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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Point CounterPoint

by: David Purdum
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The Air Raid Offense vs The Zone Defense

Valdosta State vs Grand Valley State

Whether you feature a zone or are attacking one through the air, it’s all about the YAC. That four yards your wide out manages to pick up on the quick screen or that tackle your running back breaks on the swing pass can be the key to the game. Face it, if the defense is sagging back in a 2-deep zone, you’re not going anywhere deep. So it’s the little dump offs that need to gobble up chunks of yardage.

    “There’s just not that many throwing lanes,” said Valdosta State head coach Chris Hatcher about facing a zone, “because they’ve got so many guys back there. If they’re going to play zone defense, it’s going to come down to how good of tacklers they have in the secondary.”

    Grand Valley State, the Division II champs, had exactly that brand of secondary. Loaded with solid tacklers, this year’s Laker defense surrendered only six passing touchdowns all season. But Hatchers’ Air-Raid offense isn’t too shabby, either. They dinked and dunked their way to the 2004 Division II National Championship.

    Check out how Hatcher would attempt to dissect Martin’s zone:

    At GVSU, Martin prefers a soft cover-2. So soft, offenses often confuse the zone for more of a quarters coverage. Rarely are the corners jamming receivers. They’re off the line and in a slow bail backward. In their four-down package, the Lakers are a two-shell team, always with two safeties. GVSU occasionally mixes in a little cover-3, where they’ll drop down a safety to disguise the coverage a little bit.

    “We disguise better if we can get into our three-down front,” Martin said. “A lot of times, we’ll play three down linemen, two linebackers and six defensive backs, and we’re still a two-shell team. If we can get into a three-man front, we can disguise not only our coverages a lot better, but we can disguise our blitzes a lot better. This causes the offense a little more problems by having the ability to bring more people out of three-down from off the football that they have to worry about. The offensive line coach has to worry about picking up in pressure situations.”   

    This forces Hatcher’s offense to make two necessary reads. First, the Blazer offense determines how many safeties are in the formation. Then, they look for pre-snap reads of whether the defense is in zone or man coverage. “We don’t read the defender; we key the defender,” points out Hatcher. “We have a progression on every rout combination that we have. So no matter what the defense, our quarterback knows he’s going to read deep middle to short.”

    Martin is just fine with giving up the short passes. In fact, surrendering first downs doesn’t bother him either. But too much YAC is unacceptable. “Get it in your players’ mindsets that it’s OK to give up first downs,” Martin emphasized. “First downs aren’t going to get you beat.

    “Our main objective in all our zone coverages, in particular cover-2, is to keep the ball in front of us and have them throw as many short throws as they can. Then, hopefully we’ll use our athleticism and close on the ball and limit the yards after the catch. We’re not a big team on being aggressive outside and giving up whole shots. We’re big on playing a little more passive in our zone coverages and trying to have everyone see the football and allow some underneath throws. Hopefully, you have to spit the ball out to the flat a bunch and we rally to it.

    “A lot of people are more aggressive in zones than us,” he continued, “but we try to make the offense execute all the way down the field as opposed to giving up a few whole shots and few chunk plays.”

    When facing such a soft, sagging zone, Hatcher says patience – and, of course, YAC – are the keys. Throwing deep is like “banging your head against a wall.”
    Said Hatcher, “We’re concerned about taking what a defense gives us, being patient as a play caller and relay that caution to our players. If you’re playing a team that plays a zone, you’re not going to get as many big plays. Just don’t turn it over and make some yards after the catch.”

    Limiting YAC is crucial for several obvious reasons. For GVSU’s defense, the biggest benefit from making the one-on-one, first-contact tackle is forcing a long-yardage situation, which allows the Lakers to get into their preferred 3-man front. Martin says his defense becomes much more versatile with three down linemen, two linebackers and six defensive backs.

    “We’re still a two-shell team, but from our three-down, we can blitz from a lot different places and spin the coverage a lot of different ways,” Martin said. “ So we still start out in a two-shell. We figure if we can get into a three-down we can disguise not only our coverages a lot better, but we can disguise our blitzes a lot better and cause the offense a little more problems by having the ability to bring more people out of three-down from off the football that they have to worry about."

    Hatcher acknowledges that the three-man front can give an offense trouble, especially a blitzing one.

    “A team that gets into a three-man front and doesn’t blitz a whole lot, we’re going to try to run the ball more against that front because they don’t have that many down linemen,” Hatcher said. “But a team that blitzes a great deal out of a three-man front, we’re going to try to control the tempo of the game by being fast-paced, slow-paced, kind of changing that up to keep their play-caller off guard a little bit. Then, try to throw a lot of quick screens to try to defeat that blitz.”

    When an offense is successful “dinking it around” against GVSU’s zone and is able to keep the Lakers out of a three-man front, Martin cautiously will jump into a man coverage or a more aggressive cover-2. “But we don’t like to do that,” he said. “The biggest thing for us is when people dink it around, defensively we have to see the ball thrown and we have to rally to it and limit the yards after catch. The game will be won or lost if a team is going to be patient and dink it, the game’s probably going to be won or lost based on whether their receivers do a nice job after the catch. Our backend guys must do a good job of coming up and making the first contact tackle and limiting those yards.

    “A lot of teams when a team starts to dink it around may jump into that man coverage or jump into a hard -2. As an offense, we love when defenses start to be a little more aggressive because that’s when we can take a shot at a big play down the field. It becomes a battle of wills. They may complete a lot of balls but eventually they’re going to get down in the red zone and the field is going to shrink and now are they going to be able to run it in on you? Are they going to be able to throw the ball on the short field which is most more difficult?”

Here’s the Situation:
    The last two Division II national champions, Valdosta State and Grand Valley State, are locked in a back-and-forth affair. The Laker defense has been content to sit back in a soft zone and let the Blazers try to dink their way down the field. Valdosta has racked up some yardage, but still trails by four with two minutes to play. The Blazers take over on their own 20 yard line and would appear to be forced into a hurry-up offense.

    Valdosta head coach Chris Hatcher employs a no-huddle, shotgun attack anyway, so the Blazers look pretty comfortable, but it’s a long way to go in a short time against GVSU’s deepening zone. “All I’m looking for,” said Hatcher, “is first downs. You have to remain patient and stick with the plan of taking what they give you.
    “It all comes down to remaining patient as a play-caller and making sure your players know that you’re not going to get it all in one chunk if a team’s sitting back there in a loose zone or a prevent.”

    Martin knows the prevent defense isn’t a fan-favorite, but he also realizes that, “you look pretty foolish if the got 80 yards to go and they throw one over your head for an 80-yard touchdown.           

    “The biggest thing we’ve learned from situations we’ve been in is to get the kids to focus on the execution of the defense and not the situation,” he said. “I know from experience of being in these situations, you have a lead late and your defensive guys are thinking about everything but executing their technique within their zone coverage. They’re thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, if we stop them, we’re going to win’ as opposed to what got you there. Focus in on what got your there, playing good solid defense.”

    As the drive proceeds, Hatcher will continue to accept short throws a defense is giving him until the clock goes under one minute. Then, he reassesses his position, noting time and yard remaining. “Then you may have to take a few more shots down the field,” he said, “but it sure would be nice to methodically move the ball down into the scoring zone, and with the last few plays you have take those shots into the end zone.”

    When an opponent enters the red zone with less than a minute to play, Martin will look to use a few more zone pressures. “You can bring so more people and not feel like you’re giving up the field because you can take your deep defenders and make them fit right past the goal line. As opposed to being 2-deep or 3-deep, you’re more in a 6- or 7-across look. There’s still not that many holes in your coverage.”





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