Coaching a Double A-Gap Blitz in The 4-2-5 Defense

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Video Transcript:

[00:00:00] Hi I’m Joe Daniel from JoeDanielFootball.com and the Football Coaching Podcast that we’re talking about a double A Gap blitz for your 4-2-5 defense. Defensive guys love double A-gap blitzes. It’s a great way to get pressure. Here’s the thing about the double A-gap blitz. It’s a good blitz against the run game. Obviously if I’m bringing both linebackers in a 4 2 5 defense, if it pops the first level we’ve got problems. Because if I bring both these guys who’s the next guy? He’s back here. He’s at 10 and hopefully getting up there.

[00:00:29] I just know if I’m bringing both of them if they pop first level on a run situation it’s going to be a problem. I also know that this is a great blitz against drop back passing. However if it’s a sprint game, or it’s a bootleg and they clear out of there before I can get in there and get to the quarterback, I’ve also got a problem because I’ve just brought two of my pass rushers right up the middle and down depending on what are most likely slower pass rushers on the edges and especially those tackles to get to the quarterback.

[00:00:58] Because I brought my two fastest guys out of that group usually although we like to play some speed guys at weak end, I run 2 fastest guys in A-Gap. But, risk you take. We know they’re there. so we’re going to talk about now a double egg out blitz out of the four to five.

[00:01:14] If we’re in a zone blitz situation we know that we’re going to have three deep here. You can run this zone which you can run it as a man blitz as well. Cover zero.

[00:01:27] We’re going to have deep thirds for these guys. Then our are strong safety weak safety because they are not in the Blitz, They are going to be force players if we’re talking about an umbrella.

[00:01:36] They are outside of the umbrella. They are the force players and they are going to be Drop on #2 players and they’re going to check for a run pass key if they get pass then they’re going to be looking up Number Two.

[00:01:47] They’ll be looking up number two finding him and looking to get inside of him. If it’s the Y, especially, you want to get inside of him because we don’t have help from from the inside.

[00:01:59] Now what we’re going to do is drop one of these guys to get a little bit of help.

[00:02:04] So they’re going to be our drop on 2. They’ll check run first, they’re still force players in the run first, then look up number two.

[00:02:14] You can just drop them in the hash especially if you’re expecting to get pretty quick pressure. You can just drop into the hashes the hashes are where the action happens. They get to the hash and then look at the quarterback or look up number two when they get to the hash and find out where he’s at. You know everything is going to happen pretty much with the hash and the numbers.

[00:02:30] So if you just want to drop into the hash or drop them halfway between hash and numbers is a good area to just if you want to spot drop this. You play a little bit with fire. Some areas see really really talented, really well coached quarterbacks who are spending all year working on learning R4 system and hot reads and all sorts of different things and we don’t see it ton of that so we’re able to just kind of roll the dice sometimes with a blitz.

[00:03:02] We’re going to drop on 2, drop on 2. Somebody since we’re zone blitzing somebody from the front six has to become our drop on three or low hole player here to get in this area and what he does is pretty much look for crossers.

[00:03:16] If he gets a dragger he’s going to look to to reroute him. He’s going to push anything if he gets a flare by the R he’s going to push it to one of the outside guys and look for a number two coming in to become the new number three to him. So he’s going to be the drop on three guy whoever you want to do that with is kind of up to you doesn’t have to be any particular guy that needs anybody specific.

[00:03:40] What we’ll do here is use the defensive end on the strong side for this for these purposes.

[00:03:47] So what we’re going to do and this is really the basics of zone blitzing is we’re going to have a loop guy here. He’s going to be the contain guy there.

[00:03:57] Get this guy in a slam, he’s going to be getting wide. He’s looking to widen that pocket. If this quarterback gets out he’s got to get flat to try to get to him again.

[00:04:06] If this is a sprint out situation that this is the sprint guy I don’t want to bring this double A gap blitz.

[00:04:10] I’m going to cut the nose out to be a gap and then what we’re going to work to do here and whoever you want to go first I’m going to cross them.

[00:04:20] And so we’re going to show it can get them kind of stacked so that Center doesn’t know I’ve put the senator in a situation where he has to make a decision now. OK. This Center is going to have to make a decision to take one and the other one is probably going to be on the back. Drop back passes situation.

[00:04:34] I’m putting that Center in a tough spot here. Coming tight and a lot of times I want that first guy to actually draw the center with him. He may bring a club to the center and really draws attention. Force his frame of mind.

[00:04:45] If the center completely ignores him, then just get a rip and get vertical. What I want to do when I get there and get vertical right now and we’re coming right tight off the hip with that Will Backer.

[00:04:57] And if he comes clean then we’ve got a really good shot here because that is not going to be able to get up there take a shot.

[00:05:03] So this is a really simple zone blitz Double A Gap. What I’m going to do is strike the Tight End and our defensive end is going to be a pressure key and a visual keep the pressure keeps going to be the tight end and that tells him most of what he needs to know. But I also sometimes get a slam on him than a release and it could get kicked out. So as he strikes the tight end he wants to get the eyes inside and peek at that tackles hip. And as long as the tackle hip is setting, he can know that it’s a pass.

[00:05:28] If the tackle were to block down hard then he’s probably going to be looking inside. Probably has someone to come to kick him out.

[00:05:34] If he’s got reach reach and he knows he’s going to be stretching it out.

[00:05:37] But if he’s assuming that he gets strikes the tight end the TE is now releasing, we’re striking a tight – we’re in a head up 6 but we’re really striking slightly inside. And if he if he’s not a very good guy we’re going to play him seven inside one of the things go over in the 4-2-5 Defense Systems. Who your personnel needs to be.

[00:05:56] So he’s going to strike and he sees that tackle pass setting there. He’s seen its a pass. Hey Now he’s going to be the drop on three guy. Just looking to get to the middle of the field.

[00:06:06] If the linebacker is a drop on three guy then I’m going to tell him hey find out where a running back is and get there and do all this sort of stuff. His biggest concern is make sure that it’s a pass and then just get in this low hole area where you can help out on crossers. Key up the quarterback, see his eyes and things like that and just surprise! There you are.

[00:06:27] This guy wants to throw where these guys vacated, maybe you got a quick slant coming try to get there and help out as best he can on it.

[00:06:35] So maybe he’s got the TE on a little seam he can drop off the inside of him. Just kind of surprise the quarterback and be where he’s not expected to be. I don’t have to get great coverage there. Just get underneath something and you can do a lot by watching the quarterback.

[00:06:50] That’s quick little zone blitz out of the 4-2-5 defense system. These are exotics. One of the things is really important to know when you’re talking about zone blitzing is you don’t carry 19 zone blitzes into a game plan. You carry one two maybe three into a game plan. What we do a lot of times is we’ll come up with three in that Sunday meeting and say here’s three that we want to look at. If by Wednesday they’re not all clicking we’ll pull one or even two out and only carry one into a game. Sometimes it just depends on the situation.

[00:07:18] What you need for that game plan you don’t have to have. So this isn’t something we’re going to have 19 different variations of the Double A-Gap Blitzes. It’s just what we think is going to give us the best advantage that week. If you want to get deeper into the 4 2 5 defense then you can go to 425defense.com and check out the 4-2-5 defense system. You can also get tons of great coaching information on JoeDanielFootball.com and follow me on Twitter @footballinfo.