't have "the dude" but they have a lot of decent running backs.
These guys don't seem to fumble snaps on the shotgun at all. When they pass they leaves most of their players in to block.
What I'm thinking about doing is taking the MLB and having him blitz outside the TE. We'll have him read the motion, and he'll blitz on front side.
I don't know the 33 stack well, but I ran an offense similar to this. I would slant the same direction as the motion. I would have one of the backside blitzers attacking the mesh point to try and blow up any QB counter or handoff to the pistol back as soon as he gets the ball. And I would blitz the backside CB (maybe backside dog would work better in this defense) coaching him exactly where to be to take away the reverse. I know I would run pop passes to the TE the same side I would blitz the CB from, so if you expect that I would keep a defender to jam him.
You'll probably get better answers from 33 stack coaches, but when I ran an offense like this those were some things that gave me trouble.
Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.
@dkturtle so you mostly had issues with blitzes from the back side?
Being a HC for the first time, I'm starting to see what my defensive identity is. I prefer to match numbers and play it straight. I rarely blitz. This week, I auto-blitzed my corners when his flanker vacated to go into jet motion. Troy picked up on this and subbed in a good receiver at short end and hit us on a back side go route for a TD. I don't regret that because I consider that a low percentage play. We did as well or better vs his running game than we ever had so . . . pick your poison. Give up the occasional long pass (which our film shows, we'd give up regardless) or suffer death by 1000 cuts in Wedge, Power, Sweep and Counter.
2 weeks ago, I was prepping for a team that would run outside most of the time. I threw in the 33 stack to try and get plays for 3 guys who deserve to play, but aren't the best in the world. They filled the 6 gaps wonderfully, but we were woefully out-manned on the outside. So I scrapped it. Point is, a defense designed to fill 3 interior gaps without fail may not be the best against at team who never runs in those gaps. If your stack players are fire breathing dragons, then it probably doesn't matter what you run.
For your situation, I wouldn't blitz the MLB. If they counter, you have 2 players in position to stop it and in the 33 stack, the Dog isn't necessarily getting the tackle if he is doing his job, which leaves the QB all by his lonesome.
Slanting your 2nd level to motion sounds like as good an idea as any.
When in doot . . . glass and oot.
Being a HC for the first time, I'm starting to see what my defensive identity is. I prefer to match numbers and play it straight. I rarely blitz. This week, I auto-blitzed my corners when his flanker vacated to go into jet motion. Troy picked up on this and subbed in a good receiver at short end and hit us on a back side go route for a TD. I don't regret that because I consider that a low percentage play. We did as well or better vs his running game than we ever had so . . . pick your poison. Give up the occasional long pass (which our film shows, we'd give up regardless) or suffer death by 1000 cuts in Wedge, Power, Sweep and Counter.
2 weeks ago, I was prepping for a team that would run outside most of the time. I threw in the 33 stack to try and get plays for 3 guys who deserve to play, but aren't the best in the world. They filled the 6 gaps wonderfully, but we were woefully out-manned on the outside. So I scrapped it. Point is, a defense designed to fill 3 interior gaps without fail may not be the best against at team who never runs in those gaps. If your stack players are fire breathing dragons, then it probably doesn't matter what you run.
For your situation, I wouldn't blitz the MLB. If they counter, you have 2 players in position to stop it and in the 33 stack, the Dog isn't necessarily getting the tackle if he is doing his job, which leaves the QB all by his lonesome.
Slanting your 2nd level to motion sounds like as good an idea as any.
What I've noticed is that getting cute with it tends to be the issue. We don't slant or shift well with the stack. Some how that's a level of confusion that is beyond our capacity. Maybe that's a coaching issue. Regardless, I find it easier to manipulate the falcon and the coverage. That's why I was thinking about blitzing the mlb. I didn't want him in the A gap. I want him in the D gap.
My first instinct would be to Blitz back side dog away from Motion. Then try running a read call for the MS. See if he can match the ball carrier. On the hash, Monster the MS to the wide side and blitz. We want to make the offense uncomfortable and take away their bread and butter plays. You are running an attack defense so attack the part of the field that the Enemy wants. Just my .02
I didn't want him in the A gap. I want him in the D gap.
This is a conversation I have with my defensive guy at least once a week. "Which D gap?" That's the problem. If he's aligned in the A gap, at least he's capable of getting to either D gap. If you put him in one and they run to the other . . . ???
When in doot . . . glass and oot.
He'd be vacating his usual spot in the A gap to blitz the D gap. He'd choose the D gap that is towards the motion side. So when X motions across, he'd go D gap to meet him. It looks like their big plays are sweep, power, and reverse. He'd be SOL on the reverse, but he would be in the mix against the power and sweep. His normal assignment might make him a contender on the reverse and the pass.
@coach-kyle It is slanting most of the defense to go the same direction as the motion that caused most of the issues. Its just a lot of pressure right at the point of attack. My answer is usually counters and reverses and the couple guys backside taking that away made things tough. Especially at 9u when the passing game isn't nearly as refined.
Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.
The other idea I had was to simply move the reaper with the motion. He’d read the WR that didn’t go in motion. If he goes out for a pass, he’d go deep towards the side of motion. If he goes on a reverse path, then change directions because it’s reverse, and if he blocks, then it’s run. This would also involve moving our CB to about 4 yards. They only run one pass that I know of. They motion a WR across. Then towards the strong side, they pass to either the motion guy in the flats or the WR on the deep ball. Looks like he has a choice, and it looks like he likes to throw it deep even if the flats is open. He can clear about 20 yards from where he’s standing. He’s not a scrambler. They leave 8 in the box to block. He typically gets the ball off in about 2 seconds.
Our Reaper is a mismatch for both their WRs. He got 2 picks last week. He’s tall an fast. Our corners are a mismatch in favor of the other team. They’ll be in the area, and they can clean up a tackle, but they won’t pick it, and I don’t trust them to swat at the ball or to make the tackle if the WR catches it clean. Only about 3 deep balls have been completed this year, and on every one of those our falcon chased them down and tackled them.
@soul-strife by MS you mean middle safety?
Middle Stacker
It's okay to cheat the Reaper. I just wouldn't move him all the way over. That would leave you open to a TE pop pass. And at that age, I'm sure the other team has that. Work your corners on alignment then cross-key the backfield on motion away. The back side blitz should cause some issues and help the Corner. You can always turn it off. I use colors for auto calls. Like white/black. If you have a solid nose you can also use pull your MS back to short side of the field and split the field with the Safety.
@gumby_in_co @soul-strife Scrap this whole thread. We got the #2 seed, not the #3 seed. We're playing a completely different team lol
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