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AFM Magazine


Defeat the Spread at the Snap

by: Jerry Hornsby
Defensive Coordinator, St. Pius X High School
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In today’s game, the spread offense has become the premier method of moving the ball down the field. The original spread formation has given birth to a number of different systems: the run and shoot offense, the air raid offense and the pistol offense, just to name a few. And to give defensive coaches even more headaches, offensive coaches have added their own spin to those different spread-style offenses. It is very likely, in a ten-game regular season, you may face five or six spread teams with totally different styles of the spread. But one thing has remained the same throughout the evolution of the spread, and that is the protection scheme.
Many coaches think that defense will eventually catch up to the spread offense like they have in the past with other innovative offenses. Some of us have defended the spread by simply “bringing more than they can block”. But simple blitzes won’t work most of the time because the spread quarterback is seven yards deep and, if he’s any good, he’ll be able to read and throw to the hot receiver. Another way is to drop more players into coverage and rush three. The problem with that is that an athletic quarterback in the spread will kill you with his feet because he will have more running lanes. So we often have to pick our poison, especially if we are limited in our athletes.
There is no true solution to the blitz-more or drop-more issue, but I believe there are ways to increase your odds of success when dealing with the passing or running quarterback in the spread. We can do this by attacking the protection scheme of the offense. Simple blitzes off the number-two receiver or sending linebackers through a gap won’t work. We have to be as innovative as the offensive coaches in our blitz concepts.
The spread systems may vary, but all spread offenses have four basic protections: 1. Big-on-Big (BOB) which is a five-man protection, 2. Slide protection, which is a six-man protection, 3. Max protection, which is a seven- or eight-man protection that involves two running backs or a running back and a tight end into protection, and 4. Sprint or roll-out protection.
At St. Pius X High School, we have been very successful when defending the spread. We attack each protection scheme differently, but things remain the same in each: we create confusion along the offensive front by never rushing straight ahead, we always put one offensive lineman and the running back in the protection in a “can’t win” situation and we cover all running lanes for the agile quarterback in case he runs.
One of the great things about the way we do it at St. Pius X is we will utilize different fronts and we don’t have to play cover zero all the time. We can play cover 0, 1, 2, 4 or a combination coverage, which is usually the case.


Diagram 1 shows our Hawk front with our weak Talon Blitz and cover 1 behind it. The key to this blitz is in its timing, which is something we work on often. Rather than focusing on making the quarterback uncomfortable, we want to make the offensive line uncomfortable. We believe if you make the o-line uncomfortable the quarterback will eventually become more concerned with the protection issues than going through his reads. At the snap of the ball the nose and the end execute a twist stunt (end first). The nose will come tight off the offensive tackle, looking for the option game first on the way to the quarterback. The end goes first because we want that tackle to see the end cross his face to make that edge a little bit tighter for the nose tackle and he has to work hard to get inside to the strong side A gap. The end may come clean but we really want him to be a space eater inside. The Mike and Sam linebacker will go through their run/pass key reads. We use the phrase “don’t go until you know”, which means while the stunt is being executed go through your key reads and, once the blitzing lanes have naturally opened by the twist, the Sam backer will blitz the weak B gap and the Mike backer will blitz the weak A gap. They will both play the draw on the way to the quarterback. The strong side end will pinch down inside and the strong safety will attack the C gap looking for the option. The free safety will play the pitch to either side if the speed option is run.


Diagram 2 is our Okie Front with our House blitz. This is a very versatile blitz. You can run part of the blitz and run combination coverage of cover 2 on the strong side and cover 0 on the weak side. Another option is to run it like a zone blitz and engage the ends and then drop into the flats and play cover 4 behind it. On the blitz, both ends will execute a wide-angle rush, looking for an outside running play first. If nothing shows, continue on to the passer. The nose will engage the center utilizing a bull rush technique, forcing him straight up the field. We now want to get the center on his heels. As this happens, the Mike and Sam linebacker will violently attack the strong and weak side A gaps respectively causing both guards to make a decision. The cornerbacks and strong safeties will align normally and stem to two yards inside off the number-two receiver. During the quarterback’s cadence, they will not show their blitz but rather blitz from depth. Our free safety and nickel will align a bit tighter and wider in order to get over to the number-two receiver faster. If the guards pick up the two inside rushers, then the strong safeties should hit their mark or at least disrupt the timing of the passing play. If the guards decide to take the two strong safeties, then the Mike and the Sam backers will come wide open.


One of our blitzes vs. two backs max protect (See Diagram 3) is out of our base 4-2-5 front called Smash, which involves a nose and tackle twist inside and a Mike and Sam blitz with a combination coverage 5 (cover 2 strong and cover 3 to the weak side). Although it is only a six-man blitz, we believe that the odds of a successful play for the defense rises dramatically because the offense can only send three receivers out for passes and we have them out-numbered 3 vs. 2 on the strong side and 2 vs. 1 on the weak side. On the snap of the ball, the nose and the tackle will execute a twist. The weak side end will rip into the B gap, getting big as soon as he clears the guard. The strong side end will execute a chop-and-pin technique against the offensive tackle. He will likely get a second-level block from the H back, which is great for the Mike linebacker. As the defensive end clears with his technique, the running back will come to chip, and the Mike linebacker will blitz the vacated B gap with a direct path to the quarterback. The Sam linebacker will delay (one thousand one) and then blitz the open gap created by the inside twist. One important note is that the Sam linebacker may have to adjust his path to the crease depending on the mesh of the twist stunt. The strong safety on the strong side will play hook to curl, and the strong safety on the weak side will play hook to flat. If the running back flairs or releases, he will keep leverage (do not attack the route) on the running back, taking away the slant or curl route by the number-one receiver. We want to force the check-down throw by the quarterback. In addition, the strong safeties on both sides are the force players if an outside run shows.
In conclusion, we as defensive coaches need to change the thought process when it comes to defending the spread. I think the way to defeat the spread is to not concentrate on the many different route packages they can run, but to concentrate on winning the battle in the trenches by attacking the different blocking schemes utilized by spread teams. u






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