Defending Third and Long

by: David Purdum
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The option has been grinding you up throughout the whole game. Three yards here, six yards there. It seems like your defense has been facing third and two’s all game.

But, on the next possession, you stuff the fullback on first down. Your linebacker makes a good tackle on a quarterback keeper on second down. Finally, it’s third and twelve ... only to have your corner bite on an out-and-up and surrender a 15-yard completion. For a defensive coordinator, there are not many things worse than gift-wrapping a first down on third and long, especially against an option team that is not built to convert in that situation. But it happens to the best of us.

Army safeties coach Adam Waugh offers a few tips on how to prevent it from happening to you.

In general, there are two basic concepts when defending on third and long:

1. Loosen up, keep the ball in front of you and then close and make the tackle.

2. Blitz and force the quarterback to get rid of the ball quickly, then close and make the tackle.

Waugh prefers No. 1, especially against an option offense. The Black Knights don’t adjust much about their base 4-3 defense on third and 11. Waugh believes sticking to their base set allows the Knights to defend the pass, while also not becoming vulnerable to a long run. He suggests matching up your personnel against what the offense has on the field.

“We’re not going to change our defense too drastically to where we won’t be good vs. the option,” he said. “We’re not going to treat it a lot differently than other situations.” Army’s alignment and technique basically stays the same on third and long. Linebackers line up four and a half yards off the line and their drops remain at 10-12 yards.

“Now, if it’s an extra-long situation, third and 15-plus,” said Waugh, “then, we’d start moving them back in their drops. The thing that we would emphasize to the linebackers,” he continued, “is don’t bite on anything short. What a lot of offenses will do is bring a guy shallow, try to suck your linebackers up, then there’s a guy coming in right behind him. We call that the high-low concept. We always tell our linebackers if there’s one in front of you there’s one behind you. Don’t bite until you see the ball come out of the quarterback’s hand.”

The safeties are reminded of where the first down marker is and also to keep everything in front of them. “The thing we’ll remind them is keep it in front and make the tackle. We don’t want them to take the gamble,” said Waugh. “We’re going to say don’t try to make the big play, don’t try to make the interception. Be sound, get it tackled and make them punt the ball.”

Waugh relies heavily on the tendencies he discovers in the film room in third-and-long situations. “We’re going to play zone, keep everyone in front of us, close and make the tackle in order to make them punt,” explained Waugh. “We would be looking out for a quarterback draw or a quarterback scramble in that situation. When diagnosing a quarterback draw, Waugh suggests being on the lookout for offensive linemen who pass set then release early and try to get down on the linebackers.

“Those backers are dropping and as soon as they see those linemen release downfield, boom, they got to go,” said Waugh. “They need to re-trace and get to the quarterback. Not re-aligning his linebackers helps contain a mobile quarterback,” said Waugh.

“A lot of teams that sit back in zone coverage get real deep with their linebackers on third and long,” he explained. “That allows a lot of room for a mobile quarterback to run; against an option team, they’re usually going to have a running quarterback.”

Using The Defensive Line

Another technique Waugh uses on third and long to prevent a quarterback from scrambling for a first down is to play games with his defensive line. “We’re going to do some stunts and twists, some things like that just so it’s not a clear picture for the quarterback as to where the running lanes might be,” he said. “We have a number of games, where we will slant an end inside, loop a tackle outside, twist two tackles and do those things like that just to make it unclear for the quarterback.”

One thing to consider when using a stunt or twist is that your containment might be affected. “You might get a defensive tackle out on contain and he’s not the ideal athlete to do that,” said Waugh. “If you’re facing a mobile quarterback, a lot of teams will take a linebacker or a defensive lineman and they’ll make him a spy on the quarterback.”

These games are also very effective against an option team that does try to spring a pass on third and long. “An option team in general is not going to be as well schooled on pass protection as your more conventional offense,” Waugh said, “so by playing those games and those stunts, they may have a hard time picking it up and they may end up cutting a guy loose.”

Keep an eye out for a screen on third and long as well, said Waugh. “That’s one reason we don’t like to blitz,” he added. “If you get those guys blitzing and up the field, you open up a pretty big void where they can just dump the screen off and that guy has a lot of running room.”

Third and Long vs. the Spread: Beware the Screen

Option teams aren’t the only ones who like to throw a screen in third-and-long situations. The WR screen has become a staple of spread offenses. Waugh says to look for bunched receivers as a possible sign that a screen is coming. When the screen is headed to a running back, a lot of times the backs will be offset. “I’ve seen teams that when they offset their back weak, it’s a high percentage of screens,” said Waugh.

The key to stopping these types of screens is the defensive line. “It’s a tough read,” said Waugh. “They’re going to be coming hard to try to get some pass rush. Then, all of sudden, they’re going to get cut loose. It’s hard because those guys are going to think, ‘hey I’m free, I’m going to get the quarterback.’ But if they keep running, it’s over. If they get in there too easy, they need to identify the screen, put the brakes on. We tell them to re-trace their steps, come right back through the gaps that you came from.”

The screen also puts pressure on the linebackers who will be forced to fight off the blocks of bigger linemen. Against a screen, Army linebackers’ primary responsibility is containment. “The outside linebackers’ job is to keep the ball in the middle. Don’t let it squirt outside because obviously then everyone’s in chase situation,” said Waugh. “We feel that if we can get it contained, get it going up the middle, that we’ll have enough pursuit to converge on it and make a tackle.”

The secondary needs to be on the lookout for trick plays off of a screen. “A lot of times the receivers will run the secondary off,” he said. “Obviously, we have to honor that because a lot of times when they run those screens to the wide receivers, they’ll have trick plays off of those. They’ll have what we call a screen and go. They fake the screen and the guy that was blocking all of a sudden takes off and goes deep. So we tell the secondary to make sure you clear the tricky stuff before they come up on any screen or draw. We tell them to let the front seven handle the screen.”

Third and Long: The Last Play of the Game

You’ve handled the two-minute drill well and have forced the offense into a third and forever from the 50 with only a few seconds remaining. The Hail Mary is coming. Here’s how Waugh suggests stopping it.

“We would never consider blitzing in that situation,” he said. “We want to have maximum coverage. We’ll put four deep across the board, heels on the goal line or heels on the 20 depending on where the ball is.”

Waugh spreads his linebackers out wide and tries to get jams on the vertical receivers. “We like to impede their process a little,” he said, “so they’re not just taking off the field uncontested.”

The Black Knights will rush only three, but Waugh says if those linemen will be relentless they will have a shot at the quarterback. “The Hail Mary play is going to take a lot of time,” he said. “If your three-man rush is relentless, they’re going to have a chance to get in there because that quarterback is going to take his time to allow the receivers to get down the field.”

Once the ball is in the air, Waugh stresses knocking the ball down instead of trying to make the interception. He also keeps an eye out for a receiver who either trails the play or gets behind the play looking for a deflection. “We’ll send our defensive back from the backside over to get behind the scrum and try to defend any tips.”

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