Coach *Legion* Begins

Section: 

We have a little something different for you this Sunday. For one, we're actually posting on a Sunday, that right there would be enough for other articles to give this one a wedgie in the school yard. Sunday aside, this feature is different because it talks strategy, football strategy to be precise.

Let's join Coach *Legion* on the field and see what he has to say.

Welcome to the first edition of Chalk Talk, I am Coach *Legion*, and you're late.

Actually, you're early, but you're still getting fined anyway. So let's get down to business. I'm here to bring you the X's and O's of football - mostly within the context of our favorite football game, ESPN NFL 2K5. For this first column, we've got to establish some terminology that I'll use later on, so that you have some clue about what I'm saying to you. We'll also break down a run defense strategy seen in our leagues. Welcome to training camp, rookie.

I will assume that you have a basic knowledge of football positions. If you don't know an offensive tackle from a strong safety, head over to PlayFootball.com's Football Basics for a primer. Beyond that, you should know enough to actually be able to play the game of football. I won't be assuming hardcore knowledge, so don't worry.

WIDE RECEIVER DESIGNATIONS

You may have seen plays that refer to the "X" receiver, or "Z" receiver, and wonder WTF that is all about. Well, since I will refer to these designations, I will explain them first.

The "X" receiver is known as the split end. He lines up on the weakside (the opposite side from the tight end). The split end lines up on the line of scrimmage. The split end is usually the team's #2 wide receiver, although if the team's #1 receiver is a taller & more physical type, he might play the split end position.

The "Z" receiver is the flanker. This is usually the team's top receiver. He lines up on the strong side (same side as the tight end, opposite of the split end). Unlike the split end, the flanker lines up a yard behind the line of scrimmage. This gives him more room to move around a defensive back that may be playing him in tight bump&run coverage. (You may wonder, why doesn't the split end do that too? Well, the offensive team must have no fewer than 7 men on the line of scrimmage, and the outsidemost on-the-line player on each side must NOT be an offensive lineman. The split end is usually the leftmost player on the line, and the tight end or another receiver is usually the rightmost. If these players were to step off the line, then an offensive tackle would not be "covered" on the outside, and that will draw the penalty flag).

The "Y" receiver is less clear cut. In formations with only two wide receivers, the tight end might be designated the "Y" receiver (although ESPN NFL 2K5 disagrees with this verbage, opting instead to label the #1 tight end as "TE" at all times - see Figure 1). In 3 receiver sets, the "Y" receiver is the one on the inside - either nestled between the "X" and the linemen (like Figure 3), or between the "Z" and the linemen (like Figure 2).

In general, the "X" is always the leftmost receiver, and the "Z" is always the rightmost receiver. In certain formations, this rule will be broken - for example, "trips" formations put the "X" and "Z" receivers on the same side, usually to try and overload one side of the field. In four receiver sets, the 4th receiver might be labeled the "T" or "A" receiver, though some use "W" or "E" instead. ESPN NFL 2K5 appears to use "T" and "A" for the 4th and 5th receivers, depending on where they line up.

Sometimes, a running back will line up as a receiver. The "H" receiver is the halfback, while the "F" receiver is the fullback.

Mainly, I want you to understand the "X", "Y", and "Z" receivers.

HEY ROOKIE! No dozing off in our meetings. Extra laps for you during afternoon practice.

LINEBACKER DESIGNATIONS

The linebackers are the backbone of the defense, and each position at linebacker is special. Those linebacker positions are given funny names, and now you get to learn them!

The "W" or "WILL" linebacker is the Weakside outside linebacker. That means the side he lines up on is opposite of the side that the offense's tight end lines up on (I think we've established the concept of weakside and strongside by now, right?). The WILL linebacker is usually the smaller and faster of the outside linebackers, and if the defensive scheme calls for blitzing linebackers, this guy is the one called on the most for that.

The "S" or "SAM" linebacker is the Strongside outside linebacker. Yep, he lines up on the same side as the offense's tight end. He's usually bigger and slower, because offenses tend to run the ball to the strongside more often, and he has to deal with the tight end in those situations. He's also the guy that has to cover the tight end in man-coverage situations (unless the defense has Nickel or Dime personnel on the field).

The "M" or "MIKE" linebacker is the Middle linebacker. The MIKE linebacker is usually the most athletic of the linebackers. He may or may not be undersized (Zach Thomas is, Ray Lewis isn't), as the position places an emphasis on speed, smarts, and technique. The MIKE linebacker is often the leading tackler on a team. He's in on run plays to the left side, he's in on run plays to the right side, and he's in on zone coverage in the middle of the field.

Now, this all applies directly to a 4-3 style defense (seen in Figure 4). For a 3-4 defense (Figure 5), it's slightly different. The SAM and WILL 'backers are essentially the same, but the MIKE linebacker shares the middle of the field with another interior linebacker, the "MAC" linebacker. Some teams refer to this as the "BUCK" linebacker, but that doesn't have a meaningful first letter like the others do. Sometimes schemes even use "MAC" and "BUCK" instead of "MIKE" and "BUCK", and that just makes me an unhappy boy. So we're not going to use that verbage. In the 3-4, the "MAC" is the one closest to the weakside, and the "MIKE" (or "BUCK") is closest to the strongside.

If you ever get confused on which is which, remember: the first letter of the name is the clue.

LEVELS OF THE DEFENSE

Here's another simple concept. The defense can be thought of as broken up into 3 levels:

 

The light blue is the first level. These are your defensive linemen. Also, in this case, the cornerbacks are up to the line and are in the 1st level too. However, they may line up in the 2nd level, or even hovering somewhere between the two. Generally, we're not concerned about the cornerbacks when discussing the levels of the defense.

The 2nd level is in green. Here are your linebackers. Outside linebackers may sometimes move up to the 1st level of the defense (unlike corners, we take a keen interest when this is the case). Moving linebackers up to the 1st level is an aggressive move, usually done for pass rushing situations or aggressive run defense in short-yardage situations (where it's either stuff them for nothing or bust).

Finally, the 3rd level of defense is the home of the safeties. Sometimes, a cornerback may join them back there for an overt 3 Deep defense. Other times, a safety may move up to the 2nd level (often referred to as moving him into "the box"), or he might even come all the way up to the 1st level for a safety blitz.

After the snap, it is not uncommon for safeties to drop into the 2nd level in zone coverage, or corners and even linebackers to drop into the 3rd level for zone coverage. These are done to attempt to confuse the quarterback, by doing the opposite of what the initial defensive read might indicate.

Anyway, those are the "levels" of the defense.

SPREADING THE 3-4 DEFENSE

You may remember a recent thread about NeoCell's struggling running defense. He mistakingly said he was running a 3-4, and corrected himself when it was pointed out, stating something along the lines of the teams he usually plays run the 3-4. Initially, I just accepted the comment and move on. Later, it struck me: the defensive shifts Neo made in our game make a LOT more sense in a 3-4 alignment.

Let's break it down! The biggest problem his run D had was trying to defend the interior running game and the strongside tosses at the same time. The tosses were always dangerous, and so he took to spreading out his linebackers to try and get some defensive traffic to the outsides. However, the flip side was difficulty defending the interior run. Let's take a look at how this strategy plays out in a 4-3 defense vs. a 3-4 defense.

Here's the standard first two levels of the base 4-3 and 3-4 defensive alignments:

And here are the same defensive fronts after spreading the linebackers out. In both alignments, the outside linebackers creep up to the line of scrimmage, and in the case of the 3-4, the interior linebackers line up a couple steps wide of their normal positions.

 

Here's a dive play against the spread-out 4-3 front:

 

With only one player (the Mike linebacker) in the second level of the defense, the running back has essentially one man between him and the safeties. If one of the offensive lineman comes off of their initial block and engages this linebacker, then the back has clear sailing until the safeties (and if he beats them, or they're out of position, there's nothing but FieldTurf between the back and the endzone).

Looking at this same play against the 3-4, we get a bit of a different picture:

 

Here. the left defensive end (from the defense's perspective - he's the one on the right from the offense's view) is camped out right in the running lane, and will most likely draw a double team to remove him from there. A good DE will plunge into that gap and prevent the guard from coming free and into the 2nd level of the defense. The tight end engages the outside linebacker. Now, when the running back hits the hole, there are two linebackers in the 2nd level of the field. The leftmost (from the diagram's view - the Mac) interior linebacker is able to read the play and move to the play side freely, because he's far enough off the line of scrimmage to not have any traffic to move through. What's more, the rightmost interior linebacker (Mike 'backer) is sitting right in the middle of the running lane, instead of off to the side like the Mike linebacker in the 4-3. The 3-4 Mike is able to attack the hole directly, with the Mac 'backer flowing in behind him. 2 linebackers in a position to make the play are a world better than one. One makes the initial hit, and one makes the clean-up hit.

That said, the 3-4 is still more vulnerable to the interior run than the 4-3, especially if you don't have defensive ends like those of the Patriots. However, the point here is that the 3-4 does not badly expose itself further to the interior run if the linebackers are spread out. In fact, it sits an interior linebacker right in the interior running lanes, and it's always much easier to keep a player out of a lane than it is to remove him from one that he's already in.

Of course, in the case of my game with Neo, it was also a matter of smallish, finesse defensive players getting run over by smashmouth offensive linemen and running backs. The Indy D is really not made to play smashmouth football. It's made to win shootout passing track meets, particularly on a fast surface like turf. (I haven't seen a lot of evidence that ESPN NFL 2K5 models astroturf as a "fast" surface, though.) It's really a picture perfect example of how/why New England beat Indianapolis in this year's AFC Championship Game. New England only attempted 27 passes, and ran the ball 39 times for 210 yards. The Indy defense, in real life or virtual, struggles to match up against a team built for pounding the ground. In 2004, the Colts only lost to New England (twice), Jacksonville, and Kansas City - all teams with brute offensive lines and power running games. (They also lost to Denver in Week 17, but that was a meaningless bench-all-starters game). Likewise, Neo's losses have been to the same 3 teams - New England, Kansas City, and Jacksonville - and a 4th power running team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Very unfortunate for him to get so many power running teams in the early part of his schedule, but I expect greater success in the future.

That's it for today's session, rookies. This afternoon's practice will be in shorts - no pads. Next meeting, we'll break down some schemes that everyone can make use of. Just be sure not to be "late".

- *Legion*

Comments

This rules. Great work!

About time somebody starting writing a free, good 'Football For Dummies.' Lord knows I need it, too. Knowing this kind of stuff makes the game much more enjoyable to watch, as well.

I personally like the colored lines that designate what he is talking about. Just like John Madden!!

Good job bud... I know football rather well but this is a very good article about the basics.

PAR

Thanks for the info. Given that I currently play as Indy in the other league, this all seems particularly relevant to me.

Nice job Coach. I played football in highschool and college; that's a better job than some of my coaches did explaining this stuff.
Although, the 3-4 may not be more vulnerable to an inside run if a talented Mike back like me was in the mix Mmmmm...running back over the middle, one of my favorite snacks.

squirrelmonkey wrote:

Although, the 3-4 may not be more vulnerable to an inside run if a talented Mike back like me was in the mix Mmmmm...running back over the middle, one of my favorite snacks.

LOL. Well, imagine if your nose tackle and DEs had problems drawing double-teams, and let those guards get off the line and all up in *your* face! Would make munching on running backs a bit harder.

No problems in high school. Much bigger problem in college. Hell, sometimes the CENTER got upfield on us. Not even a single-team on him. Then again, we sucked, hard.

Where'd you play college ball? D-I, D-II? D-III? Hell I wish I was at a D-III school sometimes - I'd go out for the team if that was the case!

Great article, thanks!

*Legion* wrote:

Where'd you play college ball? D-I, D-II? D-III? Hell I wish I was at a D-III school sometimes - I'd go out for the team if that was the case!

Ivy league, D-II, Cornell. Must...crush....Harvard. They had a helluva center.
You should try out anyway, you never know. I was a walk on.

I should mention that I am old and fat now but it was a lot of fun.

No one came to the games and no one wanted to play anyway. Cornell's all about hockey.

squirrelmonkey wrote:

You should try out anyway, you never know. I was a walk on.

I'm at Fresno State. While being at a school with a Top 25 D-I football team is fun to watch, I don't think walking on will happen anytime soon.

Yeah, I guess you're right. Damn fun to watch though, right! You can always transfer to a school with a crappy football team:). You could try out at San Jose State.