Shuffle to Sprint Technique for 2-Players in Hot Pressures

By Kevin Bowers
Defensive Coordinator
Medina High School (OH)
Twitter: @coachbowers59

Blitzing six is and has been a successful choice for defenses for years. The question is, how do you cover it without playing the obvious zero man coverage? The answer is zoning it with five defenders. 2 Under 3 Deep coverages give you the best of the 6 man pressure with sticky coverage of the threatened underneath players, and over the top help with 2 of your 3 deep droppers. It was a concept we played on more than 94% of snaps this season en route to a 14-1 record, among the best in school history. In this report, I will detail the coverage responsibilities of each defender and how we adjust to open formations.

Pressure Patterns:

Building in the pressure patterns is where the fun comes in. In these hot pressures, you can fill six gaps any way you want. We mustn't have pressure players in a single wave. They need to be on different levels. Some of the thought process we partake in each week includes the following:

• Two blitzers off the same edge
• Two blitzers into same side A and B gaps
• Two blitzers into opposite A and B gaps
• Two blitzers into double A gaps
• Twist the blitzes

We use the following terminology in our pressure patterns. They are all weapons in our hot pressures:

“Arrow”- Double A gap pressures

“Bayonet”-  Since “B” and “A” are at beginning of the word, both are on the same side.

“Bomb”- Coming off the edge from the tail side (RB side) which is good vs. zone

“Railroad”- Coming off edge away from RB side. Good against counter schemes

“Club”-  C gap blitzer on one side, B gap blitzer on the other side

When it comes to defending the run, we make sure all blitzers understand they are spill players forcing the ball out to the Hot 2 defenders. Below are some general guidelines we use in defending the run:

• Cross Face all DL & LBs Read the down block and rip across face
• Pace the Blitz so the DL hits 1st and the LBs are 2^nd
• Read on Run allow for adjustments by the LB on their blitz path

General Description:

In general, the defense is constructed with 2 underneath players purely reading the directional key of the QB and 3 deep players playing off of the intentional read of the QB. We refer to the underneath players as “Hot” players, the outside deep ⅓ players as, “Deep ⅓” and the middle of the field deep ⅓ player as the “Hinge” player.