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AFM Magazine


Point-Counterpoint: Third and Five In The Red Zone

by: David Purdum
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Northwestern State and Wisconsin-Whitewater are locked in a low-scoring defensive battle. Tied 10-10, neither team has been able to move the ball consistently. The Demons’ pressure has bothered Zeifel’s offense throughout the game. Finally, with six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Warhawks put together their best drive and move into Demon territory. But NSU’s defense stiffens and the drive bogs down. Zwiefel is facing a 3rd and 5 at the 20.

Zwiefel: “We’re going to employ a 3-by-1 set with a combination route to our multi-receiver side, probably a zone receiver. With our backside receiver, we’d be giving him a choice route.”

Collins: “Since it’s 3rd and 5, we’re going to play some kind of deny-the-ball defense. We’re going to keep enough people in the box, where we don’t give up the running game. We’re going to mix the front up, and try to create an opportunity for a defensive lineman to bust through there and make a tackle in the backfield or have an opportunity to cause havoc back there.”

TALE OF THE TAPE
Stan Zweifel

Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks OC

A spread, one-back look featuring
either a 3-by-1 or 2-by-2 receiver set.


Zweifel enters his 17th season directing the Warhawks’ high-powered offense. The 1997 Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year has authored five books and produced 29 technical videos. Last year his offense scored an impressive 83 TDs.
Coaches

Schools

Scheme



Experience








Mike Collins

Northwestern State Demons New Assistant HC and DC

An aggressive, adjustable 8-man front that constantly brings pressure and is usually backed by man-free, man-match or man-press coverage.


This former LSU assistant owns 14 years of Division I coaching experience and a BCS National Championship ring. A member of Nick Saban's championship staff in 2003, he is entering his second season at Northwestern State and first as defensive coordinator.

Zwiefel: “We’d try to make Coach Collins show his hand a little bit. If he’s going to blitz from the edge, we think we can get some kind of a match-up with a man-to-man type coverage on the X. If they’re an inside A gap, B gap pressure team, we like to have some kind of sprint out or break-contain package in the red zone. If they’re an edge blitzing team, we like to max protect, use maybe two-man routes sometimes three, but utilize our tight end and lone running back in protection schemes to best counteract what they’re doing.”

Collins: “We’re going to play press man-to-man, but it’s going to be a man-free concept, so we’re always going to be helping somebody out somewhere with a couple of guys, helping with the two inside linebackers and with the safeties. The corners are basically going to be on an island. If they’re going to throw the ball backside, then they’re going to beat us with their best guy on our best guy. That’s where our best guy’s going to be on the single receiver side.”

Zwiefel: “We’re expecting him to roll his coverage to the split side because he’d know that our best playmaker was over there. We’d have some kind of zone package combination with our two wide receivers and our tight end. We would double call our route to the three-receiver side as a zone cover beater. On the split side, it would be a man-cover beater. We’d always have an automatic, if something was unusual. If they had eliminated guys from in the box, we wouldn’t be afraid to run it, even on 3rd and 5. If it’s 10-10, and neither team has scored much we’d settle for a field goal in that area of the field, because it could potentially be a game-winner.”

First Down
The Warhawks guess correctly, hold off the Demons blitz and are able to pick up the first down. But the drive stalls again, this time inside the 10 yard line. Now, Zweifel is faced with one of his least favorite situations: With less than three minutes to play, it’s 3rd and goal from the five. Both coaches lean heavily on their film work and scouting at this point. Finding your best match-up and figuring out a way to help on your worst becomes even more important.

Collins: “From our scouting reports, we hope to have an idea of what they like to do. We’re going to anticipate some kind of rub route, some kind of pick route, something where they’re going to try to free up a guy. We would play some kind of man-match down there and match all the routes. That way we don’t get picked.”

Zweifel: “We’re going to put our quarterback in a run-pass option. We’re going to try to break contain with the quarterback either by boot, play action or pure sprint out.”

Collins: “If they’re in some kind of cluster where they can motion a guy in to get in a situation where they can rub us off and get somebody free, then being in man-to-man defense isn’t the best thing to be in right there. We’re going to make them earn it. We’re not going to make it a dead giveaway by pressuring them, unless we felt like that was something we needed to do in order to gain the best advantage.”

Zweifel: “We hardly ever run the ball inside the tackles on the goal-line anymore, because defensive linemen these days are so darn quick. When you start packing it in, you better have some folks that can block their folks because it becomes a pretty massive scrum in there. We want to skew the zones and try to flood or overload their zones or try to get one of our good receivers matched up on a deep outside cover guy or inside cover guy and have them try to make some kind of play on the ball. At least, we want to make the defense defend the edge.”

Overtime
The Demons hold and come up with a huge block on what looked to be a chip-shot field goal. They manage to run out the clock to force overtime. Northwestern State scores a touchdown on their first possession of overtime. Trailing 17-10, the Warhawks struggle to move the ball and are faced with a 3rd and 5 from the 20 yard line.





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