Defensive Fronts (Part 2)

In the first entry I talked about the two major types of fronts; odd and even. Most the entry was spent talking about even fronts and some variations on techniques that are used along with glaring pros and cons of the front.

This entry will focus more on the odd front and some of the basic techniques that can be used from it as well. Again, i'll try and maintain simplicity. I'll be able to cover a little more about the odd front, because we employ a 3-man front at West so i'm a little more conformtable talking about it. This is also why the majority of the information that I discuss-although applicable to other odd fronts-will mostly be in reference to a 3-man front.

One of the defining characteristics of an odd front is the NT (Nose Tackle). This is the player that's lined up in a head up alignment, also known as a 0 tech. This player can also be shaded to a strong or weak 1 tech or diangonally rotated, also known as a "jet", in any of the 3 alignments. Jetting isn't very popular in the high school level and more commonly seen at the collegiate level. Shading occurs in the high school level but not very often and even more infrequently into the lower levels of competition. In most high school levels of competition a NT lined up in a 0 tech over the center is going to be enough to get the job done in that most high school Center's have trouble snapping the ball and maintaining a block. Some Centers at the high school level have trouble getting their snaps off while being hovered over by a 0 tech let alone maintaining a block afterwards.

In the 3-man front the NT is typically a 2-gap player. This means that he's responsible for the gap on either side of the Offensive center. The Ends are way variation came set in. A bang tech is a method of play where the defensive lineman, an End in this case, attacks the Offensive lineman head on and plays a 2-gap responsibility. A loop tech is a method in which the End attacks the outside shoulder of the Offensive lineman and maintains gap control (a single gap). So the two pre-dominant methods of playing a 3-man front is a bang/2-gap or a loop/gap control.

These two variations and methods of play depend on the personnel and coaches preference. At West we play a loop or 2-gap system but at higher levels of competition, such as the collegiate level or in the pros it is not at all uncommon to see 3-man 2-gap fronts in which larger bodies are much easier to come by. Bigger bodies are prefered for 2-gap play because it's easier to fill, squeeze, or attack multiple gaps with larger players.

The glaring difference, scheme wise, between a 2-gap system and a gap control system is the use of bodies. In 2-gap the defense relies on the D-lines ability to control a gap on each side of them allowing the Linebackers to flow freely while a gap control requires the Linebackers to "check and flow". Neither system-in my eyes-is superior but simply a different way of playing.

The available players within the defensive scheme as a whole can greatly impact the method of the D-line play, for example, while Rex Ryan (Now HC of the New York Jets) was the Defensive Coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens he employed a 2-gap 3-man front because he felt that the superior speed and ability of the Inside backers (one of whom is future hall-of-famer, Ray Lewis) would be most efficient if all gaps were accounted for without the need of using Linebackers.

We've already covered that Centers covered by a 0 tech can generate problems within themselves, now let's move onto stunts and games froma 3-man front. The greatest strength of an odd technique is that it allows for more exotic blitz packages and the greatest reason for this is that it can be difficult for the Offense to identify where and if there will be an additional blitzer beyond the 3 down players.

Here are two of the more popular defensive fronts from an odd look;



Although pre-snap movement isn't as easy to do with an odd-front, it can be done and by including linebackers and defensive backs within the pre-snap movement it can become very cumbersome for a quarterback and offensive lineman to read. Many times the pre-snap movement that's done either adds a linebacker or removes a linebacker from the defensive line.

Strengths of the odd front include many of the same strengths as the even front but include the necessary use of Linebackers. In the talk about the even front, I showed the example of the 3rd down game. The same game can be done with the 3-man front while employing a Linebacker;

The thing that I personally like about the odd-front is that there are many ways to attack pass pro by dictating where help will come from. Like I had mentioned earlier and in the previous entry, the NT will generally cause problems for a Center, this will require a double team on the NT to stop any significant penetration. By using the NT to attack a gap you can dictate where the help will come from. So elaborating on this example, if the Guard on the game side is good enough to keep the levels from being split, we can use the NT to attack the game side A gap-necessitating a double team by the Center and Guard-keeping the Guard occupied and away from helping with the game.

FOR INQUISITIVE MINDS: If a Center is good enough to maintain a block on a NT and a coordinator wanted to attack with this game, sugaring the LB would be a good way to keep the Guard occupied. By creeping a LB into a shallow 20 tech (head up over the Guard but off the line), the Guard has to play the LB honest by setting early;



To continue along with the strengths of the odd-front, many blitzes can be disguised or hidden. Trumping the pre-snap blocking assignments by mis-leading the offensive line. With 3 or 4 LB's it's easy to apply pressure from a multitude of areas without taking away from pass coverage or run support v. tosses, sweeps, or reverses. Here's a good example of pressure applied from a gap control 3-man front;

Each of these fronts, the odd and even front have a strengths and weaknesses, or really a more appropriate statement would be that they each have strengths in different areas. Don't discount either front from one another-it would be foolish and you would fail to do either of them justice.