The Situation- WEB ONLY RESPONSES

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We asked our subscribers what they would do in the following situation. We had such a tremendous response that we were unable to print all of them inside the magazine. Here is the situation and the remainder of the responses:

You’re on defense near your goal line. While you’ve contained the run, your opponent now has a first down at your four-yard line. They are in a spread offense with a flanker on one side and a split end on the other. Your opponent decides to pitch to the tailback and sweep right end. How do you defend them from scoring? What defense do you use to stop their attack?

Name: Eric Firestone
Title: Linebackers Coach
School: Talladega High School

Strategy: We will line up in our goal line defense which is a 6-5. Corners will be man on the receivers. Our Linebackers will have containment on the outside and the safties will force the toss out to the sidelines.

Name: Jerry Stewart
School: St. Pius X Catholic High School


Response: Four down linemen that root hog under blockers and keep 5 offensive linemem off the two linebackers. SS is man to man on tight end. We are in a 6-2 look with two ends angled in and coming hard off the end of the line forcing the play. The corners are man to man on the wideouts on the outside of the receiver forcing them to inside and reading the run. The end that is forcing hard off the LOS will take out the fullback. The linebacker reading the backs, runs to outside with the tailback with no one to block him because the fullback is taken out by the force end and the 4 down linemen don't allow the offensive linemen off the LOS.. The corner can come up and help tackle the tailback outside in, when he reads run. You also have the backside linebacker running to help on any cutback. The FS is taken out of the game and a defensive lineman is substituted. This defense is my short yardage/goal line defense that I call my "job saver" defense. It has been very successful for over 35 years. I speak on it at clinics in the winter months. No one has ever successfully ran the toss sweep vs. this defense. We won 4 state championships in AAAAA football at Parkview High School and set a Georgia state record of 45-0 and this defense was the backbone to our success. We feel in these short yardage or goal line situations the defense has to 'ATTACK' the offense to be successful. We tell our players that our backs are against the wall and we have to make something happen!!!!!

Name: Rey Hernandez
Title: Defensive Coordinator
School: La Jolla High School, San Diego

Response: Besides the down and distance one has to consider several other factors that will dictate what the best call will be in this scenario. If the situation occurs at either the end of the second quarter or the end of the fourth with little time remaining on the clock and no timeouts left for the offense, I would run a straight 50 front, slant the line and play a goal line zone on top. This is a high percentage passing down where the offense would risk having the clock run out if they attempted a running play. The straight 50 front with quarters coverage across the top is a very strong perimeter run defense. The inside linebackers would be able to disregard inside run and play a flow read technique in the direction of the sweep. Both safeties and corners on either side of the field are immediate fill players who will fill as needed depending on how well the outside backers disrupt the point of attack once sweep action shows. You basically have more defenders on the peri meter than the offense has men to block. If the ball comes off the line and the defense gets a pass read the offense will be playing into the strength of the call. The corners will be able to play the fade knowing that the safeties are in a bracket look playing the inside break from the flanker or split end. The outside backers would take a flat drop no deeper than one yard off the line of scrimmage. This would keep the offense from placing the corners in a vertical stretch and allow them to play the fade without having to account for an underneath route in the flat. On pass the inside backers would disregard all play action and take a zone drop directly into the face of the first threat to their outside. They will however be conscious of quarterback draw. The only two "trick" passing plays that the secondary players have to keep in mind are a halfback pass or a transcontinental pass back to the quarterback. If the down and distance situation is such that the clock and timeouts are not an issue, I would put the down line in a gap-control 50 front with a weak side reduction and cancel the inside gaps. I would widen the outside linebackers and have them crash hard off the edge. Their responsibility would be to disrupt the blocking scheme on the offense's side of the line of scrimmage. The two inside backers would still play a flow read technique and flow over the top to the ball. The secondary would still give the offense a quarters bracket look but would be in man coverage as pass is still a distinct possibility. When sweep shows they would fill as needed. Rex: I hope my diagram made it with the e-mail. I'm not real sharp with e-mail attachments so I apologize if I didn't send anything or if I sent an entire folder.

Name: Sean Clifford
Title: Coach
School: W-H

Response: We play a 4-3 base in goal line situations or Must stop Situations. We roll our Sam to the LOS and Balance the Box with Will and SAm. We will pinch the A gap with N and fly Mike to B gap when we think Strong side Run or PLAY Action PAss to the wide side. K strong Corner is our best perimeter Athlete he will play their go to WR Jam inside/ force Fade and / play the the ball. VS. one back double wing -->Safeties are looking for and motion to change strength or show jet/rocket or buck sweep. If they see this they roll with motion. When motion happens MIKE attacks A gap and tackles FB trap. WILL attacks outside End if motion is to him or scrapes and becomes fold player if motion away. We SEND and tell him to HUNT QB on Motion AWAY if best athlete in BACKFIELD is QB.

Name: Dr. Jerome Learman
Title: Head Football Coach
School: Lake Michigan Catholic High School

Response: I am a little confused with the wording of the question because I think of a spread offense as having 3 wide receivers and a TE with one back or 4 wide receivers and one back. But I will attempt to answer what I think you are asking. Since you say Pitch, I am assuming the QB is under center and since you say sweep around the right end I will assume that the Flanker and Tight end are on the Right side. On the goal line I feel that you need to gamble and try to make a play. I will play man to man coverage and try bring fast pressure both up the middle and from outside. I want my defensive tackles in the A gap shooting, low, hard and fast trying to get to the QB, stop a QB sneak. They are also to disrupt action in the backfield. My outside linebackers will move on the LOS as wide outside the tackles and as wide as they need to be so they can blitz hard and as flat as the near back. The cornerback will man on the widest guy and the inverts will go man on number two. If we saw the team where we playing ran a lot of pick plays we would game plan a zone based on what we expect with just the 2 defenders for 2 receivers. The defensive end will 2 gap the offensive tackles and read the offensive tackle and react to his block. The Middle linebacker must key the ball and play sideline to sideline as he should be unblocked. The goal is to disrupt back field action, get a pass rush and get good containment from your outside LB who should be coming hard enough to be unblocked and meet the TB in the backfield.

Name: Richard Scott
Title: Head Coach
School: Lathrop Titans

Response: We would run our goal line which is a 6-2 base. We typically run a lot of games with our DLinemen and backers so we may choose to slant or run a twist or loop stunt to disrupt the blocking assignment of the lead blocker and the play side Olinemen. From several experiences similar to this, we have found that often the flanker or split end would crack back block our end(motion or not), so our corner on the play side must be coached to be aware of this and replace the End on contain. Our force corner limits outide movement forcing the runner to the pile inside and assists in the tackle. The play side DE usually strings the play out and helps with force and tackle if there is no crackback. Against the crackback, the DE can now play more aggresive, taking on crack back blocker and fighting inside to make the tackle. Our on side Backer takes his normal down hill attack path and tackle responsiblity. Backside LB ooks for counter and cutback responsibilities. Safety is responsible for flow and then attack once RB has the ball and commits. Many times superior personnel win this battle, but if we prepare and have an idea they might run this, we shorten the odds. We try to practice against these types of scenarios throughout the season.

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