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AFM Magazine


Reading the Proper Visual Keys - A True Essential In Stopping the Run

by: Brad Forshey
Defensive Line Coach and Director of Football Operations, West Liberty University
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Effective defensive line play in football involves much more than three or four guys butting heads with the offensive line. Numerous physical techniques – hand placement, stance, shedding blockers, etc. – have been developed and refined in an attempt to overcome the offense’s built-in advantage of knowing where the play is going. All too often, an equally important mental technique which directly addresses this issue is overlooked. At West Liberty University, we devote significant time and effort to teaching our players how to read and respond to visual keys quickly and effectively.
It is an axiom of our profession that a defense’s first priority is stopping the run. Reading and reacting rapidly to the visual keys provided by the offense is a critical element in developing a good run-stopping defense. The effective use of visual keys tells the defense what play is being run almost as soon as the ball is snapped. This article details the basic reads we teach our defensive linemen at West Liberty University and includes some daily drills we use to emphasize our belief that making good use of visual keys is a vital part of any run-stopping defense.
We employ a 4-2-5 defensive scheme at West Liberty University. This allows us to easily adapt to a smash-mouth running team by putting seven or eight players in the box or dropping players back into coverage against a passing team. We align our front as follows (See Diagram 1).


The strong-side 7 technique reads the outside hip of the OT. This can sometimes be a hard read to teach because he actually aligns inside the TE. But, just like everything else you teach, this will come with reps. The weak defensive end (our rush end) aligns in a tilted Ghost 7 technique. An easy way to teach this alignment is to tell him to line up in a 7 technique as if a TE were there and then tilt at a 45-degree angle off the outside hip of the OT. His read is also the outside hip of the OT. By reading the outside hips of the OTs, the ends can see immediately what block is coming. As we tell our players, when it comes to block recognition, “the hips don’t lie.” For example:

• Hip moves laterally towards you, Zone
your way.

• Hip goes laterally away, Zone away.

• Hip comes straight at you, Iso (Drive Block).

• Hip goes down, Power, Counter or Trap.

• Hip drops back, Pass or Draw.

• Hip disappears flat down line away,
Play Action.

• Hip disappears flat up the line towards you, Play Action.

By reading these keys, we can recognize what play is unfolding as we are taking our first step. It is important to emphasize to the strong side end that he must be ready to counter the TE blocking down – the dreaded WHAM block – even as he reads the hip of the OT. When the end feels the down block, he immediately redirects into the TE. We teach him to grab the breastplate of the TE and squeeze him back outside – the old “fight pressure with pressure” rule. We also teach them that they are not hooked until the ball bounces outside their gap. We want them to hold their ground and make the ball bounce to the sideline. If the ball does bounce past his gap, then he cross faces and pursues.
No matter what happens, he cannot allow himself to get washed down the line. There will be times when the defensive end finds himself mismatched against a larger TE. To counter that, if an end feels he is getting washed, we use a technique called “throwing the hip.” Similar to “boxing out” for a rebound in basketball, the defensive end throws his hip low and into the block to create a stalemate. The defensive end may not make the play but this technique allows him to hold his gap. Anyone associated with football is familiar with “the edge.” This concept can be easily illustrated on the grease board (See Diagram 2).


Running backs want to get to the edge and get up field – “turn the corner” – as quickly as possible. Offenses use WHAM blocks from the TE to shorten the edge for the running back. Obviously, as defenders, we cannot allow this. Use Diagram 2 to show the end where the edge is located. Now draw the same diagram with him washed down a gap and redraw the edge. This is a great learning tool as he can immediately see how the edge has shortened (See Diagram 3). You can also show the same result from a tight copy of an inside run if the end gets washed down.



The New Edge

We employ a similar system of reads with our interior defensive linemen. Most line coaches have heard the mantra “read the V of the neck.” We don’t use this read. Since we shade our defensive linemen, it makes little sense to have them look for a key in the center of a blocker’s body. If they focus on reading the V of the blocker’s neck, they’re more likely to get hooked, stop their feet, or fall victim to a false read. While the V of the neck is a fantastic key for down linemen in a head-up technique, it is not the best for a shaded down lineman. We teach our down linemen to read the shoulder they line up against. We will even put an X on the scout team’s jerseys so our linemen know exactly where their keys are located. With this read, block recognition is similar to the defensive ends. For example:

• Shoulder moves laterally to me, Zone to you.

• Shoulder moves laterally away, Zone away.

• Shoulder goes down, Trap (3 Techniques).

• Shoulder pulls, expect down block.

• Shoulder pulls with no down block,
Influence Trap (3 Techniques).

• Shoulder drops back, pass or draw.

• Shoulder disappears flat down, line away, Play Action.

• Shoulder disappears flat up, the line towards you, Play Action.

Once again, if a down block occurs and the end feels he is getting washed, “Throw the Hip!” It’s important for coaches to apply the same terminology to all positions – especially for those, like me, who coach the entire line. One block that can cause a problem inside is the double-team. We teach our interior linemen that when they see two “butt cheeks” come together, it’s a double-team block. That’s an automatic read because no other block in football has two “butt cheeks” coming together on a shaded defensive lineman. Once the double-team is recognized, you can incorporate your own method of defeating it.
At West Liberty University, we drive home these points through the use of a “Mock “ period in every practice. A “Mock” period is simply a mock version of the inside run. We use six players to put together an offensive line with a tight end, and then make our defensive line align properly. The coach stands behind the defensive line and tells the offensive line what blocks to make (See Diagram 4).


The teaching point to this drill is that the defensive linemen MUST read their visual keys! In game situations, we had a problem with defensive linemen missing their read because they were sneaking a peek into the backfield. This drill eliminates that distraction by removing the running backs, forcing our defensive linemen to read their visual keys and recognize plays as they unfold. Once a play is over, we ask them what play it was. If they have read their keys properly, they’ll be able to tell us even though there wasn’t a ball carrier in sight.
Here’s a variation that allows you to be creative as a coaching staff and makes your players think, as well. Have one side of the offensive line run one play while the other half runs a different one. See if the defensive line recognizes it and can name the plays. This helps make the drill less monotonous as camp or the season progresses.
These drills are simple, easy to run and very effective as teaching tools. We use them every day at West Liberty and have found them to be of great benefit in carrying proper fundamentals over into our inside run and team periods.






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