How does the Offense get past? I Learn Football - Defensive Formations

Comments · 121

• LO

  @louisrharmony · 3 weeks ago

  3-4 and 4-3 are both incredibly common, but with the current meta of the NFL lots of teams are using Nickel as their base defense

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• DE

  @Derek-el5iv · 3 weeks ago (edited)

  Something I think you might be getting confused: formations are about personnel, not the play called. The play you saw where the defense let the offense back in the game with a soft underneath is called variously: 4 Deep Zone, Cover 4, or Quarters. It's a play, evolved from a concept called a Prevent Defense, not a formation. The play is called that because you have four players divide the field into 4 deep zones, or quartering the deep field. You can run Cover 4 with any formation. You could have 4-3 Cover 4, for instance. There are other Prevent Defense plays as well. Formations are about getting your best people on the field for the right counter, and THEN you have to call the right play. You can even use trickery with formations, like a Dime formation blitz, where you send one or both safeties, is quite effective. The combinations of attack and defense in American football are always evolving in the continued chess match.

  17

• JW

  @jwc7215 · 3 weeks ago

  Mike(Middle), Sam(Strong), Will(Weak). Sam is usually your bigger, run stopper, and Will is your speed guy. Mike is the best overall.<br><br>I will say, Nickel is slowly becoming the new standard defense for most situations, because passing has become so prevalent.

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• RO

  @robertdedrick7937 · 3 weeks ago

  React to &quot;Football Play Calling Strategy (When to Call What) &quot; .<br>This will explain what teams are trying to accomplish by situations. <br>Easy to understand and will really progress your understanding of the game.

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• MR

  @mr.f4211 · 3 weeks ago

  Love it, dude. &nbsp;Keep it up!

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• BI

  @bigpoppaplump462 · 3 weeks ago

  Near the end, what he was saying was a defense will give up short yardage running plays in some situations. the clock does not stop unless you call a timeout, run out of bounds, or after an incomplete pass. Short yardage running plays eat up the clock, because they usually do not stop the clock, and give the offense much less time if it is trying to score quick points.

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• LO

  @loganhess5297 · 3 weeks ago (edited)

  So, there&apos;s plays, and there&apos;s formations, and these are different concepts that you need to keep seperate mentally.<br><br>The formation is where the specific players of various positions actually line up to start the play.<br><br>The play itself is what is run out of a formation.<br><br>A &quot;package&quot; determines what specific players the coach wants on the feild on a given play, with players being substituted in and out throughout the game.<br><br>Common plays - for example, talking about defensive play concepts - like cover 2, cover 3, cover 4, cover 1, Cover 0 blitz, and more, will be played out of multiple different formations, making things more confusing for the offense and harder to predict.<br><br>For example, a defense may be showing a basic 4-3 front at the line (4 lineman, and 3 linebackers behind them), 2 safeties and 2 corners, however they can run nearly any play out of that.<br><br>Out of that basic 4-3 defensive formation, they might call a cover 2 man concept - dropping the 2 safeties back to defend deep, letting their corners play man defense against the Recievers, while the tight ends cover the tight-ends and running backs.<br><br>Alternatively, out of that same 4-3 look, the defense might call a cover 0 blitz - sending every linebacker and lineman to attack the QB, only keeping back the corners and safeties to play man defense on the Recievers.<br><br>Alternatively, again out of that 4-3 &nbsp;front, they can call many other plays, each with different responsibilities for each player depending on what is called.<br><br>The formations themselves, the way they line up, can even have &quot;packages&quot; to further complicate things for the opponents - for example, calling a &quot;play&quot; out of a &quot;formation&quot; like &quot;spread&quot; (an offensive concept with multiple Recievers), but with a &quot;package&quot; that substitutes one of the recievers for a tight end.<br><br>The formation itself is designed to spread the defense out, but adding a Big-boddied tight end out wide (when they usually play closer to the line) makes things tricky - what do you cover that tight end on the outside with?<br><br>Usually you&apos;d use a linebacker to cover a tight end, but doing so drags your linebacker away from the middle of the field which might leave you vulnerable there.<br><br>Covering the tight-end that lined up out wide with a Cornerback could be tricky because tight-ends are usually much larger than corners, and will generally win a &quot;Jump-ball&quot; if the quarterback can put it high enough for the corner to not be able to jump for it.<br><br>Covering the tight end with a safety is tricky because safeties usually cover your defense deep, so that may leave you vulnerable there if the safety has to drop down to cover a tight end lined up out wide.<br><br>So, between the combination of &quot;Formations&quot;, &quot;Plays&quot;, and &quot;Packages&quot; of players, the game is quite the chess match with both sides constantly trying to confuse each other and be difficult to predict.<br><br>You can run the same &quot;play&quot; concept out of multiple different formations, and using different packages of players to make it difficult to predict.

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• JW

  @jwestphal1978 · 3 weeks ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExsUX9w8LUw&amp;t=605">10:05</a>, you got it brother! Every team uses words that mean something else. There is always a letter in the word that means something. Sam is strong, Mike is middle, Will is weak. Makes sense. The QB has to diagnose all of that at the line of scrimmage. If it&apos;s a running play, he has to make sure the gap the offense wants to run through is going to be open. If it&apos;s not it&apos;s a bad play and a loss of yardage, plus he&apos;s running his own running back into a brick wall! That&apos;s when they might change the play or make an adjustment.

• _M

  @_maza_2443 · 3 weeks ago (edited)

  You can think of Nickel as just a 4-3 where the weak-side linebacker is replaced with a cornerback/safety. More and more teams are using Nickel as their base defense and only situationally putting 7 in the box, as the majority of modern offensive formations are using 3 receivers. There are also other variations of these formations this video didn&apos;t mention, like the 3-3-5 or 1-5-5 Nickel, and the Quarter formation where you have a 3-1 with 7 defensive backs

• JW

  @jwestphal1978 · 3 weeks ago

  The Nickel defense was used by the Buffalo Bills as their primary defense for 9 years under Sean McDermott! I believe they were in this set about 85% of the time. Their slot corner back Taron Johnson was a very very good tackler, so he was a corner that played like a safety in the box, he was basically the first man to the ball carrier and he is a tiny man compared to most line backers and safeties. The Bills have moved on from McDermott this season and his defense. A few of the older players that had been with the team since McDermott arrived have left as well, including Johnson.

• MA

  @mattr8904 · 3 weeks ago

  CHEERS M8! &nbsp;👍

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• ME

  @MEParaductions · 3 weeks ago

  Nickle is definitely a more difficult formation to see, especially when you aren&apos;t very familiar with all of the players and what their positions are yet with our substitution system . With time you&apos;ll start to realize &quot;Hey, that 3rd LB is much smaller than the other 2 LB&apos;s&quot; lol and usually they won&apos;t start the play in &quot;The box&quot; which i think you saw in another video. Basically from tackle to tackle and RB&apos;s to LB&apos;s