Stopping the Run With the Odd Front Defense

The 3-4 defense can be very effective against the run by mixing combinations of stunts, slants, and loops.

I grew up learning and then playing defense with an even or four-man front. In my early days as a defensive coordinator, I ran a 4-3, 4-2 and bubble or desert storm defenses. We had some success stopping the run but nothing like the achievements we’ve had recently at Missouri Valley College. Since I arrived for the 2005 season, we have finished either #1 or #2 in team rushing defense among all NAIA colleges. Why have we been so successful against the run?

Here are the key reasons – great players, solid schematics, great defensive assistant coaches and an outstanding head coach who controls the clock and likes to run the ball. We run a 3-4 defense and believe our success is directly related to our movements. We believe our defenders are very hard to block when they are slanting, blitzing, looping, and wrapping.

Most college coaches have the misconception that you need four big and strong defensive linemen to stop the run. This is simply not the case. You can effectively stop the run with a three-man front. I’ve included some of our fronts, stunts, and coverages that we use in order to stop the run. Diagram 1 is of our Viking defense and diagram 2 shows our ‘50’ defense.

Diagram 1: Viking Defense

Diagram 2: ‘50’ Defense

Out of our Viking front, our favorite stunts include slanting the defensive lineman strong or weak and bringing the outside linebacker off the edge and slanting our defensive line to the strong side. We call this our Viking Bandit 2 (Diagram 3). If we wanted to bring the strong-side outside linebacker off the edge and slant our defensive linemen weak, we would call Viking Stud 2 (Diagram 4).

Diagram 3: Viking Bandit 2

Diagram 4: Viking Stud 2

 
Out of our 50 front, a few of our favorite stunts are plugging the inside linebackers into the B gaps and wrapping the defensive ends off a pick blitz from the inside linebackers. As an example, if we want to plug the strong-side inside linebacker and wrap the strong-side defensive end, we would call ’50 Moss 2’ (Diagram 5). If we want to attack the weak side of the offense, we can plug our weak-side inside linebacker and wrap our weak-side defensive end and call ’50 Water 2’ (Diagram 6).

Diagram 5: 50 Moss 2

Diagram 6: 50Water 2

After running combinations of various stunts, coaches will learn that certain stunts are much better vs. certain formations and plays. As an example, you may find that an outside linebacker stunt is much more productive vs. the zone read than an inside linebacker stunt. There are a number of advantages with the 3-4 defense:
•  When you bring a LB on a stunt, you are rushing your fourth linemen while the defense doesn’t know where he is coming from.
•  There are no limits to the number of stunts and blitzes you can create.
•  Often you can confuse the offense by combing linebacker and defensive back stunts and blitzes.
    Having all of these possibilities certainly spices up games as a defensive coordinator. 

Monty Roe is the Assistant Head Coach, Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers Coach at Missouri Valley College. His defenses led all NAIA colleges in rushing defense in four different seasons – 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2010, Roe previously coached at Wayne State University (NE) for five years. He also coached at Dakota State, Nebraska-Kearney, and Sioux Falls.

Articles on this subject are on AmericanFootballMonthly.com

August, 2008 • Multiple Fronts and Coverages
February, 2008 • Multiple Fronts With Changing Personnel