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Making The 46 Package Work For You

Delaware State\'s top-rated defensive scheme
Former Defensive Coordinator, Delaware State University
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Like most coaches across the country, we have tried to come up with a defensive scheme that addresses our needs and availabilities. Now, what do I mean by needs and availabilities? Yes, we want two big 6-foot-5, 300-pound defensive tackles jamming up the middle, men who bench press 450 pounds and can run 4.9 forties from sideline to sideline. But, we don’t have those kinds of monsters in the middle. What we do have are 6-foot-1, 275-pound athletes that can run. Using the 46 Package allows us to take the athletes that we have and get the most from them.


Diagram 1.

First, by alignment, we have the opportunity to use three down linemen to occupy four or five-offensive linemen. As shown in diagram 1, our base alignment is a zero nose, 2 techniques and 3 techniques. We feel that if we coach our front three to understand the blocking scheme, to be very aggressive at the snap and most importantly pursue to the ball, we will cause most offenses problems in double-teaming and combo block packages. (See Diagram 1.)

Our nose guard or zero tackle must demand a double team at all times, or he will be a disruptive force for our defense. By demanding a double team, we should be able to get a linebacker through A Gap or free scrape over the top. We never want him to trade one for one in the run game. We tell our two 3 techs that they can never be reached by the guard or cutoff by the backside tackle. Both 3 techs are strong B Gap players who must not give up their gaps. When fighting the double team block, we ask him to get low and make a pile.


Diagram 2.

To keep our front out of those situations, we consistently move our front. Box B shows four of our basic defensive line calls. (See Diagram 2.)

Diagram 2 shows our strong Tom game. We ask the strong side 3 tech to rip across the guard’s face at the snap and work to get to the “V” of the neck of the center. At the snap, we want zero nose to punch to center and then shuffle to the strong side B Gap. We want him to be low with his face looking up at the offensive lineman and we want his shoulders square to the LOS. If the ball goes opposite of him, we want him to retrace his steps and shuffle back down the LOS. He becomes a cutback player.


Diagram 3.

Diagram 4.

Diagram 5.

Diagram 3 is the same game, just being run to the weakside. Diagram 4 and 5 shows a little different game. Our Rip and Liz call is designed to control the direction of the ball. On a Rip call, all three of the linemen take an up field step to their right with their right foot. On their second step, we want their left foot and arm to work together as they rip across the offensive linemen in front of them. We want them to get their helmets in the gap where there are ripping to. They are to work to stay square and they are not to get knocked off the LOS. They cannot allow themselves to get reach; especially in the way we are sending them. If we guess wrong, we want them to work back down the LOS behind the ball. So what are we really saying? Simply put, everyone takes the next gap over and works flat down the line to the ball. Our Liz call is the same as our Rip call, except we are sending them to the left.


Diagram 6.

Another look that we get from our basic package is a wide call as shown in diagram 6. (See Diagram 6.)

Here, we align our 2 tackles up in what we call “four-eyes.” They are aligned on the inside eye of the tackle but their gap responsibility stays the same as when in the B Gap. At the snap, we want both tackles to rip up the B Gap, staying square and read the blocking scheme. We like this call against offenses that are trying to run the ball right at us. We feel that the guard is wrong no matter which way he blocks. If he turns out on the tackle, we will send the LB on a natural run through and if the guard fires off up the field to LB, we get a defensive tackle on the replacement. We also feel that if we are closer to the offensive tackle on any down blocks, we can play it much stronger because we have cut down the angle of the block.


Diagram 7.

Now switching gears, I want to talk about the most important player on our front eight, the Sam linebacker. I’ll give my take on why he is most important. We align him, as shown in Box D, head to head over the TE. (See Diagram 7.)

We want his stance to a 2-point with good flex in his hips and knees. We want his eyes on the top of the helmet of the TE. His hands should be out in front of him, not at his sides and his elbows should be bent and ready to punch – lock out the first movement of the TE. This is why I feel he is most important. We ask him to lock out the TE, not give ground and work to get his feet to the LOS. And if run is at him, we want him to make the ball bounce outside of him. We don’t give him a gap to defend in the run game, but we want him to dominate the TE and fill where needed.

In the passing game, we ask Sam to cover the TE and that is when he needs to be a special young man. We play a lot of man coverage so Sam must be physical enough against the run and athletic enough to cover the TE in the passing game. We have found that we have more athletes that can play over the TE than we have defensive ends with the ability to play 7 tech.


Diagram 8.

We feel that the 46 Package allows us to get more athletic players on the field. And rounding out our front is our bullet and stud. As shown in diagram 8, the bullet and stud, who are strong safeties, lines up 3 yards outside of the TE and weak tackle and 2 yards off the LOS. We send both of them on a blitz off the edge. If the ball is coming at them, they are responsible for force. They cannot let the ball get outside of them. And on the action away, they are responsible for bootleg and reverse.

Also, because both the bullet and stud are really defensive backs, we are able to let them go out over No. 2 and cover him, then, we walk the Will or Mike linebacker down to the edge. With their athletic ability, they free us up to do many exciting things with this package. The flexibility of this package allows us to play any formation without the problems of substitution.


Diagram 9.

Our second level defenders are our Mike and Will linebackers. They align with their heels at 5 yards and they are aligned in a 50 tech over the offensive tackle as shown in Box F. (See Diagram 9.)

We ask the Mike and the Will to read the tackle to his near back. Both linebackers are C gap players, but both know that the blocking scheme by the offense may force us to use our gap cancellation rules. If this happens, they will play the next gap over. They are responsible for the quarterback on the option inside out. Versus a veer option attack, Mike and Will must take the dive and then we will have to do some other thing with our secondary athletes.

The passing game for Mike and Will is quite simple. They have the first back to their side. If the back swings, Mike and Will must run a 45-degree angle to pick up the back and if the back stays in to block, we want Mike and Will to blitz to their back. The moment that they see their back engages with one of our edge rushers, we want Mike and Will to run to daylight.

Sometimes we hold Mike & Will and have them rob the middle for “man beater” routes by No. 2. With the many multiple sets used by today’s offenses, we feel that the 46 Package keeps us from putting our linebackers in many bad match-ups. For that reason, many times we blitz the Mike and will up the A Gap and give the back to the stud, Sam, or the bullet. Again, with the large number of skill athletes on the field, we have many options at our hands.

The final piece to our package is our corners and free safeties. Our corner must be able to play man coverage. We put a lot of pressure on them to hold up their end of defense. We play our corners as a base rule, 7 yards off and inside 1 yard. We try to force all balls to be thrown to the outside. Depending on the athletic ability of the player, we will allow him to walk down and play “press” technique on their man. We like to tell our corner to “hold on” because whatever is going to happen will happen fast! We try to put a lot of pressure on offense and force their hand.


Diagram 10.

Although we play a lot of man defense, we do throw zone coverage into the package. We feel that the 46 Package gives us the chance to look like Cover 1 and the options of playing Cover 2, 3, 4, and 6, which to us is quarter-quarter-half. (See Diagram 10)

The free safety is our final piece of the pie and he is very important to our scheme. We play him 10-12 yards from the LOS. We ask him to be the fill guy in our run defenses and a robber in our passing defense. He must be a smart player who loves to watch film of our opponent so that he can anticipate what’s going to happen. He does not have to be so much of a big hitter but he must be a solid tackler who knows when to go and when to stay back. We also like to keep our safety in the middle of the field, so, we do not ask him to adjust to cover any detachment by the offense. The safety makes all of our secondary calls for motion, shifts, and any adjustments made by the offense as well as for our defense. He is the straw that stirs the drink for our defense.

In closing, I would like to say that in no way have I discussed all of the features to this defense, for there are many books in the 46 package. I wanted to show how we have adapted the package to fit our players at Delaware State University. The 46 Package is a fun defense. Your players will enjoy the aggressive attacking style. And because it uses man coverage a lot, it frees our players to just do their small part in our defense. I feel that the package allows us to put a much faster and more athletic team on the field. I hope some of the concepts that we use will be helpful to you.

Note: Damon Frenchers is currently the linebackers coach at Norfolk State University.






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