AFM RSS Feed Follow Us on Twitter       
AMERICAN FOOTBALL MONTHLY THE #1 RESOURCE FOR FOOTBALL COACHES
ABOUT |  CONTACT |  ADVERTISE |  HELP  



   User Name    Password 
      Password Help





Article Categories


AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Attacking the Blitz Defense

Minnesota-Duluth teaches delicate decision-making skills to handle the blitz
Head Football Coach, University of Minnesota-Duluth
© More from this issue

Click for Printer Friendly Version          

Related Videos
American Football Monthly now offers a full line of coaching videos. So, if you enjoyed this clinic article, here are a few videos that you may find interesting:
FV-00419 Pass Protection Fundamentals & Blitz/Stunt Pickup (Young)
FV-01306 Inside Zone Offense (4 Tapes)
FV-00233 Quarterback Fundamentals (Richt)

To find these videos and many others, view our online catalog at www.AFMVideos.com.
In my 20 years as a collegiate coach, I have appreciated the willingness of coaches from around the country to share their ideas with others in the profession. I have learned things from coaches in all levels of football, and most of what I am presenting comes from coaches who I have met along the way. The success that I have had in coaching football is a direct reflection on the people that I have worked with and the many other coaches who have helped me.

As a head coach over the past 12 years, I have maintained the roll of offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. I have had the opportunity to coach several extremely talented quarterbacks who have been very productive football players and good leaders in our offense. I believe that one of the keys to our overall offensive effectiveness has been our quarterback’s ability to keep us on schedule and avoid long yardage situations through reading and recognizing blitz. Like most offenses, our scheme has been developed to attack base defensive fronts and zone coverage. If we are being blitzed, we want to be able to recognize blitz and use those elements of our offense that we feel have a higher likelihood of being successful. This ability of our quarterback to read and recognize blitz is something we feel is critical to our offense’s moving the football with consistency.

Even with today’s sophisticated scouting, I still feel that a certain amount of offensive play calling resolves around trying to outguess the defensive coordinator. It is always discouraging to run a play and find out the reason that the play was unsuccessful was that the defense had blitzed. I feel that we need to have a better answer than “they blitzed” and have worked to find a way to avoid wasting plays against blitz defenses. We attempt to avoid these situations by teaching our quarterbacks to read coverage with a specific emphasis on recognizing the difference between man-to-man and zone coverage. In our system we assume that most man-to-man coverage looks represent some type of attacking or blitzing defensive scheme that may require us to change the play. Zone blitz schemes have complicated these reads in recent years, but we still feel our approach is very effective in eliminating many poor offensive calls.

In this article, I will discuss how we teach our quarterback reads and how we attempt to develop our quarterback’s decision-making skills in handling blitz. We teach the majority of our quarterback reads on a pre-snap basis. We feel by reading a combination of the defensive backfield alignment and the defensive front, we can identify blitz with a high degree of effectiveness. The use of multiple formations in our offensive system simplifies our pre-snap reads as it causes defenses more difficulty in disguising their blitz schemes.

We teach the quarterback three different pre-snap reads, with the first being the cornerback’s alignment. We are looking at three different elements of his alignment.

Cornerback Alignment

• Cushion (Proximity to the line of scrimmage)
- Loose alignment (over 5 yards off ball) or Press alignment

• Leverage Position on Wide Receiver
- Inside or outside leverage position on wide receiver

• Point of Focus
- Eyes looking at the WR, into the backfield or at QB

Diagram 1.
The combination of these elements will be strong indicators of the coverage being played by the corner (i.e. press, inside leverage, eyes on WR probably mean man-to-man coverage while loose alignment, outside leverage, eyes into backfield probably mean zone (Diagram 1). Remember, we assume man-to-man coverage will normally present a blitz alert situation.

Reading the Triangle

Diagram 2A.

Diagram 2B.

The second and most consistent pre-snap way we teach reading coverage is by what we call “reading the Triangle.” This entails looking at the imaginary triangle formed by the alignment of the cornerback, the safety inside of him and the first linebacker inside of the corner’s alignment. The shape of the imaginary triangle that is formed by these three players will help us to determine zone or man coverage. The more normal or regular the shape of the triangle is, the more likely that we will be getting zone coverage. When the triangle becomes odd shaped, or if it loses its shape completely, we feel we are much more likely to get man coverage and therefore blitz (Diagram 2a and 2b). The shape of this triangle can even tell us the type of zone coverage being played. Three-deep zone looks create a regular shaped triangle, with one corner tending to point directly into the backfield (Diagram 3a). Two deep triangles will present a deep and steep side looking away from the quarterback to the safety (Diagram 3b). Reviewing video helps our quarterbacks to recognize these basic triangle shapes and the subtle differences among our opponent’s coverage triangles.

Diagram 3A.

Diagram 3B.

Safety Position


Diagram 4A.
The safeties and their position in the coverage triangle can also provide blitz tips. The following are safety reads that we educate our quarterback on and feel can help him to recognize blitz:

Safety alignment outside the fourth potential rusher to one side of the formation

(Diagram 4a) A safety positioned outside of the fourth rusher can represent a man coverage look and provides the potential for blitz

from that side of the formation. This is easily recognized in formations with two wide receivers to one side.

Both Safeties positioned on the same side of the football

(Diagram 4b) Both safeties on the same side of the formation may indicate man coverage with the potential for safety blitz from that side.

Diagram 4B.

Diagram 4C.

Safeties aligned on the same level and compressed to the ball and/or together (Diagram 4c) The safeties alignment toward the ball and toward each other is another key. When the safeties are aligned on the same level in the secondary and tighter to the LOS or tighter to each other than normal we read this as man coverage.

The safety position is the last thing that we lock onto in our pre-snap reads before we begin our snap count progression.

Developing a Blitz Attack Package

Once we have successfully identified a blitz look the next step is to utilize our blitz attack package. We feel it is important to develop a blitz package that limits the quarterback’s decision making as much as possible. We have a limited blitz attack package that allows us to build confidence in the execution of these plays against various blitz looks. Limiting the actual checks allows our quarterback to be more focused on his reading and recognition. We believe the quarterback’s major decision at the line of scrimmage should center around when to check the play, not on what to change the play to.

At the same time we practice our blitz package, we also educate our quarterbacks on the offensive system and which plays or series in our offense are blitz alert and which are blitz safe. Our simple blitz package includes two plays that we feel we can run successfully against any type of blitz. We may bring in one additional check each week versus an opponent’s specific blitz. Our blitz control package includes zone option and three-step pass, using slide protection, throwing the hitch or fade based on corner cushion. The down, distance, as well as the formation will influence the check our quarterback will use in any given situation. The confidence we have in these two plays is built through our philosophy of “if you blitz us, we want to attack and make a big play.” The threat of the option and deep pass gives us the capability to make that “big play” and requires defenses to be sound in their blitz schemes.

Practice versus Blitz

One of the keys to blitz recognition is to practice versus blitz everyday; we do this in a combination of ways. We hold a short full- team blitz period (5-10 plays) early in practice. During this period our offense calls a play in the huddle and goes to the line of scrimmage. We will present the quarterback with a look that may or may not require him to change the play. We present this look using either a full scout team defense or with just linebackers and a secondary. We script this period out of a variety of formations against what we feel are our opponent’s best blitzes for the week. We will script 65-80 percent blitz during this period. It is an excellent period for our quarterbacks to rehearse their recognition and decision-making skills and provides the entire offense and opportunity to execute our blitz attack package on the fly. We also script blitz plays into our skeleton pass, team and scout periods every day. In the combination of these periods we want our quarterback to see 20-40 plays of blitz recognition per practice. Obviously, the actual numbers of plays per practice will change, based on the opponent we are preparing for that week. The skeleton pass, team and scout periods provide a true “surprise factor” for our quarterback and check that he is constantly reading and recognizing coverage.

As a good offensive team our goal is to run over 75 plays every game. We would hope through this blitz work that our quarterback could make at least a 10 percent difference (7-8 plays) each week, where he successfully recognizes a blitz and changes the play to provide us a better opportunity to be successful. These seven or eight plays are often times the difference in keeping drives alive or staying on schedule offensively. In today’s game of football, where every play can make the difference, we feel this approach has provided us with an opportunity to make the most of every play.

I hope this information has been helpful in demonstrating our approach to handling blitz at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. If you have questions regarding any of this information, please feel free to contact me.
About the author
Bob Nielson


During Bob Nielson's relatively short tenure with the Bulldogs, he certainly has lived up to that advanced billing. In 2001, for example, Nielson took UMD to unprecedented heights, coaching the Bulldogs to their first-ever post-season appearance (the Mineral Water Bowl in Excelsior Springs, MO) and a 9-3 overall record. One year earlier, his Bulldogs went 7-4 – their first winning season since 1996 – while experiencing their greatest one-year turnaround ever (they managed a 3-8 record the previous season).

Nielson’s three-year record at UMD now stands at 19-15-0 while his overall coaching mark heading into 2002 is an impressive 89-48-1 for a .648 winning percentage.





NEW BOOK!

AFM Videos Streaming Memberships Now Available Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach



















HOME
MAGAZINE
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE COLUMNISTS COACHING VIDEOS


Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved