Gashing the Odd Stack with the Gap Scheme

by: Mike Kuchar
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It has become the most widely used defensive scheme in the country. Following the routes of its forefathers – Rich Rodriguez while at West Virginia and Joe Lee Dunn at Memphis – the odd stack defense has trickled down to most all levels of football and with good reason. Because of the three down linemen structure, coordinators could get their faster athletes on the field to match those spread offenses that have taken shape.

But there is a weakness and it’s a glaring one. Ask any odd stack disciple and he will tell you that there is a chink in the armor; it is located in the C gap, between the tackle and tight end in any offensive scheme. Sure, you may not be able to match speed with those outside LBs in that scheme or match wits with the coordinator dialing up blitzes each and every way. But often times you can match brawn with the players on the other side of the ball by simply taking it right to them.

Before getting into specifics, it’s best to identify the structure of the defense. By nature, the odd stack employs three down linemen, usually a head-up nose guard with two 4- technique defensive ends. The linebackers are set up in a series of ‘stacks’ with the middle linebacker directly behind the nose and the right and left linebackers hiding directly behind the defensive tackles for protection purposes.

Outside of them are two wide outside linebackers, usually safety types, playing the alley/perimeter on both sides. The back half of the defense focuses on two corners and a high safety (See Diagram 1). The base coverage is predicated on single safety principles, either cover zero or cover three, with the potential to match up man-for-man and play cover zero with nobody deep.

Diagram 1: Odd Stack vs. Double TE Set

Football is a numbers game. Looking at the structure of the defense, there are a potential of eight defenders occupying the tackle box, counting each ‘stack’ and the outside linebackers. But depending on the width of those outside linebackers, and ways in which offenses can get them to expand, the deficiency lies in that C Gap. As an offense, when playing an odd stack team, it is a major task to find ways to exploit that area of weakness. The weakness is those undersized outside linebackers that play the alley.

“All I know is that although the defense may be innovative in that you get some more speed on the ball, I wouldn’t want to be in that defense against a power run game,” said Bill Mountjoy. He is a retired Virginia high school coach who now does football consulting work all over the east coast. “Guys that run that defense don’t feel that it is the best thing against a two-back run game. Often times offenses will come out in a two tight end, one back set and run counter left and counter right against them. They’ll work to find a mismatch on one of those outside linebackers.”

Quite often those outside backers are safety types that would have trouble defending blocking schemes from a much bigger tight end. “Being a pro-style offense, we would always play our best player at the tight end position,” said Mountjoy, who coached NFL Pro-Bowler James Farrior at Matoaca High School in Chesterfield, VA. “We’ve got somebody who is probably 6-2, 215 lbs. and looks like a heavyweight wrestler taking on a much smaller outside linebacker. Sometimes, odd stack defenses will counter by moving those outside linebackers into 9-technques. But any way you cut it you’re still lining up a safety type on a burly tight end. Not many people will have 220-pound safeties playing those outside positions. We want to get our big guys on him.”

The Power Scheme

Sure, the power scheme may be the oldest scheme in football. But, if you’re routinely playing against an odd stack team you had better dust off the cobwebs of the playbook and start learning how to run it. After all, the Washington Redskins made a living off of it under coach Joe Gibbs – in both his tenures in the capitol. In fact, it was one of the only running plays that the Skins used in their 42-10 Super Bowl XXII victory over the Denver Broncos. Running back Timmy Smith finished with 204 yards and two scores to become the leading single game rusher in Super Bowl history. So, maybe the Broncos didn’t run an odd stack, but they could’ve run anything that day and it still wouldn’t have worked. Once you perfect a scheme, the defense doesn’t matter. After all, what’s better than to attack a flash-in-the-pants trendy defense than with an old-fashioned, hard-nosed bread and butter play that has been around since the days of Woody Hayes at Ohio State?

The premise of the power play is centered around an aggressive blocking scheme in which play side offensive linemen will execute double teams at the point of attack while a fullback and guard pull and kick out defenders to the front side. According to Memphis offensive coordinator Clay Helton, using a gap or zone blocking scheme instead of a man scheme against an odd stack team is more beneficial. He should know. He sees it in practice every day. “The first thing we do is stay away from man blocking schemes,” says Helton. “The top play against the eight man front or 3-3 defense is the power play. Central Florida did a tremendous job against us two years ago and they ran the power play right at us. So we have become more of a gap-technique team ourselves because we would rather have our linemen stepping into gaps. Those defenses are way too quick for us to match up man-for-man in space. We’ll be chasing those linebackers around all day.”

The first thing Mountjoy will make sure of is his offensive line width and depth. Because the odd-stack is a slanting front by nature, Mountjoy will have his offensive line as deep as possible, with the crowns of their helmets adjacent to the center’s belt buckle. “One thing that helps you pick up what they do up front is to have tight line splits (Mountjoy lines them up 18 inches apart) and be off the ball. It gives you more time to pick up a stunt and kill penetration. As you go out and block someone, you’re tight enough to stop any movement. Big splits cause big penetration, so cut the splits down. We’ll try to get hip-to-hip right away on the snap on our double teams so that they can’t penetrate.”

Instead, the use of the power play provides for a kick out block at the point of attack and guess who is getting kicked out? Usually it will be the responsibility of the fullback, but to add extra muscle, Mountjoy will implement an ‘H’ back, which is like an additional tight end, to provide more power (See Diagram 2). Not only does it add a better blocker to the point of attack, but by lining him up on the line of scrimmage, you are making the odd stack account for another gap. To the play side, the tight end and tackle will get a massive double team on that defensive tackle while working up to the middle linebacker. Who comes off the double team is predicated on the movement of the defensive tackle. If he pinches inside, the tackle will take him while the tight end climbs. If he loops out, the tackle comes off and tracks the MLB. The play side guard will block down on the nose guard, while the center chips the nose to make sure he’s not slanting and then works to the back side linebacker. Back side, the guard will pull and wrap around the tight end’s block for the first LB stacked behind the defensive tackle. The back side tackle will execute a ‘hinge block’ protecting the back side B gap, checking for a back side blitz. The ‘H’ back will step off the line of scrimmage and motion to the play side B gap by the time the ball is snapped. At the snap, he’ll execute a kick out block on the first man to show outside the stack on the tight end side, the outside most linebacker.

Diagram 2: Power vs. the Odd Stack

The Counter Play

When odd stack teams start to see the motion of the H back, according to Mountjoy, they can make one of two adjustments: bring another backer down onto the line of scrimmage and play a four man front or start to shift their three linebackers over with the motion. When teams choose the latter, Mountjoy will come back and run his second favorite off-tackle scheme – the counter (See Diagram 3). He’ll run the counter scheme back to where the H motion came from. “While the power is by far the lead play in our offense against the odd stack because the kick out blocker gets to the point of attack quicker than on the counter, there is the danger that the LBs will slide over towards the motion. When this happens the counter trey becomes our lead play,” said Mountjoy.

Diagram 3: Counter Trey vs. Odd Stack

A gap scheme similar to the power, the only difference on the play is that the ‘H’ and the back side guard have traded responsibilities. Now the back side guard will kick out the softer outside linebacker. The ‘H’ will lead up through the hole created by the double team with the tackle and tight end, looking for the first bad color he sees. Unlike most counter schemes, Mountjoy keeps his back side tackle home mainly because his H is a better blocker, adding to the point before about having bigger offensive linemen block smaller linebackers in space. The counter scheme relies on the running back’s deception. On the snap, the back will take an exaggerated jab step away from the direction of the play in order to get those quicker linebackers moving opposite. As a variant, and to hide certain run tendencies, Mountjoy will also line up with both the H and the Y off the line of scrimmage and run the counter or power in either direction (See Diagram 4). Pre-snap the offense will line up in what looks like a balanced, two tight end set with one back. In this situation, the linebackers don’t have a dead read on where the ball is flowing so they have to play them honest. Another reason for the success of this formation is you’re balancing the defense up and forcing them to play another run gap at the point of attack. This turns out to be extremely difficult for those hybrid safeties to play on the line of scrimmage.

Diagram 4: Counter Trey with H and Y off the LOS

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