Identifying and Attacking Pass Protections

Here is a chapter from a book that I am writing that deals with opponent breakdown and game planning. I hope to have this completed before the end of the year! This is a rough draft so I would appreciate any comments or suggestions...

Identifying pass protection can be difficult even though they all fall into three main categories; man, slide, and combo. In this chapter I will cover the basics for all three pass protections and how you can label them into your data set. We will also briefly discuss ways to attack common pass protections.

We all know that, in order to be a great defense you have to keep the offense behind the sticks in long yardage situations forcing them to throw the ball. Having to throw deeper concepts require more time to develop plus more time for the QB to read through his progressions. We need to be able to take advantage of that time, getting pressure while sending a little as we can. Getting pressure with only four or five rushing is about exploiting their pass protection - winning one-on-one match-ups or stunting to take advantage of the creases in their protection. This can be achieved by charting where they have the back and how that dictates the pass protection they want to run.

We need to have a system to chart pass protections so that we know what we are likely to get with the front call. If we know what we are likely to get then we know how to exploit it. Just like with most of the components we chart, it needs to be a science. It must be concise and easy for you to tag and communicate to both your staff and players.

MAN:

Man protection is one-on-one match-ups with OL and DL. Often called BOB, which can stand for Big On Big or Back On Backer. In this protection the offense is trying to keep the RB from having to block a rush DE or DT on a bull rush. Man pass protection is most easily identified by the combo block to one side from the Center and OG. To tag a man protection scheme in the PASS PRO column I will use a number to indicate how many are involved in blocking followed by MAN.

Against an even front the Center will usually combo block with one of the OG’s on the shaded DT. The two will also be eyeing the MIKE, or whomever they identify as the point, to account for a fifth man. If the MIKE blitzes to the open A Gap the Center will pick him up, but If he blitzes to the B Gap then the OG would take him. The RB will key the LB to his side. The QB is responsible for the third LB, if he blitzes then he needs to throw to his check-down. They can also have the RB cross the center and pick up the LB to that side.

If the RB is not involved in the protection then the QB will have to be responsible for both LB’s.

There are several ways to beat man pass protection; stunting DL, blitzing a LB, and a combination of the two. Before creating calls the first thing you should do is isolate your best DL against their weakest OL and try beating him with speed or power. The advantage I think you have in facing man pass protection is the ability to beat one-on-one match-ups without sending exotic blitzes that commit six or more. Sending four or five can help you run all your coverage's behind so you don’t have to vacate a zone because your bringing multiple second level players.

MAN PRESSURE #1: One of the easiest ways to defeat man pass protection would be to just stunt your DL. Your only sending four, which allows you to run all your coverage's. With all the movement your hoping that the OL will not be able to pass off the stunts, opening up lanes for free rushers. Stunting your DL is also a great way to close off gaps and allow the OLB’s to contain, which will take them out of conflict and allow them “hang” in their pass responsibility.

MAN PRESSURE #2: Second way to defeat man pass protection is to stunt a DL across the face of his shade then blitz a LB into the other gap, creating a simple gap exchange. Doing this to the 3 tech side will give you a 3-on-2 advantage and someone will be free on the rush. It will be important not to show the blitz too early or the OL could check to another protection and pass off movements and exchanges. In this option we are committing five to the pressure so you may have to change your coverage or vacate a zone.

If the OL is able to pick up blitz from the MIKE, then blitz the WILL to the open B Gap and now you have created a 2-on-1 to the shade shade side. The RB, if involved in the protection, he must pick up the free rusher and now you have one-on-ones across the board.

MAN PRESSURE #3: The final way you can take advantage of man protection and get pressure is to combine your stunting DL with blitzes from several different LB’s. You can also choose to simulate a blitz from a LB by walking him up to the LOS and then drop him into coverage. “Mugging” a LB on the LOS can also be a great way to get the OL to check into man pass protection.

SLIDE:

If you’re a team that likes to use movement up front a lot, then you will likely face teams that will want to slide protect to be able to pass off those stunts. Slide protection allows the OL to be responsible for a gap rather than a man. They have the ability to slide the OL in either direction, but most of the time they will slide away from the RB. We would label this the same as we do with man; number involved in the blocking scheme followed by SLIDE.

If you are an odd front team your most likely to get slide protection, for both 505 and TITE fronts.

The best way to attack slide protection is to work opposite the slide direction, sending two off the edge (DE and LB) of the slide giving you a 2-on-1 verse the RB.

COMBO:

The final pass protection category is combo. Just like the name suggests it’s a combination of man and zone (slide) principles. I will typically tag a 5 man slide where they lock the backside OT on a DE as a combo, even though most offensive coaches would argue that it’s a slide protection. In my opinion, I believe that most pass protections devolve into a combo protection post snap. What I am looking for to determine a combo protection is that crease created between the man side and the slide side. That’s where I want to attack so that crease is what I use to help label combo protections.

I will tag combo protections using three numbers. The first number is how many are involved in the protection, while the second and third number identify where the crease is at on the OL. Using the RB alignment pre-snap the second number tells how many OL until the crease occurs. 623 would be a six man protection and the crease would be located on the RB’s side between the OG and the Center. In a six man combo protection the RB will usually key the crease for his block.

Attacking the crease on a combo protection is typically your best bet to be successful. Like with a slide protection we want to send two off the edge, only here the edge is the crease. You can accomplish this by stunting two DL, like a twist. You can also stunt and gap exchange with a blitzing LB. Getting two to a gap here is okay because you will likely get the RB covering the crease which will present two new gaps to account for.

The best way to attack pass protections is to dictate to the offense what they are going to run. You can manipulate the offense into running man pass protection by running what some people have called the “amoeba” defense, we call it STEM. If you have not run across this oddity before it is utilizing random movement from the DL and LB’s to disguise the front and what pressure you may be sending. We will walk everyone up and have the DL and MIKE play head-up on an offensive lineman. They move around and upon the snap they must run the call from wherever they are. Obviously this is something that requires practice to run, however it doesn’t require any new call to be created or learned, you just tag STEM to any defensive call. We have found that, even if we STEM with just the DL and MIKE, and allow the OLB’s to play normal alignment rules, that the response from the offense is to call man. We have now dictated to the offense what they will run, regardless if we decide to bring four or six.

You can attack pass protections in a bunch of different ways, but you must first identify what type of pass protection you will likely face from your opponent. Having a concise system to identify and tag your opponents pass protections will give you the best data to spot tendencies that you can exploit on Friday night.