Best Defense Vs. Offensive Set

Which Defense is best to run.

Offensive set.

Power I Backfield. Split to one side, w/ Flanker. Or Double tight with Wing.

Offensive Set.

Like Burton's Jet Spred. Split's On Ends, W/ Motion Toward Backfield.

Let's see what the defensive arm chair coaches come up with.
Power in your face football with the threat to throw vs. speed football with the ability to throw on the run.

[Seventy4]

With a power I backfield, the offense is basically saying, "we're going to line up and run over you." It works, it forces your strength- good, hard runners, large O-line with easy blocking assignments- to play against the defense weakness. The problem occurs when the defense does one simple thing, mess up blocks. Play a 4-4 stack with 3 d-backs, two corners play man and the safety keys run, then covers deep (if the qb has an arm, which actually if he did, they wouldn't be in this set.) What makes the 4-4 so spectacular in High School is you can run multiple blitz schemes at them, confusing their "easy" blocking assignments (which the offense can counter with zone blocking instead of man blocking). From a defensive standpoint, this formation gives you a lot of trouble, because most offenses that run it have a large O-line, the type that will just lean on you and make you exert the effort to stop it, the Offense generally doesn't stop itself. If you play 2 or 3 quarters of this type of ball, most defensive teams will get tired, and fold. The best thing to do it to force them out of it. Play defensive pressure on them, wherever that wingback goes, your hitters follow, stop them where they try to attack. You get this offense in to 2 or 3 Third down and 6 or 8 to go and they'll bring themselves out of it. Most of the passes from this formation are going to be play action. Most backers are taught to read fullback, then halfback. That fullback/wingback is going to be the PA guy, usually you have one of them who can catch real well. So you have your ILBs read the backs. The wingback is read by the ILB on that side. The OLB has the TE if he's on his side or the HB if he's playing weakside.

Against the Jet Spread, I wouldn't come out of a 3-4 defense. 9 out of 10 times this set is used when your speed is your strength, and the corners are your friends. If you make it to the corner on a typical 4-4 defense, you're getting good chunks of real estate. You take that 3-4 defense and spread your two outside backers out as wide as their most outside man. Also, make sure your OLB's turn their hips toward the football to fend off that crack block. I would take that extra man (you moved from a 4-4 to a 3-4 so you have one extra) and I make him a shadow. He lines up right behind the NT (normal LB depth) and as soon as one of the wings goes in motion, he follows that motion. You have made up for that extra man at the point of attack where they want to create the mismatch. This guy playing spy isn't going to be your typical MLB, he's going to have be much more nimble, much quicker, so you're looking for a kid who can play SS at the next level, someone who isn't afraid to hit, but small enough to still be quick. With this your defending the strong plays from this set, the dives, the sweeps, and the rollouts. Now, what can kill you in this set? Naked bootleg from a scrambling QB. You got all that motion going one way and that QB going the other way, all your guys on defense running one way, the QB running the other. The way you counter that, your weakside OLB has to be in contain, no one can get outside of him, if they do, you're in for a long night.

In both of these defenses your Corners are going to be on islands. One thing a lot of HS coaches miss is that they need coverage guys there, moreso than someone that will hit someone. Think about it. You have a HS quarterback, if someone is covered, he's either going to throw somewhere he shouldn't or he's going to eat it. A lot of HS coaches try their best to put players out there who will make plays, sometimes it's best to put the player out there who will prevent the play from happening in the first place.

I am sure there are some holes in this, so please point them out, just taking what football knowledge I took from playing and trying to make reason out of it.

So far, right on.
As a former offensive lineman.
And one who helps coach both offensive and defensive line, and knows how to break down film.
The same strategy, i would use to control the run, and have a fresh LB squad and CB and DB's who know what to look for.
To help on run support and pass.

Two important keys most overlook. I want to see what the rest have to say. But so far you and me are right on.

[imported_Sportsman]

I'm really surprised that more high school football coaches don't use the fullhouse backfield. It's very basic yet very deceptive, hard to defend if you ask me. You would think after seeing Appalachia and Gate City run it for 40 years, that others would realize the success of the offense.

[pvfan]

My biggest problem with running the ball down somebody throat is this, it's next to impossible to blow a team out thats worth anything. PV 01 and the GC Teams of 01 and 02 are prime examples of this, both were great but allowed teams to hang around and beat them in the end due to the inability to blow them out. If I was trying to figure out a way to play defense against PV or Norton and was anybody other than GC I'd play Prevent Defense until they got down to the 25 and then drop into normal defensive schemes such as a 3-4 or possibly a 4-2-5 (hard to run properly in single A ball though). Try to force both to play hard nose football, also eliminating the quick score.

[661]

im a big fan of the Pro set. Carson Newman runs it to perfection. it has all the qualities of a power running set and the backs are good targets out of the backfield. i like it as a high school offense.

one set that i can not stand is the Wing T. any set that has the qb facing 180 degrees from the LOS most of the time is bad for business. i doubt this offense will ever win another chapionship anywhere.

[firststrike]

a 4-4 stack that is a little league defence.no highschool team runs a 4-4 stack.

[imported_mega]

generally speaking, a cover 1 is pretty much the same thing as a 4-4. The safety becomes a linebacker.

[Seventy4]

Yeh, it's little league football, but so is a power I, it's back to the very basics of football. But with an experienced group of 4 interior people, you can wreak havoc on the offense.

The beauty of a 4-4 stack is the O-line doesn't know who they're blocking every play. If you shade your interior linemen to either side of the guard, you're telling that guard what gap that lineman is assigned. If you stay in a stack, he doesn't know until the lineman or the qb commits. It's also harder to get angles on someone who is lined up nose to nose with you.

[imported_Counts]

True but in the zone blocking age that is not as importanted since the OL is not blocking a Man but an area (Now how many HS Linemen can pull this off consistantly play in and play out is debatable)BTW I do like the stack and it usaly works VERY well vs teams with inexperance on the LOS plus it preatty simpel to teach which is a plus with limited time