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Five Keys to Defending the Wing-T With Your 4-3 Defense – To stop the Wing-T, use three different fronts, key on the guards and limit your blitzes.

by: Joe Daniel
Defensive Coordinator, Prince George High School (VA)
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Good Wing-T football coaches are tough to beat. They know their offense, formation, and series. They will know what the role of each player on your defense is, and which defenders they want to put in conflict.

As a defensive coordinator, you start in a hole to begin with. Wing-T coaches always seem to have the answer, no matter what solution you come up with.

So why do some defensive coordinators want to be the opposing offensive coordinator’s best friend? They gameplan for the Wing-T offense like it’s an alien invasion. They throw out everything their kids know. They go from the tried and true system to the “Defense of the Week.” Wing-T coaches love to brag about all the different defenses they see in a season. They roll over every alignment you could think of.

What team do they always say is the toughest? It’s not an alignment. Or a coverage. Or a blitz. The toughest teams have the best players, lined up doing something they are confident in. Wing-T coaches are not scared of your gimmick defense. They laugh at it. They drool for it. They can’t wait to see your kids scurrying around in some front they have never played before. And after Friday night, you’ll probably never run it again. Not after they beat you down.

When the Wing-T comes to town this season, be steadfast in your 4-3 defense. If it’s what you already do, be true to yourself. Run what your kids know and have confidence in. Simplicity in your defense is the key to solving a complex offensive scheme. This season, follow these five keys to defend the Wing-T offense with your 4-3 defense.

Gameplan to Use 3 Fronts

Your playbook should already have a few different fronts in it. Fronts are not the same thing as defenses, remember. Give the offense a few different looks, without changing the base rules of your defense. Then, move into your under front. This is where your team is going to sit most of the night. The under front closes up one of the bubbles in your over front, solidifying your run-stopping defense. Make sure the principles of your over and under fronts match up. It should be an easy adjustment for your players (Diagrams 1 and 2).


Diagram 1: 4-3 Under Front


Diagram 2: 4-3 Over Front

Most of the extra work in preparing the under front comes in coaching the Sam linebacker, who moves up on the LOS in a 9-technique, on the outside shade of the tight end. When we get the TE-wing surface, the Sam will move out to a head-up technique on the wing so that he is not an easy down block. If the wing is not a real block threat or if he motions away, Sam slides back to the 9-tech. He is a spill player here.

Your third front is your goal line defense. Jump into your goal line defense in the right situations. It doesn’t have to just be inside the 5-yard line. Make some personnel substitutions if you need to, and jump into that 60 front for the no-nonsense downs in the middle of the field, too.

As an adjustment, have the “G” front in your back pocket. That moves the nose to a 2i on the guard. Putting your tackles over the top of the guards will help them chase pullers and create havoc in the backfield. Guards are huge in the Wing-T. But early on, I want to punish the center and see what happens. That’s why we will start with over and under, instead of the “G” front.

Key the Guards

We teach a primary key on the back and a secondary key on the offensive line to our linebackers for every offense but the Wing-T. Against a Wing-T offense, we’ll key the guards. They are the best indicator.

That’s why you need to teach both reads to your linebackers. We’ve been working on what the secondary hat read off the guard means all season. Now, it just becomes the primary key. You take your first two steps based off the action of the primary key. Against the Wing-T, this is likely to be one of four reads:

Pull inside: play for an inside run. Outside linebackers counter-shuffle. Mike linebacker fills the first open door on the play side.
Pull outside / reach: for an outside run. Outside linebackers fit tight off the hip of the defensive end (or Sam in the under front). Mike linebacker scrapes and looks for a run through off tackle.

Down block: this is a play for an inside run. Fill the first open door off the butt of the down block.

High hat: a pass play. Open up and drop to your pass responsibility.

Our reaction to both pulling outside and reach are the same. If your linebackers are getting their eyes in the backfield too much against a Wing-T, their heads will start spinning and they will rarely be in the right spot. I have allowed the Mike linebacker in the over front to key on the fullback when he’s the player we need to stop.

Limit Your Blitzes

We never carry more than three exotic blitzes. Those are blitzes that bring anything other than one linebacker. Against a Wing-T, it will likely be one or two. And one of those is for pass-only situations.

We’re not going to sit back and be complacent against the Wing-T, or let this offense dictate to us. But we will use our fronts and some simple defensive line stunts to change blocking schemes.

There’s a little bit of guessing when you blitz a lot. It’s a roll of the dice sometimes. Guess wrong and you have a big problem. That salty old Wing-T guy will make you pay. If you’re running an overload blitz from the left while two guards are pulling to the right side – it will be a disaster for you.

Our favorite blitz against the Wing-T is any sort of middle cross zone blitz. These blitzes attack directly up the A gaps and can cause problems for pullers. By filling up the A gaps, you are also forcing the offense to run laterally and spill to the outside. You never want to allow Wing-T teams to get going north-south on you. ‘Over FIX 3’ is a middle cross with the free safety coming off the hip of the Mike linebacker to the A gaps (our call names always have a purpose, and F.I.X. tells us Free Inside X – Diagram 3).


Diagram 3: Tight Over FIX 3
 
Put Your Swap Check In

We run quarters coverage on most of our snaps behind the 4-3 defense. I love it against the Wing-T Offense because it is so versatile, just like the front. For those 100/900 formations (or Red/Blue) with the TE/wing on one side, you will want to have your “Swap Check”. That puts the safety down at three yards off the ball, five yards outside of the end man on the line of scrimmage (EMOLS). He is the force player, just like he would be in our base read check, but now he’s in a better position to force the ball carrier back inside.

Swap check backs your corner up to play for the deeper play-action routes. Emphasize to the corner all week during preparation that he must stay in coverage. The last thing you want to happen is for a team that runs the ball 90% of the time to make you look silly and cost you a football game on a blown coverage. You don’t need to use the swap check if your corners tackle better than your safeties. But you have personnel issues, if that’s the case.

Swap Check is an automatic for us against any nub tight end set. Because this is a split field coverage, the other side of the defense is going to play like they always would and use read check (or what the formation dictates).

Work to Stop What They Do Best

Don’t get caught up in the many different plays they run. All the looks, all the misdirection, boils down to one thing – you have to make a Wing-T Offense beat you left-handed. Make them go deep into the playbook.


Diagram 4: Over Front Run Fits vs. Buck Sweep

It’s as simple as that. Make that team beat you with something or someone that is not their best. Take away their three best running plays, such as the buck sweep (Diagram 4). Take away the best athlete of the four backs in the backfield. If you can do that, you give your football team their best chance to stop the Wing-T.

Focus on those top plays and players in practice. Rep only the best plays they run. Don’t worry about anything else.

Sometimes coaches ask what we do about influence pulls, where the guards are pulling and taking you away from the play. I ask them if that team can beat you with that play? We take two steps off the guard key with eyes to the back as the play develops. So your linebacker may be a step or two off even if he’s using proper technique. Can they beat you with that advantage on a handful of snaps?

If the answer is yes, you rep it. Study film closely to find a tendency for it. Get any advantage you can. Remind your players of the possibility when the situation of an influence pull comes up.

If that is not going to be the deciding factor, then forget it. Let’s say they influence pull 5% of snaps. When you make a big deal about it (adding another “What If”), your athletes slows down. They stop trusting. Now, on the other 95% of plays, they are flat-footed instead of following the guard who would be leading him directly to the ball.

You can’t stop everything unless you are just significantly more talented. A good defensive coordinator learns to accept that as part of the game. The biggest key to the Wing-T offense, no matter what defense you run, is NO GIMMICKS.

Always be who you are. Have an identity. Your kids play faster when they are confident in their jobs. Playing fast is the key to shutting down any offensive attack, no matter what defense you run. Stick to what you’ve sold your kids on all season long - sound technique and fundamentals. Study your opponent. Be confident. Play with enthusiasm. Trust your keys. Fly to the football with relentless pursuit. Finish on every snap.
 
About the Author: An experienced coach at both the high school and college level, Joe Daniel is currently the defensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Prince George High School (VA). A frequent contributor to both American Football Monthly and Gridiron Strategies, Daniel hosts “The Football Coaching Podcast” and has written several ebooks including, “Coaching Football’s 4-3 Defense”, “Installing the 4-3 Over Defensive Front”, and “Dominating Football Defense with the Zone Blitz.”

Coach Daniel answers your questions on Facebook - just go to to https://www.facebook.com/AmericanFootballMonthly/

More great articles like this:

Defending the Wing-T Offense – August, 2012
How to Slow Down the ‘Tempo’ Wing-T – December, 2009
Stopping the Wing-T – October, 2005







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