Zone Blitzing Out of the 4-3 Defense – Various combinations of zone blitzes and their disguises can be effective against any offense.

Zone blitzing has been around for a number of years. This scheme has evolved with the different offenses we see today. You may bring multiple backers, drop ends into coverage, play different coverages behind the blitz, and twist defensive linemen within the zone blitz, but the bottom line is that zone blitzing allows the defense to apply pressure in the run and pass game without having to play man coverage.

A major part of a successful zone blitz package is disguise. We spend a lot of time disguising our coverage. Our pre-snap look should be the same no matter what the call. Dummy counts can affect your disguise. Simulating dummy counts during practice is helpful in preparing for them. Our base alignment is shown in Diagram 1.

Diagam 1.

We play different coverage combos when zone blitzing, but I will be explaining our 3 Deep, 3 Under zone blitz scheme. When we zone blitz out of our 4-3 defense, we will rush our four defensive linemen and bring one of the three backers. This scheme allows us many different options on who to bring and how to bring them. You can bring five players a lot of different ways with base calls and tags. Behind the blitz is where our 3 Deep, 3 Under zone sets up. 

Our corners will align inside of the #1 receiver and are deep third players. They must be deeper than the deepest receiver. We tell them that they get one chance to work downhill and when they do to make it count.

The other deep third player in this scheme is the safety that is not spinning down to play underneath coverage. We refer to this as the “X Technique” (which is a reference to the X for kickoffs). The X player will crossover run ten yards to the middle of the field and then work a back pedal. He will keep his eyes on the QB at all times and read/react to his options with the ball.

Two of the underneath defenders will work from the hash out. In the run game, these players are force players. If they don’t make the tackle, the ball better go inside of them. If pass, they must protect their hash, then work to any curl, and work downhill to any flat/swing route. The first priority is to protect the seam because of the big play opportunity that exists. One of these outside and underneath defenders is usually a safety, and he must disguise his intentions. I would prefer that he be a little late off the snap to spin down than early.

The last underneath player is the low hole defender. Usually a LB, he will have heels at five yards. The low hole player will spill any block and make the ball go east-west in the run game. If pass, he will open to #3 and wall anything vertical. If there is no vertical threat, he will settle at 10-12 yards deep and communicate crossing routes and try to help on any dig.

Another priority in the zone blitz is making sure all eleven players know where they fit in the run game. When we game plan for an opponent, we will make sure we fit up all the blitzes we are using that week to determine if we are sound. We can also zone blitz many different personnel groups. With the amount of formations you can see, it is critical for the players to see where they fit and then practice it so they can feel good about zone blitzing in any situation. I would rather have fewer blitzes and make sure they fit up than running a lot and taking chances.

We have two different forms of zone blitzes in the 4-3 with the 3 Deep, 3 Under format. Straight gap and movement zone blitzes are the two categories. When we install zone blitzing in camp, we begin with straight gap blitzes. This essentially means that I will tag a backer to blitz their primary gap upon the snap and the defensive linemen will play their gap (Diagrams 2 and 3).

Diagram 2.

Diagram 3.

If we want the Mike to blitz, we will tag the coverage to let the safety that is spinning down to play the low hole (Diagram 4).

Diagram 4.

Different formations can cause issues for linebackers that are removed from the box. I mentioned before that we want to keep our disguise by keeping two safeties high and spinning into place upon the snap. An example of an issue we face is against a Pro Doubles formation. Our Will linebacker is removed from the box and is a B gap player (non-blitzer). It is hard to ask the Will to be a run/pass defender equally when he is responsible for the B gap. We solve this problem by teaching our Will backers that depending on down/distance they can send the DE into the B gap and essentially switch gaps (Diagram 5).

Diagram 5.

When the Will is tagged as the blitzer, we can do the same thing. Even though he has no pass responsibility, we still tell the Will that he can send the end inside if he has to travel a long way to blitz the B gap (Diagram 6).

Diagram 6.

Incorporating line stunts into your zone blitz is a great way to cause confusion for the offense and help remove backers in their gap dilemmas. There are a great number of defensive line stunts that you can incorporate. We use a variety of stunts to keep offenses’ guessing. End-tackle stunts, tackle-nose stunts, and stunts involving three and four defensive linemen can cause havoc for the offense. Just like the straight gap zone blitzes, the players must know where they fit in. Taking time to practice/walk-through these with your players will ensure that they understand their part of the zone blitz and who is responsible for what gap. A few examples are diagramed below. The first example is an E-T stunt with outside pressure (Diagram 7), and the second example is a T-N stunt with inside pressure (Diagram 8).

Diagram 7.

Diagram 8.

It is also important when designing zone blitzes to have a balance between when/how/where you are blitzing. Good offensive coordinators will dissect all of the blitzes they are going to see. They will look at what down/distances you blitz, field zones, strong or weak, blitzes versus certain formations, etc. Having a balanced plan of when to zone blitz out of the 4-3 defense can raise the effectiveness of the specific zone blitzes you call in the games. Hopefully, you can use the points I talked about above to give you a template on designing your own zone blitz package out of the 4-3 defense.