Class Is In Session: The Zone Blitz

[pbmax]

Alright, it will be another busy offseason for the Rats, as we need to learn all about the 3-4 and the Zone Blitz. Three offseasons ago we conquered the Zone Blocking System (ZBS, ©2006 PackerRats). This offseason we will acquire just enough information to be dangerous about one version of our new defense and its Zone Blitz Package (ZBP, ©2009 PackerRats)

Today: why Zone Blitz doesn't mean exactly what John Madden has been telling you it means. After reading these articles, you should be able to answer:

1. Which coach is generally given credit for devising the zone blitz we know today?
2. What offense was the Zone Blitz designed to stop? (Hint: Buddy Ryan loved this offense :P )
3. Prior to the early 1990's, what was the most common coverage played behind a blitz?
4. What were the two most common versions of that coverage when blitzing?
5. What is the difference between an exchange/switch and a blitz?
6. Can you blitz by rushing four?
7. When is a 3-3 zone (6 defenders total) a conservative pass defense?
8. In the last article, there is a role for Al Harris mentioned. Can you identify it?

What Killed This Offense? (Answer is our topic) (http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-killed-run-and-shoot.html)

Football 101: The zone blitz (http://assets.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/davie/1430750.html)

Fire Zone Blitzes (http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2009/01/fire-zone-blitzes.html)

[Waldo]

There is no reason that Al couldn't play man. It actually increases the coverage odds for the other defenders and places whoever Al is covering into full time double coverage if a quick toss is not the play.

If a 3-3 Cloud Coverage is called with the CB opposite of Al the deep CB, and Al is in BnR, the underneath three don't necessarily need to cover all the way across, they can cheat away from Al as Al is likely covering the far zone occupant, and the cloud takes care the big play if they get a guy out there that the underneath guys can't get. If the blitz is successful in locking 1 extra protector in the backfield, that leaves 4 guys in pass patterns, 1 covered by Al in man, the other 3 covered by 6 zone defenders.

A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage.

The blindside is actually the best place for this. If the usual coverage would be 4-3 cloud, and instead 3-3 cloud with the blindside CB in man is called with a cheat toward 4-3 positions, Al man covers the initial occupant of that 4th zone. The likelihood that that specific zone is gone back to is quite low, the blindside shallow side of the field is rarely ever where the QB's outlets are to be found. If the shallow blidside zone is not used shortly after the snap, it is the zone on the field most likely to be vacant. If not, the likely occupant is a FB or RB, a matchup that isn't bad for the zone defender in the excessively large zone created by the cheat.

[Guiness]

wow - the Run and Shoot. Warren Moon running it in Houston, formerly of the Edmonton Eskimos is probably the biggest reason I started to watch the NFL.

edit: The Run and Shoot is the answer to #2

[KYPack]

There is no reason that Al couldn't play man. It actually increases the coverage odds for the other defenders and places whoever Al is covering into full time double coverage if a quick toss is not the play.

If a 3-3 Cloud Coverage is called with the CB opposite of Al the deep CB, and Al is in BnR, the underneath three don't necessarily need to cover all the way across, they can cheat away from Al as Al is likely covering the far zone occupant, and the cloud takes care the big play if they get a guy out there that the underneath guys can't get. If the blitz is successful in locking 1 extra protector in the backfield, that leaves 4 guys in pass patterns, 1 covered by Al in man, the other 3 covered by 6 zone defenders.

A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage.

The blindside is actually the best place for this. If the usual coverage would be 4-3 cloud, and instead 3-3 cloud with the blindside CB in man is called with a cheat toward 4-3 positions, Al man covers the initial occupant of that 4th zone. The likelihood that that specific zone is gone back to is quite low, the blindside shallow side of the field is rarely ever where the QB's outlets are to be found. If the shallow blidside zone is not used shortly after the snap, it is the zone on the field most likely to be vacant. If not, the likely occupant is a FB or RB, a matchup that isn't bad for the zone defender in the excessively large zone created by the cheat.

I don't know about that shit, Waldo.

The big thing some zone blitz DC's do is show a cb in press cover, then blitz him. There just isn't a lot of man cover in any zone blitz schemes.

Real minor point here, but if the 3 deep guys are safties or 2 safties and a corner, it's called Cloud. 2 corners and a S is Sky.

"A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage."

If you are singled up in any of these coverages, it's a big time weakness.

All your points about Harris playing man and the rest of the D scheming around that?

No way.

There is no percentage in doing it and your description of the scheme in nonsensenscial to me, anyway.

They run that 3-3 deep coverage when they send 5 in a fire zone. They play zone deep and zone shallow, the deep 3 in thirds, the underneath guys in several different covers. The whole idea is to cover snug and front as many recievers as you can. Hopefully, the blitz gets home and you've got a sack or a funky pass, etc.

You ain't got time to "Cheat away from Al" or whatever it is you are trying to get at.

[highlander]

There is no reason that Al couldn't play man. It actually increases the coverage odds for the other defenders and places whoever Al is covering into full time double coverage if a quick toss is not the play.

If a 3-3 Cloud Coverage is called with the CB opposite of Al the deep CB, and Al is in BnR, the underneath three don't necessarily need to cover all the way across, they can cheat away from Al as Al is likely covering the far zone occupant, and the cloud takes care the big play if they get a guy out there that the underneath guys can't get. If the blitz is successful in locking 1 extra protector in the backfield, that leaves 4 guys in pass patterns, 1 covered by Al in man, the other 3 covered by 6 zone defenders.

A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage.

The blindside is actually the best place for this. If the usual coverage would be 4-3 cloud, and instead 3-3 cloud with the blindside CB in man is called with a cheat toward 4-3 positions, Al man covers the initial occupant of that 4th zone. The likelihood that that specific zone is gone back to is quite low, the blindside shallow side of the field is rarely ever where the QB's outlets are to be found. If the shallow blidside zone is not used shortly after the snap, it is the zone on the field most likely to be vacant. If not, the likely occupant is a FB or RB, a matchup that isn't bad for the zone defender in the excessively large zone created by the cheat.


I dont post much on this site I have read your post and you know your stuff. I value your post far mor ethan many here. Good job and keep posting

[bobblehead]

You don't have to know "your stuff" to realize that Al Harris can be used in pretty much any scheme. Those who think otherwise are people who simply think if you don't intercept passes you are a bad CB.

When Al was the nickel back in Philly what defense did they run?? When Al came to Green Bay did we press every play?

Al Harris is an NFL corner. He is BEST at manning up at the line, but he is certainly capable of playing in the zone blitz.

[Guiness]

There is no reason that Al couldn't play man. It actually increases the coverage odds for the other defenders and places whoever Al is covering into full time double coverage if a quick toss is not the play.

If a 3-3 Cloud Coverage is called with the CB opposite of Al the deep CB, and Al is in BnR, the underneath three don't necessarily need to cover all the way across, they can cheat away from Al as Al is likely covering the far zone occupant, and the cloud takes care the big play if they get a guy out there that the underneath guys can't get. If the blitz is successful in locking 1 extra protector in the backfield, that leaves 4 guys in pass patterns, 1 covered by Al in man, the other 3 covered by 6 zone defenders.

A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage.

The blindside is actually the best place for this. If the usual coverage would be 4-3 cloud, and instead 3-3 cloud with the blindside CB in man is called with a cheat toward 4-3 positions, Al man covers the initial occupant of that 4th zone. The likelihood that that specific zone is gone back to is quite low, the blindside shallow side of the field is rarely ever where the QB's outlets are to be found. If the shallow blidside zone is not used shortly after the snap, it is the zone on the field most likely to be vacant. If not, the likely occupant is a FB or RB, a matchup that isn't bad for the zone defender in the excessively large zone created by the cheat.

I don't know about that shit, Waldo.

The big thing some zone blitz DC's do is show a cb in press cover, then blitz him. There just isn't a lot of man cover in any zone blitz schemes.

Real minor point here, but if the 3 deep guys are safties or 2 safties and a corner, it's called Cloud. 2 corners and a S is Sky.

"A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage."

If you are singled up in any of these coverages, it's a big time weakness.

All your points about Harris playing man and the rest of the D scheming around that?

No way.

There is no percentage in doing it and your description of the scheme in nonsensenscial to me, anyway.

They run that 3-3 deep coverage when they send 5 in a fire zone. They play zone deep and zone shallow, the deep 3 in thirds, the underneath guys in several different covers. The whole idea is to cover snug and front as many recievers as you can. Hopefully, the blitz gets home and you've got a sack or a funky pass, etc.

You ain't got time to "Cheat away from Al" or whatever it is you are trying to get at.

I think what Waldo is saying almost seems like a '10+1' scheme, where you'd use Al man on the WR on his side of the field - but with help deep from the 'cloud'. If this worked, it would make things better for the rest of the D, because they would have one less offensive weapon to worry about.


If you are singled up in any of these coverages, it's a big time weakness.
I've never noticed this sort of thing (of course, I was never looking for it) but it's interesting. If the CB singling up takes the WR out of the game (as Al can do) is it a weakness? Is it too difficult to cover the field with 10 zones, as opposed to 11 (cause Al doesn't have a zone to worry about)? Does Philly really run a hybrid system like this???


The question is what happens if his man runs through his zone. I didn't know Philly used this type of a scheme, and haven't seen enough of them to know how they react. Does he follow the receiver deep, or hand him off, and look for someone else coming into the zone? Waldo seems to be saying he stays in his zone, but that it's unlikely anything happens there...

This doesn't change the fact that the few times I've seen Al in a zone scheme, he seemed to be lost. His closing speed is not great, and that hurts him.

[KYPack]

There is no reason that Al couldn't play man. It actually increases the coverage odds for the other defenders and places whoever Al is covering into full time double coverage if a quick toss is not the play.

If a 3-3 Cloud Coverage is called with the CB opposite of Al the deep CB, and Al is in BnR, the underneath three don't necessarily need to cover all the way across, they can cheat away from Al as Al is likely covering the far zone occupant, and the cloud takes care the big play if they get a guy out there that the underneath guys can't get. If the blitz is successful in locking 1 extra protector in the backfield, that leaves 4 guys in pass patterns, 1 covered by Al in man, the other 3 covered by 6 zone defenders.

A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage.

The blindside is actually the best place for this. If the usual coverage would be 4-3 cloud, and instead 3-3 cloud with the blindside CB in man is called with a cheat toward 4-3 positions, Al man covers the initial occupant of that 4th zone. The likelihood that that specific zone is gone back to is quite low, the blindside shallow side of the field is rarely ever where the QB's outlets are to be found. If the shallow blidside zone is not used shortly after the snap, it is the zone on the field most likely to be vacant. If not, the likely occupant is a FB or RB, a matchup that isn't bad for the zone defender in the excessively large zone created by the cheat.

I don't know about that shit, Waldo.

The big thing some zone blitz DC's do is show a cb in press cover, then blitz him. There just isn't a lot of man cover in any zone blitz schemes.

Real minor point here, but if the 3 deep guys are safties or 2 safties and a corner, it's called Cloud. 2 corners and a S is Sky.

"A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage."

If you are singled up in any of these coverages, it's a big time weakness.

All your points about Harris playing man and the rest of the D scheming around that?

No way.

There is no percentage in doing it and your description of the scheme in nonsensenscial to me, anyway.

They run that 3-3 deep coverage when they send 5 in a fire zone. They play zone deep and zone shallow, the deep 3 in thirds, the underneath guys in several different covers. The whole idea is to cover snug and front as many recievers as you can. Hopefully, the blitz gets home and you've got a sack or a funky pass, etc.

You ain't got time to "Cheat away from Al" or whatever it is you are trying to get at.

I think what Waldo is saying almost seems like a '10+1' scheme, where you'd use Al man on the WR on his side of the field - but with help deep from the 'cloud'. If this worked, it would make things better for the rest of the D, because they would have one less offensive weapon to worry about.


If you are singled up in any of these coverages, it's a big time weakness.
I've never noticed this sort of thing (of course, I was never looking for it) but it's interesting. If the CB singling up takes the WR out of the game (as Al can do) is it a weakness? Is it too difficult to cover the field with 10 zones, as opposed to 11 (cause Al doesn't have a zone to worry about)? Does Philly really run a hybrid system like this???


The question is what happens if his man runs through his zone. I didn't know Philly used this type of a scheme, and haven't seen enough of them to know how they react. Does he follow the receiver deep, or hand him off, and look for someone else coming into the zone? Waldo seems to be saying he stays in his zone, but that it's unlikely anything happens there...

This doesn't change the fact that the few times I've seen Al in a zone scheme, he seemed to be lost. His closing speed is not great, and that hurts him.

Well, I see what ya mean Guiness.
But no, I think that idea is bogus
I totally disagree with the idea that you would alter the defense so one guy is a lone bone playing man to man, while the rest of the D cobbles some kind of Zone cover behind the blitz.

That said, in a fire zone, you are usually sending 5. That leaves 6 to cover the O receivers. Aggressive OC's may send out 4,5 receivers to counter the blitz. Obviously one or more receivers is singled up for the offense. The defense assigns coverage by matchup rules in some cases. The easy one to understand is the 3-3. Most of the underneath guys cover in their zone and release to their deep help. The deep guys in Sky or Cloud match-up with the receiver and run with him, no release.

A good bit of the time, the deep guys are 2 corners and a safety. the 2 corners roll from their shallow positions and play deep thirds. There ain't no place for Ol Al to "take one guy out of the offense" or be 10 + 1 or whatever.

Also, Philly blitzes and runs some zone blitz, but Johnson runs very little 3-4. He's a 4-3 guy

I like Al as a player, but this new system and his playing style ain't a good fit.

[pbmax]

OK, the answer to Question 1 is Bob Davie. Many of you, if you are like me, have no direct connection to Notre Dame except for ND72. I know Bob Davie because he was their D coordinator for Lou Holtz and then the HC himself. His tenure was not all that Notre Dame had hoped for. His public reputation is usually dominated by this failure.

But as a D coordinator for Texas A&M, Bob Davie was a defensive innovator, a real X and O guy. And he faced a real problem, very much like DCs faced in the last decade with the Spread Offense. This offense he faced, if talent levels were close to equal, seemed unstoppable. One observer said for 20 years no one had blitzed this offense successfully, despite always committing 4 receivers to pass routes and being unable to protect with more than 5 or 6.

[KYPack]

OK PB

#3 is man D. A tight man fronting the receivers.

That was LeBeau and Capers big innovation. They played zone behind therir blitz schemes, a radical new step at the time.

[Waldo]

There is no reason that Al couldn't play man. It actually increases the coverage odds for the other defenders and places whoever Al is covering into full time double coverage if a quick toss is not the play.

If a 3-3 Cloud Coverage is called with the CB opposite of Al the deep CB, and Al is in BnR, the underneath three don't necessarily need to cover all the way across, they can cheat away from Al as Al is likely covering the far zone occupant, and the cloud takes care the big play if they get a guy out there that the underneath guys can't get. If the blitz is successful in locking 1 extra protector in the backfield, that leaves 4 guys in pass patterns, 1 covered by Al in man, the other 3 covered by 6 zone defenders.

A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage.

The blindside is actually the best place for this. If the usual coverage would be 4-3 cloud, and instead 3-3 cloud with the blindside CB in man is called with a cheat toward 4-3 positions, Al man covers the initial occupant of that 4th zone. The likelihood that that specific zone is gone back to is quite low, the blindside shallow side of the field is rarely ever where the QB's outlets are to be found. If the shallow blidside zone is not used shortly after the snap, it is the zone on the field most likely to be vacant. If not, the likely occupant is a FB or RB, a matchup that isn't bad for the zone defender in the excessively large zone created by the cheat.

I don't know about that shit, Waldo.

The big thing some zone blitz DC's do is show a cb in press cover, then blitz him. There just isn't a lot of man cover in any zone blitz schemes.

Real minor point here, but if the 3 deep guys are safties or 2 safties and a corner, it's called Cloud. 2 corners and a S is Sky.

"A single man coverage guy is actually a vital part of Philly's zone blitz. It makes the odds better for everybody else and generally puts the best WR (or second best) of the opponents in near total double coverage, and not covered by lineman or LB's, as would occur in pure zone coverage."

If you are singled up in any of these coverages, it's a big time weakness.

All your points about Harris playing man and the rest of the D scheming around that?

No way.

There is no percentage in doing it and your description of the scheme in nonsensenscial to me, anyway.

They run that 3-3 deep coverage when they send 5 in a fire zone. They play zone deep and zone shallow, the deep 3 in thirds, the underneath guys in several different covers. The whole idea is to cover snug and front as many recievers as you can. Hopefully, the blitz gets home and you've got a sack or a funky pass, etc.

You ain't got time to "Cheat away from Al" or whatever it is you are trying to get at.

Here is an explanation/diagram of some of Philly's zone blitzes from elsewhere. Notice that Lito is almost always in man to man, Samuel is almost always in zone:
http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=238262

[KYPack]

Waldo.

That's great, that's fine, but we aren't gonna play Jim Johnson's scheme.

His is a 4-3 based defense.

We are going to Capers system. A 3-4 with fire zone concepts in their blitzing. When we do fire zone, many times both CB's roll back into the Cloud or Sky cover to be the back line in the 3-3 coverage. The other 5 boys are storming the QB. There is MUCH less press technique used by the corners in this system.

Al's man skills come into play when he will be singled up on receivers, but Al has as big an adjustment as any player on our D. Now he loses much of his ability to play press technique. they do play some of that in fire zone, mainly to set up the fire blitzes with the weak corner and the WOLB.

Don't show me examples with Lto Sheppard in 'em. that's not what we are talking about here. Bring up all the examples of Pittsburgh or Balt corners. That's a fire zone D. Philadelphia is a totally different animal.

[pbmax]

OK PB

#3 is man D. A tight man fronting the receivers.

That was LeBeau and Capers big innovation. They played zone behind therir blitz schemes, a radical new step at the time.
KYPack is right. Back in the day, a blitz meant you would see man coverage in the secondary. When the Run and Shoot would send four WRs into the pattern, it seemed to make sense to pressure the QB when he could only be blocked by 6 (OL + one RB). Davie got there first in college at A&M. He was DC from 89-93, but I can't tell you what year he employed this scheme. Capers, LeBeau and Cowher did it in Pittsburgh when they could not generate pressure in traditional ways early in 92.

But the Run and Shoot ran a rollout (or half rollout) with the RB blocking the non-playside outside rusher. If the defense blitzed, the RB would break off the block after a count of 1 and take a screen pass and run unmolested through the secondary in man to man, because they had counted him as a blocker and did not cover him. To keep RBs from scoring TDs on screens, defenses had to adjust by covering the RB. So one offensive player was occupying two defenders (blocking outside rusher and man covering him). This eliminated the numerical advantage the defense had (offense always has ten from which to block and the ballcarrier, defense has 11) and reduced the advantage of a blitz. The Run and Shoot could protect with six and reasonably expect the defense to rush with a maximum of 6, so no overload blitzes.

Davie ran a 3-4, and rushed both OLBs, so depending on alignment, he could have one bad matchup for the offense (RB on perhaps their best pass rusher) and an unblocked blitzer. He could then drop off combinations of D lineman or LBs into coverage, meaning he could always have at least six in coverage and as many as 8. The threat of pass rush from the interior players keep blockers inside, the OLB occupied the RB and then defenders dropped into zones. The five big blockers were often blocking air.

[Waldo]

You're the one that said I was full of crap when I said Philly's zone blitz scheme (which is nothing more than a 4-3 incarnation of what Pit runs) uses combo man/zone. Capers has called the combo coverage before when he had a good man to man corner, hell Sanders called it last year.

It is is a workable coverage that is used by teams in the league. There is absolutely no necessity to running pure man or pure zone coverage. Mixing the two types together makes the QB's reads that much more difficult.

You have to realize that Capers is NOT a rigid scheme guy. He is known as one of, if the best, defensive minds at adapting scheme to his players and designing scheme around what he's got. That is by far his greatest strength as a coordinator. He is also known to be good at gameplanning. His primary weakness is in-game adjustments, he is not good at adapting scheme on the fly during a game.

[pbmax]

Here is an explanation/diagram of some of Philly's zone blitzes from elsewhere. Notice that Lito is almost always in man to man, Samuel is almost always in zone:
http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=238262
That looks like a specialty defense, like what we played against TO and Dallas. The problem with that defense is that there are big holes in the zones as the safety might have to abandon his zone to double, the Mike has to play deep and short middle zone. Just like the Cowboys found all the other receivers against us, Welker (as the description maintained) killed the Eagles.

This looks like a defense of last resort, not an everyday scheme.

[Waldo]

Here is an explanation/diagram of some of Philly's zone blitzes from elsewhere. Notice that Lito is almost always in man to man, Samuel is almost always in zone:
http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=238262
That looks like a specialty defense, like what we played against TO and Dallas. The problem with that defense is that there are big holes in the zones as the safety might have to abandon his zone to double, the Mike has to play deep and short middle zone. Just like the Cowboys found all the other receivers against us, Welker (as the description maintained) killed the Eagles.

This looks like a defense of last resort, not an everyday scheme.

Is a particular zone blitz ever an everyday scheme? The whole point is a zone blitz is a gamble that sacrifices ideal coverage for extra pressure. If we wanted an ideal, sound base scheme to run every play, Vanilla Bob was our man.

[pbmax]

Here is an explanation/diagram of some of Philly's zone blitzes from elsewhere. Notice that Lito is almost always in man to man, Samuel is almost always in zone:
http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=238262
That looks like a specialty defense, like what we played against TO and Dallas. The problem with that defense is that there are big holes in the zones as the safety might have to abandon his zone to double, the Mike has to play deep and short middle zone. Just like the Cowboys found all the other receivers against us, Welker (as the description maintained) killed the Eagles.

This looks like a defense of last resort, not an everyday scheme.

Is a particular zone blitz ever an everyday scheme? The whole point is a zone blitz is a gamble that sacrifices ideal coverage for extra pressure. If we wanted an ideal, sound base scheme to run every play, Vanilla Bob was our man.
Actually, that is EXACTLY the idea behind a zone blitz. To play solid coverage while blitzing unexpectedly. This coverage takes the extra defender and commits him to a receiver without sending extra pressure. The advantage goes to the offense. The defense only gains if they cannot cover that one receiver and eliminating him will stop the offense. It didn't work against TO for us.

[Waldo]

Here is an explanation/diagram of some of Philly's zone blitzes from elsewhere. Notice that Lito is almost always in man to man, Samuel is almost always in zone:
http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=238262
That looks like a specialty defense, like what we played against TO and Dallas. The problem with that defense is that there are big holes in the zones as the safety might have to abandon his zone to double, the Mike has to play deep and short middle zone. Just like the Cowboys found all the other receivers against us, Welker (as the description maintained) killed the Eagles.

This looks like a defense of last resort, not an everyday scheme.

Is a particular zone blitz ever an everyday scheme? The whole point is a zone blitz is a gamble that sacrifices ideal coverage for extra pressure. If we wanted an ideal, sound base scheme to run every play, Vanilla Bob was our man.
Actually, that is EXACTLY the idea behind a zone blitz. To play solid coverage while blitzing unexpectedly. This coverage takes the extra defender and commits him to a receiver without sending extra pressure. The advantage goes to the offense. The defense only gains if they cannot cover that one receiver and eliminating him will stop the offense. It didn't work against TO for us.

It not sacrificing coverage is partially the idea behind zone blitzing. When you are blitzing CB's and S's and dropping lineman into coverage, you are sacrificing coverage. Even if the #'s are not sacrificed, nobody is confusing the coverage that an end or LB gives with the coverage of a S or CB.

The second time we played them ('08) we were effective at eliminating TO. A lot of their passing yards came from great throws to well covered receivers, a case where there isn't a whole lot that can be done about it. In '08 Dallas chiefly beat us by ramming the ball down our throat up the gut. Almost half of Romo's 260 yds came from two bombs along the sideline to a well covered Austin. A perfect throw and catch will beat perfect coverage most of the time. There is a reason they gave Tony a fat contract, when that kid is on his deep sideline accuracy is stellar.

[Guiness]

It not sacrificing coverage is partially the idea behind zone blitzing. When you are blitzing CB's and S's and dropping lineman into coverage, you are sacrificing coverage. Even if the #'s are not sacrificed, nobody is confusing the coverage that an end or LB gives with the coverage of a S or CB.

The second time we played them ('08) we were effective at eliminating TO. A lot of their passing yards came from great throws to well covered receivers, a case where there isn't a whole lot that can be done about it. In '08 Dallas chiefly beat us by ramming the ball down our throat up the gut. Almost half of Romo's 260 yds came from two bombs along the sideline to a well covered Austin. A perfect throw and catch will beat perfect coverage most of the time. There is a reason they gave Tony a fat contract, when that kid is on his deep sideline accuracy is stellar.

The coverage used against Dallas (against TO really) is a tale of two games...

In '07, he did whatever he wanted against us, and was probably the biggest factor in their win. IIRC they rushed for <100yds, and scored 37 points?

This year, we were effective against TO - but Barber beat us up, Felix Jones helped, and those ridiculous catches Austin made were back breaking. Actually, on second thought, this makes it hard to tell unless you were at the game - they were successfully running, maybe they didn't even look to TO? Since tele doesn't show the WR that the ball WASN'T thrown to, maybe they could've went to him.

[rbaloha1]

Here is an explanation/diagram of some of Philly's zone blitzes from elsewhere. Notice that Lito is almost always in man to man, Samuel is almost always in zone:
http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=238262
That looks like a specialty defense, like what we played against TO and Dallas. The problem with that defense is that there are big holes in the zones as the safety might have to abandon his zone to double, the Mike has to play deep and short middle zone. Just like the Cowboys found all the other receivers against us, Welker (as the description maintained) killed the Eagles.

This looks like a defense of last resort, not an everyday scheme.

Is a particular zone blitz ever an everyday scheme? The whole point is a zone blitz is a gamble that sacrifices ideal coverage for extra pressure. If we wanted an ideal, sound base scheme to run every play, Vanilla Bob was our man.

Agreed. The zone blitz is a critical component of any scheme. Pete Carroll and Nick Saban both use the zone blitzes from 4-3 alignments. Bob Sanders decided not to use.

IMO current personnel is not equipped to run zone blitzes as much as other teams. Free agency and the draft adds personnel to utilize the zone blitz effectively. IMO Capers slowly evolves the scheme to zone blitzing on a fairly regular basis.

[Guiness]

By the way, a delayed kudos to PBMax for starting a great thread, and digging up some reading that was really relevant.

I find myself with a few questions though

From the first article, 'What killed the R&S' it talks about dropping the linemen into coverage and blitzing OLB's, resulting in a free rusher. I think the idea is that by the time the OL realized the linemen weren't going to engage them, the OLB not covered by the RB was by the line, being chased by the OT, and the guards and center are blocking air?

What is a 'half rollout'? Sounds to me like a play where the QB takes a medium drop (say, 5 steps), starts to rollout, but stops and passes while still behind his line? Say, rolls out as far as his tackle, or maybe his TE if he's rolling to the strong side?

edit: ok, one more. What's the difference between a zone blitz and a fire zone? I always thought a fire zone was when you blitzed out of a zone coverage scheme. Is there another wrinkle?

[bobblehead]

This is an awesome thread and while I agree this defense won't play to Al's strenghts, he will adjust and be solid. I believe he is as good as anyone in the league in what we were doing before and deserved more probowls, but he will be a solid NFL corner in this scheme. Those calling for TWill to be the starter might get their wish, but you will still see plenty of Al Harris.

My biggest hope is that Al and Chuck attend the OTA's so neither will seem "lost" in this scheme.

[pbmax]

The Packer/Cowboy game reference was about the vulnerability of the coverage scheme, not simply the result. Jason Witten had 7 catches for 67 yards and in the first half, the Cowboys had 5 first downs by passing versus 6 by running. This game, other than over the top help for Woodson on Owens, might not have featured the coverage under discussion. It certainly did not have a zone blitz that I saw.

But it may illustrate why having one man in man to man coverage, while six others are in zone and four are rushing is vulnerable in the middle. The advantage goes to the offense if you do not bring unexpected pressure or overload. Your extra defender is tied to one man, you have committed help to that man as well, and you have extended your zones to makeup for the extra attention, which leaves the middle wide open. Used to combat teams with only an extraordinary WR like Owens, this may be a choice you must make. But this isn't the base defense you would choose. Al is going to have to play a reasonable amount of zone unless Capers chooses to do something else in the meantime. And he may very well do that. But I doubt its a one man man to man.

[Packnut]

If you look at what the man says, his D will be predicated on 2 basic principles of defense. Pressure and confusion which is something Sanders has no understanding of.

This does'nt mean you have to go blitz crazy. It's all about picking your spots, and confusing the QB about where the pressure is coming from. The more things you give to your opponent's QB to think about in his pre-snap read, the higher your chances are for success.

While I expect ANYTHING to be an improvement over vanilla Bob, it's going to take time to teach and get the right people for the scheme. Don't be surprised to see a few broken coverages next season.

This was a brilliant move by Teddy and McCarthy. It buys both of them time. That hour glass was running out but has now been "re-started'.

[pbmax]

From the first article, 'What killed the R&S' it talks about dropping the linemen into coverage and blitzing OLB's, resulting in a free rusher. I think the idea is that by the time the OL realized the linemen weren't going to engage them, the OLB not covered by the RB was by the line, being chased by the OT, and the guards and center are blocking air?

Exactly. Or, if they rushed four, one guard would block air. Normally, an O Line would make a call to slide protection to the extra guy, or call off man to man assignments and block an area, or block inside out. But if you do not know which of the five, six or seven you are facing are going to rush, then its a guessing game and the O Line is going to get it wrong enough to hurt. Some offenses, like McCarthy's would go with more blockers, but the Run and Shoot had six and that was it. Smart Football talks about pass protections here (http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2008/06/pass-protection-super-bowl-tom-brady.html) and he knows much more than I do.


What is a 'half rollout'? Sounds to me like a play where the QB takes a medium drop (say, 5 steps), starts to rollout, but stops and passes while still behind his line? Say, rolls out as far as his tackle, or maybe his TE if he's rolling to the strong side?

He actually takes the snap and rolls out immediately, usually. He stays behind the LOS as he would normally. A half rollout would be just past the tackle, a full rollout would plant the QB not quite midway on that half of the field. In the R&S, all the lineman head out and if their guy has not come with them, they turn back towards the pursuit and block. This is what gives the RB space and time to both block an edge rusher and be able to run a screen.


edit: ok, one more. What's the difference between a zone blitz and a fire zone? I always thought a fire zone was when you blitzed out of a zone coverage scheme. Is there another wrinkle?
I believe they are used almost interchangeably, but I would bet there are either subtle differences or they at least came from different sources. Both mean you are playing zone behind some kind of blitz, overload or stunt.

[Waldo]

If you look at what the man says, his D will be predicated on 2 basic principles of defense. Pressure and confusion which is something Sanders has no understanding of.

This does'nt mean you have to go blitz crazy. It's all about picking your spots, and confusing the QB about where the pressure is coming from. The more things you give to your opponent's QB to think about in his pre-snap read, the higher your chances are for success.

The thing that is so odd, it on the other side of the ball, McCarthy is a master of confusion. His offense breaks a lot of "rules" for what is normal. Using you slow guys as deep threats (Jones, Martin) is unusual, putting 2 FB's on the field is very unusual, using a WR to run block in the backfield is practically unheard of. Pretty much every play moves guys around, and when he has it going, he is making fairly major personnel substitutions on virtually every play. Plus the run/hot option that is built into virtually every run play, it has to be mentally draining to be a defender against his offense.

Whereas Vanilla Bob ran one of the least confusing defenses out there. Hopefully Capers can scheme on the defensive side of the ball as well as McCarthy can scheme on the offensive side.

[KYPack]

By the way, a delayed kudos to PBMax for starting a great thread, and digging up some reading that was really relevant.

I find myself with a few questions though

From the first article, 'What killed the R&S' it talks about dropping the linemen into coverage and blitzing OLB's, resulting in a free rusher. I think the idea is that by the time the OL realized the linemen weren't going to engage them, the OLB not covered by the RB was by the line, being chased by the OT, and the guards and center are blocking air?

What is a 'half rollout'? Sounds to me like a play where the QB takes a medium drop (say, 5 steps), starts to rollout, but stops and passes while still behind his line? Say, rolls out as far as his tackle, or maybe his TE if he's rolling to the strong side?

edit: ok, one more. What's the difference between a zone blitz and a fire zone? I always thought a fire zone was when you blitzed out of a zone coverage scheme. Is there another wrinkle?

Yeah, Kudos to PB fer shure.

I dig this thread, too.

Fire zones are one component of the zone blitz. Fire zone is the final iteration of the zone blitz. In fire zone, you overload the shit out of a side. The classic fire zone is you send 5 (that's blitz, you send 4, it's a pass rush) You blitz the weak corner and the weak backer. Plus you move everybody over a half gap and send 'em all. (Fire and storm are coach talk for blitzes) The whole defense moves like an amoeba to cover all the hot people the O sends out in hot routes. DE's and even Dt's take away the routes run by the TE, FB, etc. That's the LeBeau staple in this scheme. You don't run it much, but run it when you know it's gonna get home.

There is another fire zone blitz that I really like. In the Fire X you send both ILB's, but they cross, to screw up the blitz pick-up by the FB (or other rb if he's staying home). I think Nick and Hawk will shine when called on to do this storm

Most Fire zone blitzes have 3-3 cover behind the blitz. The weak safety will come down to cover the CB's zone and the cb will drop back in the cloud or sky coverage deep. That's why I went pretty nuts about the whole"Al Harris will still play press coverage and man-man D in this scheme" bullshit. No he won't. This D is very complicated and requires precision teamwork and recognition. Al will surely be singled up and have man coverage responsibility in this scheme. But the old "Al in press and taking on one guy all the time" days are deader than Kelsey's nuts.

The thing I like about the ZB scheme are the run fits. You don't need the front 4 having all the run responsibility. The front 7 gives lots of different run fits and attacks the shit out of the run. Denying all up and down the line and making tackles. i think we can make some better progress against the run than we did last season and that's why I like MM's move to go to this D.

PS Zone blitz was invented to stop the run and shoot?

I think that article was bullshit and still do.

[pbmax]

Yes, authorship is hard to prove KYP. That is why I would never make that assertion about a football idea. Its quite possible some of this kicked around elsewhere and no telling where Davie picked it up. Its also possible that it took more than a zone blitz to kill the Run and Shoot and after 20 years there were probably plenty of ideas around. But I think he makes a good fundamental case about why the R&S would be hard pressed to make hay against this concept. He also makes an excellent case that while the R&S as an NFL offense has gone by the wayside, many of the concepts live on, including certain types of routes and route combinations. Which may be one reason why the ZBP lives on.

Here's a little something for guiness on Fire Zones so we can see what we are talking about:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/paisans_2006/posting/firezone.png
from of Smart Football (http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2009/01/fire-zone-blitzes.html)

[Partial]

The thing that is so odd, it on the other side of the ball, McCarthy is a master of confusion. His offense breaks a lot of "rules" for what is normal. Using you slow guys as deep threats (Jones, Martin) is unusual, putting 2 FB's on the field is very unusual, using a WR to run block in the backfield is practically unheard of. Pretty much every play moves guys around, and when he has it going, he is making fairly major personnel substitutions on virtually every play. Plus the run/hot option that is built into virtually every run play, it has to be mentally draining to be a defender against his offense.

Whereas Vanilla Bob ran one of the least confusing defenses out there. Hopefully Capers can scheme on the defensive side of the ball as well as McCarthy can scheme on the offensive side.

Are you kidding? You might as well call him Vanilla Mike, because his play calling is piss poor more often than it's great. It is very vanilla, especially this year. It took a huge step in the wrong direction in predictability and big-play-over-the-middle-potential this year in favor of a more conservative offense.

[Waldo]

The thing that is so odd, it on the other side of the ball, McCarthy is a master of confusion. His offense breaks a lot of "rules" for what is normal. Using you slow guys as deep threats (Jones, Martin) is unusual, putting 2 FB's on the field is very unusual, using a WR to run block in the backfield is practically unheard of. Pretty much every play moves guys around, and when he has it going, he is making fairly major personnel substitutions on virtually every play. Plus the run/hot option that is built into virtually every run play, it has to be mentally draining to be a defender against his offense.

Whereas Vanilla Bob ran one of the least confusing defenses out there. Hopefully Capers can scheme on the defensive side of the ball as well as McCarthy can scheme on the offensive side.

Are you kidding? You might as well call him Vanilla Mike, because his play calling is piss poor more often than it's great. It is very vanilla, especially this year. It took a huge step in the wrong direction in predictability and big-play-over-the-middle-potential this year in favor of a more conservative offense.

LOL, let Major Brad and Bevell call the plays for a year, then say that MM is vanilla. He is so very unvanilla, if he is too vanilla for you, might as well stick to college ball as you aren't going to find satisfaction in the pros.

You do know that every play has big play potential, right? He doesn't call 5 yard outs, he calls 5 different routes short-long, with one or more WR options to adapt route to coverage, and Aaron chooses where to throw the ball. MM doesn't tell Aaron who to throw it to, just who is most likely to be open.

[KYPack]

Yes, authorship is hard to prove KYP. That is why I would never make that assertion about a football idea. Its quite possible some of this kicked around elsewhere and no telling where Davie picked it up. Its also possible that it took more than a zone blitz to kill the Run and Shoot and after 20 years there were probably plenty of ideas around. But I think he makes a good fundamental case about why the R&S would be hard pressed to make hay against this concept. He also makes an excellent case that while the R&S as an NFL offense has gone by the wayside, many of the concepts live on, including certain types of routes and route combinations. Which may be one reason why the ZBP lives on.



Davie didn't invent the zone blitz at the NFL level.

As you said, the "inventor" of pro scheme or wrinkle can be very difficult to pin down.

The zone blitz in the NFL is Dick LeBeau's creation. He came up with the concept of it in Cincinnati in the 80's when he was DC for Sam Wyche.

The finished version of it that is widely implemented in the league presently came about in Pittsburgh. It happened when DL shared his zone pass coverage concepts with Dom Capers and the two of 'em put together the zone blitz packages we all see now.

Davie is fulla shit if he wants to take credit for the zone blitz concept.

He needs to stay behind the mike. He's a great x & O guy, but no head coach at any level.

[Bossman641]

The thing that is so odd, it on the other side of the ball, McCarthy is a master of confusion. His offense breaks a lot of "rules" for what is normal. Using you slow guys as deep threats (Jones, Martin) is unusual, putting 2 FB's on the field is very unusual, using a WR to run block in the backfield is practically unheard of. Pretty much every play moves guys around, and when he has it going, he is making fairly major personnel substitutions on virtually every play. Plus the run/hot option that is built into virtually every run play, it has to be mentally draining to be a defender against his offense.

Whereas Vanilla Bob ran one of the least confusing defenses out there. Hopefully Capers can scheme on the defensive side of the ball as well as McCarthy can scheme on the offensive side.

Are you kidding? You might as well call him Vanilla Mike, because his play calling is piss poor more often than it's great. It is very vanilla, especially this year. It took a huge step in the wrong direction in predictability and big-play-over-the-middle-potential this year in favor of a more conservative offense.

LOL, let Major Brad and Bevell call the plays for a year, then say that MM is vanilla. He is so very unvanilla, if he is too vanilla for you, might as well stick to college ball as you aren't going to find satisfaction in the pros.

You do know that every play has big play potential, right? He doesn't call 5 yard outs, he calls 5 different routes short-long, with one or more WR options to adapt route to coverage, and Aaron chooses where to throw the ball. MM doesn't tell Aaron who to throw it to, just who is most likely to be open.

Yep. Sorry Partial, but I gotta agree with Waldo. The Packers must have used more formations and packages than any team in the league. There were stretches where I think MM sometimes got stubborn with his playcalling or was too slow to branch off a couple key plays. For example, I think MM took too long to add in PA plasses off of the inverted wishbone formation.

[Partial]

I agree he uses different packages, but what does that give you besides odd personnel groups that don't necessarily offer any advantages?

Rob Demovsky of the GBPG did a piece this year on how he accurately predicted the plays the Packers ran over 80% of the time just based on their personnel and package. That to me is pretty bad.

They don't mix it up enough. It's pretty obvious what they're up to before the snap imo.

[Waldo]

A team that is good at running the ball can walk up to the line and tell the opponents that they are running, and where they plan on running. They do anyway with lineman tells that defenses key on. They still can't cheat off coverage or Aaron is liable to give it a toss without telling anyone but winking at his WR, and Grant runs to daylight, not a set hole. It doesn't matter, running is attitude. He who want the other man to move out of the way more will win the battle. A well designed run occupies all but 1 box defender, or if catching the D in a poor substitution package (an MM specialty) occasionally runs are into an even box. Defenses align to formation, not whether they "think" that it is going to be a run or pass, that is dictated by the call to the formation based on the personnel substitution. MM does a lot of shifting between run and pass formations with motion.

I bet if I watched a Vikings game I could hit on 90%+ of the play calls, run or pass. Brad is a run, run, pass kinda guy, and rarely changes it, unless the WR's come out of the huddle with a spring in their step, then they are going PA deep. He calls like 5 plays.

[pbmax]

Davie didn't invent the zone blitz at the NFL level.

As you said, the "inventor" of pro scheme or wrinkle can be very difficult to pin down.

The zone blitz in the NFL is Dick LeBeau's creation. He came up with the concept of it in Cincinnati in the 80's when he was DC for Sam Wyche.

The finished version of it that is widely implemented in the league presently came about in Pittsburgh. It happened when DL shared his zone pass coverage concepts with Dom Capers and the two of 'em put together the zone blitz packages we all see now.

Davie is fulla shit if he wants to take credit for the zone blitz concept.

He needs to stay behind the mike. He's a great x & O guy, but no head coach at any level.
Agreed about the NFL version, Davie has never coached at this level, that I am aware of. LeBeau was D coordinator for Cincy from 84 to 91, so he did precede Davie's time as DC at A&M. So its entirely possible that LeBeau has this first.

The point of the Smart Football article was that Davie succeeded at A&M in stopping the Run and Shoot with the Zone Blitz, he may not have been as vigorous in assigning credit carefully. I yield the point to your information.

Later...Actually, I yield the entire point. Going back to the article itself, its entire point is that Davie did what no one else had done and that was succeed in slowing the Run & Shoot offense. He did not make the case that Davie invented it. Just that he applied it in this instance to great effect. My apology for the confusion.

[KYPack]

Davie didn't invent the zone blitz at the NFL level.

As you said, the "inventor" of pro scheme or wrinkle can be very difficult to pin down.

The zone blitz in the NFL is Dick LeBeau's creation. He came up with the concept of it in Cincinnati in the 80's when he was DC for Sam Wyche.

The finished version of it that is widely implemented in the league presently came about in Pittsburgh. It happened when DL shared his zone pass coverage concepts with Dom Capers and the two of 'em put together the zone blitz packages we all see now.

Davie is fulla shit if he wants to take credit for the zone blitz concept.

He needs to stay behind the mike. He's a great x & O guy, but no head coach at any level.
Agreed about the NFL version, Davie has never coached at this level, that I am aware of. LeBeau was D coordinator for Cincy from 84 to 91, so he did precede Davie's time as DC at A&M. So its entirely possible that LeBeau has this first.

The point of the Smart Football article was that Davie succeeded at A&M in stopping the Run and Shoot with the Zone Blitz, he may not have been as vigorous in assigning credit carefully. I yield the point to your information.

Later...Actually, I yield the entire point. Going back to the article itself, its entire point is that Davie did what no one else had done and that was succeed in slowing the Run & Shoot offense. He did not make the case that Davie invented it. Just that he applied it in this instance to great effect. My apology for the confusion.

Hey, you don't have to apologize, honey!

Any time someone is credited with being "the first" to implement a football innovation, there is always an old coach or indian chief who claims to have done the same thing years before. Many things have been done in ancient football times and then dusted off and revamped by a modern coach. That coach then becomes the "inverntor" of the scheme.

My favorite thing along those lines is the '46' defense. This was the famous D invented by Buddy Ryan and used by the '85 Bears to help dominate the league. Buddy was the sole inventor of this defense and it secured his place as a defensive genius, right?

Wrong.

That Bear defense was invented by Fritz Shurmur when he was head coach of the U of Wyoming Cowboys in the early 70's. It was a radical scheme that was really only known in the coaching underground. Ryan lifted it and added a slight wrinkle to form the Bear D. And never gave Fritz an ounce of credit for his invention.

Fritz? He didn't give a shit. He wrote 4 books on coaching defense & his rep as the top mind in defensive coaching didn't depend on other coaches giving him his just due.

Buddy? he was and is an asshole.

[Waldo]

By the way, a delayed kudos to PBMax for starting a great thread, and digging up some reading that was really relevant.

I find myself with a few questions though

From the first article, 'What killed the R&S' it talks about dropping the linemen into coverage and blitzing OLB's, resulting in a free rusher. I think the idea is that by the time the OL realized the linemen weren't going to engage them, the OLB not covered by the RB was by the line, being chased by the OT, and the guards and center are blocking air?

What is a 'half rollout'? Sounds to me like a play where the QB takes a medium drop (say, 5 steps), starts to rollout, but stops and passes while still behind his line? Say, rolls out as far as his tackle, or maybe his TE if he's rolling to the strong side?

edit: ok, one more. What's the difference between a zone blitz and a fire zone? I always thought a fire zone was when you blitzed out of a zone coverage scheme. Is there another wrinkle?

Yeah, Kudos to PB fer shure.

I dig this thread, too.

Fire zones are one component of the zone blitz. Fire zone is the final iteration of the zone blitz. In fire zone, you overload the shit out of a side. The classic fire zone is you send 5 (that's blitz, you send 4, it's a pass rush) You blitz the weak corner and the weak backer. Plus you move everybody over a half gap and send 'em all. (Fire and storm are coach talk for blitzes) The whole defense moves like an amoeba to cover all the hot people the O sends out in hot routes. DE's and even Dt's take away the routes run by the TE, FB, etc. That's the LeBeau staple in this scheme. You don't run it much, but run it when you know it's gonna get home.

There is another fire zone blitz that I really like. In the Fire X you send both ILB's, but they cross, to screw up the blitz pick-up by the FB (or other rb if he's staying home). I think Nick and Hawk will shine when called on to do this storm

Most Fire zone blitzes have 3-3 cover behind the blitz. The weak safety will come down to cover the CB's zone and the cb will drop back in the cloud or sky coverage deep. That's why I went pretty nuts about the whole"Al Harris will still play press coverage and man-man D in this scheme" bullshit. No he won't. This D is very complicated and requires precision teamwork and recognition. Al will surely be singled up and have man coverage responsibility in this scheme. But the old "Al in press and taking on one guy all the time" days are deader than Kelsey's nuts.

The thing I like about the ZB scheme are the run fits. You don't need the front 4 having all the run responsibility. The front 7 gives lots of different run fits and attacks the shit out of the run. Denying all up and down the line and making tackles. i think we can make some better progress against the run than we did last season and that's why I like MM's move to go to this D.

PS Zone blitz was invented to stop the run and shoot?

I think that article was bullshit and still do.

Yet the players that currently play in this scheme disagree with your little rant, Ike Taylor (Steerlers CB) had this to say:


The Steelers play mostly Cover 2 and Cover 3 zones, and when they blitz it's almost always with zone coverage. However, Taylor pointed out that in zone blitzes the two outside cover men actually are locked in man-to-man coverage.

Excluding third-and-long plays, Taylor also said he had the freedom to play bump-and-run within the scheme, and often did. That, said Taylor, should play to the strengths of Al Harris.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/38509364.html

[Guiness]

Here's a little something for guiness on Fire Zones so we can see what we are talking about:



Yes, I saw that when I read the article.

I'm still trying to get a clear picture of how it's a Fire Zone as opposed to a Zone blitz.

Is it a Fire Zone because the pressure is coming from unexpected sources (the MLB and safety) as opposed to the down linemen, trying to cause some confusion, as opposed to a standard overload blitz? In this example, they're only sending 5 guys, and there would be 5 or 6 blocking.

This defensive alignment play also seems like it would be susceptible to the screen described in the article. If the TE went out and blocked the SLB, and the FB realeased the S after a 1001 count, he should be alone in the flat.

[KYPack]

[
Yet the players that currently play in this scheme disagree with your little rant, Ike Taylor (Steerlers CB) had this to say:


The Steelers play mostly Cover 2 and Cover 3 zones, and when they blitz it's almost always with zone coverage. However, Taylor pointed out that in zone blitzes the two outside cover men actually are locked in man-to-man coverage.

Excluding third-and-long plays, Taylor also said he had the freedom to play bump-and-run within the scheme, and often did. That, said Taylor, should play to the strengths of Al Harris.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/38509364.html

When they zone blitz they play the corners in press. They probably do it in other situations, too. But the Pitt corners don't do it with the frequency that the Packers showed in previous seasons. Plus, both corners will have lots of additional responsibilities that they haven't had in the past. Al Harris won't have the same job he did in the Sanders regime.

Ike Taylor gets to play press, but in some blitzes, he has to roll back and provide deep cover in the 3-3.

I think the same schemes will be applied here, also.

Or I could be wrong.

That's happened in the past, too.

[KYPack]

[
Yet the players that currently play in this scheme disagree with your little rant, Ike Taylor (Steerlers CB) had this to say:


The Steelers play mostly Cover 2 and Cover 3 zones, and when they blitz it's almost always with zone coverage. However, Taylor pointed out that in zone blitzes the two outside cover men actually are locked in man-to-man coverage.

Excluding third-and-long plays, Taylor also said he had the freedom to play bump-and-run within the scheme, and often did. That, said Taylor, should play to the strengths of Al Harris.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/38509364.html

When they zone blitz they play the corners in press. They probably do it in other situations, too. But the Pitt corners don't do it with the frequency that the Packers showed in previous seasons. Plus, both corners will have lots of additional responsibilities that they haven't had in the past. Al Harris won't have the same job he did in the Sanders regime.

Ike Taylor gets to play press, but in some blitzes, he has to roll back and provide deep cover in the 3-3.

I think the same schemes will be applied here, also.

Or I could be wrong.

That's happened in the past, too.

After watching the game last nite to make sure, Ike Taylor's rant was a little strange. The cover that Pittsburgh uses the least is CB's in press cover playing man. The Steeler CB's play all over the place and their role changes a lot from down to down.

I really hope Al Harris plays CB for us next year. But if he does, his role will change radically.

The days of him in press, playing a man cover are gone in a blitz zone scheme. He will have to become a versatile player, altering his role from one cover to the other.