Implementing the Saluki Zone Blitz Blitz Package

How Southern Illinois Brings Pressure Out of its Odd Front
by: Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer, American Football Monthly
© More from this issue

          
In our March issue this year, American Football Monthly presented an overview of the zone blitz scheme and its concepts. It’s a scheme that has been around for over thirty years originating with the innovative mind of Bud Carson, the notorious coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers “Steel Curtain” defense in the 1970’s. Though it has been tweaked into some more of the style we see today, the general concepts of the zone blitz remained constant.

In its simplest form, the zone blitz scheme is generally a five-man pressure package with three deep and three underneath defenders playing coverage. While the three deep defenders play thirds of the field, the underneath defenders consist of two curl/flat defenders that react off the number two receiver and a middle hook dropper who plays off the number three receiver. As discussed in the previous article (which can be read at AmericanFootballMonthly.com), the beauty of the zone blitz scheme relies in its creativity. It doesn’t matter what blitz you dial up, the coverage will always be the same: you will have two seam droppers, one hole dropper and one deep safety. Like a giant jigsaw puzzle, whom a coordinator chooses to send and where to send them is up to his discretion.

But so many zone blitz schemes, particularly the ones we diagrammed, were out of the four man front. Many teams have started to employ the same concepts into an odd, or three man front for a couple of reasons. With so many offenses spreading the field with three and four wide receivers, it becomes necessary to match personnel with some speed of your own – which is why coordinators have decided to move from a 4-3 scheme into a 3-4 or odd stack package. Bubba Schweigert, now heading the defense at Southern Illinois, was one of those coordinators. A 4-2-5 coach as the head coach at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Schweigert decided to convert to the odd front when he started seeing more three and four receiver sets, particularly with the teams in the new Missouri Valley Football Conference.

“Everybody now is running spread gun stuff,” says the twenty plus year coaching veteran. “We always felt the odd front was more effective because nobody was accustomed to seeing it. We can still go to a 4-2-5 in long yardage, but the odd front causes protection problems and provides for a better rush.”

Diagram 1: SIU Base 3-4

The base of Schweigert’s scheme is a base 3-4 (See Diagram 1). Up front, he plays with a zero technique nose and two five technique ends. His “stud” outside linebacker lines up in a seven technique (outside shade of the tight end) while his weak side outside linebacker or “Zeke” lines up on a ghost tight end alignment away from the strength. His two inside linebackers, Will and Sam, will align typically on the guards at 4.5 yards deep. He will show a pre-snap read of two deep safeties, the Rover and the Free, with two corners at six yards with their outside foot up to not tip any coverage.

According to Schweigert, for the most part, there are two main reasons why teams will utilize an odd front when designing a zone blitz: the influence of the head-up nose guard and the added personnel of a quicker, more agile linebacker. It is common practice for most offenses when using slide protection to slide the front to the shaded nose guard. In an even front, this player is easier to identify because he is declaring what side of the offense he is lining up on. They also will identify the Mike (or middle LB) to make sure he is accounted for by the five men up front.

However, when using an odd front, the nose guard lines up directly on the center. This also creates conflict with a center that has to snap the ball five yards in a shotgun formation – most typical in spread schemes – behind him every play. Not only do most teams have to find another way to set their protection, but they also need to find a way to handle that zero technique – which in most cases is the defense’s best player in an odd front and quite possibly a major reason as to why teams run that scheme. Another benefit of using the odd front is the addition of speed to the defense. In the typical zone blitz, the boundary defensive end is responsible for dropping into the flat when a pass develops. This is great clinic talk, especially for teams in the SEC like Florida and LSU, who have defensive ends that can run with backs out of the backfield. But, truth is, many teams are not blessed with that type of speed on the edge. Using an odd front eliminates that problem because now the flat player becomes the outside linebacker who is typically a much better athlete, and the down three will be constant in pressuring the QB.

“When we run zone pressures it’s always a numbers game,” said Schweigert. “We’ll have five guys rushing the QB with three underneath defenders and three deep defenders. We don’t drop our ends or our nose; those guys are always pass rushers – that’s what we recruit them to do.” Though it is called a zone blitz, Schweigert doesn’t have his underneath droppers spot drop in coverage like having guys match up on receivers. This is because it makes it harder for QB’s to flood zones and pick their spots with the ball through open windows. It’s also easier to teach. “What I like about it is if your pressures are effective and you’re getting to the QB, guys know who they can close on and rally to the ball. I like the general concept. Our underneath droppers match up man vs. the three inside receivers. For example, if I’m the two dropper on the weak side and the back swings to my side, he becomes the number three receiver so I’ll match up on him. Anytime we have vertical routes, which you will get a lot playing three deep, we feel all we have to do is re-route one guy to get him out of the safeties vision. We find out through film study who their best player is and that is the guy we will re-route. You have to learn how to handle those seam receivers because they will try to avoid the collision. Through game planning, teach your deep safety who the biggest threat is and he’ll cheat to that side.”

Like most other defensive coordinators, Schweigert’s zone blitz package is structured to attack three different things: formations, run/pass tendencies based on down and distance and pass protections. When first installing the zone blitz package, too many coaches make the assumption that these schemes are used mainly in passing circumstances. One of his favorite zone blitzes to run in early run downs is his “Bear Package” (See Diagram 2).

Diagram 2: ‘Bear’

This is known as the NCAA blitz, because basically every team in the country runs it – but it is still an effective run-stopping scheme. In this scheme, the nose rips across the center’s face and the boundary defensive end plays the C gap. The end to the field stunts into the A gap while the Sam LB comes tight off his hip into the B gap. The Stud and Zeke are two droppers to their respective sides while the Will is the middle hook dropper. The Rover will come hard off the strong side edge serving as the contain rusher. Although it could provide for a nice change up to your normal scheme, Schweigert warns that if you are going to incorporate a zone blitz scheme you must commit to it – which means practicing it against all different circumstances, including the run game.

“We do a lot of work on cans in walk-throughs like a lot of other programs to keep our guys healthy,” said Schweigert. “We will run these pressures during our inside run period or in a blitz period against our offense. You have to teach your players concepts so that they can see the entire picture. Once you teach the concept, your players will understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.” One of those concepts is attacking the weak side of a slide protection scheme, as he does in his “Dog Weak” scheme (See Diagram 3).

Diagram 3: ‘Dog Weak’

When teams utilize a slide protection scheme, they will often bring the running back to protect the blind side of the QB. In this situation the nose will run a “rac” or rip across the center’s face into the A gap while the Will LB comes screaming through the B gap. The end to the field side and the Zeke will come off the edge. Teaching the technique for both these players is essential. “We always tell the Will to come inside whoever is blocking in the B gap. It could be the guard or the back. If teams see that you are going to bring two off the edge pre-snap a lot of times they will check to some sort of big on big protection and have the tackle block the end with the back filling in the B gap,” said Schweigert. “So we try to disguise it as long as possible. What is key is that Will must come inside that block. We hope that the offensive tackle stays on the end. If that’s the case, then we’ll bring the Zeke inside the end to attack the outside shoulder of the back.” The coverage rotates to the field with the free safety buzzing down to play the seam while the Stud and Sam LB play the seam and the low hole to the weak side. The strong safety and the corners handle the deep thirds, giving the prototypical three deep, three under structure.

Diagram 4: ‘Rocket’

When Schweigert wants to attack the strong side of a formation he dials up his “Rocket” scheme (See Diagram 4) which is solid against the strong side run game as well as the pass. In this scheme, the front three will slant away from the blitz with the end executing a long stick stunting into the A gap and the nose working his “rac” stunt as he did previously into the offside A gap. The end away from the side of the pressure is responsible for contain. Now, Schweigert brings the Stud and Sam LB off the edge to the tight end side. For teams that run the back to protect to the side of the tight end, this is an extremely effective blitz. “The Stud comes right off the hip of the tight end while the Sam is the contain rusher to the blitz side,” says Schweigert. “The stud must come underneath all blocks including any in the run game. If a run develops to his side he must take on blocks with his inside shoulder, spilling anything out to the Sam.”

---

WHAT IF?

Q1. What if you’re facing a team that likes to run the ball out of two back or two tight end sets? Can a zone pressure scheme still be an effective play call, particularly out of an odd front?

Schweigert feels that the zone blitz can be an effective blitz out of any situation. The Saluki’s base coverage is a quarters scheme, which gets up to nine men in the box with the addition of the safeties. But the key is to work your zone blitz fits in the run game. You can’t expect kids to know how to execute where they fit in a run scheme if all you show them is pass. Schweigert incoporates his zone pressures in an inside run period, a team rush period, and in pass skell. “If you’re going to run the zone pressure package it’s something you must commit to in order to be successful at it.”

Q2. What if you get a lot of quick throws out of your blitz, a common weakness of the zone pressure? How do you adjust?

Schweigert admits that the quick game is a constant threat to any zone pressure package, so he will try to combat it in two ways. The first is by executing some type of twist up front by his defensive linemen with the intention of getting to the QB quickly. To him, a pressure is often as good as a sack. “When you run pressures you don’t always have to sack the QB to be productive. We just try to mess up the timing of those quick plays and the clock that is in the QB’s head.” A second contingency plan is to change the coverage of the zone pressure package by running some type of cover two scheme with squat corners who can effectively jam and re-route receivers.

Q3. What if teams start to pound the ball inside with running game? Will you ever get out of your odd front?

Schweigert still will utilize his 4-2-5 scheme by dropping the Stud linebacker on the line of scrimmage, but ironically, he will do it more in passing situations than against the run. “It’s more of a change-up defense for us now, but we feel that it’s very easy to balance the defense that way. Plus, I like having two inside LB’s constantly because of the different offenses we’ll see week to week.”

NEW BOOK!

Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach