That's what the purpose of football coaching 101 is designed for. So that when that announcer starts with his football jargon, he doesn't lose you. I know for a fact that as a coach I would love to help our fan base have a better understanding of refs calls, and a base knowledge of some things you will see on the field. So today we are going to look at alignments of the box, and what purpose it actually has. Again, if you already know this stuff; this isn't going to help you much. I hope that something at a later date will be shared on here that will help you.
FIGURE 1.
In figure #1 you see your standard defensive technique diagram. This particular way is very basic alignment teachings that you would probably get in pee-wee or even to the junior high level. These techniques give your players an idea based upon a simple number where we want them to line up at. If we tell a Defensive Tackle to line up in a 2 technique then obviously we want him lining up head up on a guard. The reasons for lining up in different techniques are based upon what defense you are running and/or the blocking scheme that the Offensive line is using. You can make the opposing coaches job more difficult if you change alignment verses the blocking scheme of their bread and butter plays. For instance, a great zone blocking teams uses 45 degree steps as their standard block steps when they run their zone. This isn't universal by any means, but a lot of coaches do use this technique. I am sure there are better ways to do it than mine, but if on film I catch a team using a certain run play in more than 35% of their running attack they are going to get a different alignment from my defense. A defense that uses the 45% step method you can really make it difficult on them when you stack a gaps and align your D line up with interior alignment.
In these two pictures you see the 49ers running a zone play here. Now these particular two pictures are of the zone read package. In the first picture you see the Ravens playing a nose at the 1 technique then end on the left (top) is in a 3 technique and so is the end on the right (top). The two rush backers or (Sam and Will) are playing 9 techniques to the outside of where the TE is or would be. This is a standard alignment for a 3-4 defense. If the nose was playing a 0 it would be tougher at the point of attack #75 would have to step down on his and the nose would be in the gap quicker. this makes it harder for the strong side guard to block across the face of the nose. It flattens out his zone step really making any A gap run tougher. See with that simple alignment shift you give you Strong Side Mike in a 3-4 a good chance to have a better run fit for play-side B gap. With the alignment of your end in a 3 if he slants to the play-side the steps opposite of the Tackles zone step taking the C gap with the Sam rushing contain to the pitch man. The Tackle has to step to protect the B or the strong-side mike easily blows the play up, and results are tackling the QB for a loss. This is created by the 3 technique end slanting to the C gap and the Sam holding the Alley. Also if you had a Cover 3 Sky call or you were in Cover 2 you have a DB in support. With simple alignment you take away the edge ability of the zone.
This is the example of steps of the zone game for the Oline. You see the tackle climbing to the Mike because of alignment and he is trying to seal the Mike giving two player free tracks for assignment football. As the play-side tackle has a 9 technique so he gets an uncovered call. This is why he is climbing to the second level.
This is another example of zone blocking scheme verses an Over front; and as you see the backside-end is in a 5. So he will often get zone read to seal the Mike and leave the 5 technique to get blocked by the read of the quarterback. In this case as you see the End's shoulders turning to pursue the play this would be a zone pull for the QB and because of alignment the Mike they are going to attempt to seal him, and you would probably have a nice gain here. However, I want you to look at the 2 Technique of Clemson he has exploded across the face of the play-side guard and he has blown this play up in the A gap. If the QB makes a bad read, and gives the ball, this play is going for a 4 yard loss. The alignment made it easy for the DT to get across the face of the guard. This forces the guard to flatten his out his path, and as you see with the arm stuck out he didn't get there. All he is trying to do to make up for his mistake is get a holding penalty because that 2 technique DT could potentially blow this play up.
Here is the approach to technique that I use in making my teams alignments.
I use the "I" method to call out an inside technique. It's always felt like the easiest way to teach it as there is only one zero technique. You see everything is the same with the exception of the 2,4 are now head up we use a "I" technique to shade the inside shoulder of the player we are attacking. Also its great because my defensive scheme is a 4-3 OVER, which we line up with shades to the strong-side at all times. Very rarely is a DT ever going to be head up on the over scheme unless we notice the guard is too slow to flatten out on his zone steps, then we will go to a 0 nose and make his chase. The usual adjustment with this is the double team of the NT which is great because now we free up our Mike and get one on one with one of our ends. That's exactly what we want.
Lastly, the technique calls are not just for Linemen, they also are used for Lbs as well. Let's look at an example of the 4-3 OVER scheme.
Strong Side: DE is in a 9 technique to leverage the outside shoulder of the TE.
DT is in a 3 technique on the outside shoulder of the G.
Sam Backer is in a 5 technique to fill cover the C gap.
Back Side: NT is in a 1 technique to jam the center and get a fit into A gap
DE is in a 4 on this graphic to play a two gap responsibility
Will is in a 7 technique as he is wider than the tackle and is responsible for the back side alley (some call it D). We play the will 2x2 or 2X1 depending on the offensive alignment.
Well I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial on the defensive alignment. If you have a question about anything you want to learn more about. Shoot me a message on www.hogville.net, my username is coach2212; or post any question you might have on here. Thanks again for reading and I hope its enjoyable for you to learn.
God Bless
