How To Defend the Wing-T Down Play in The 4-2-5 Defense

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Video Transcription Posted Below:

[00:00:00] Hi I’m Joe Daniel from JoeDanielFootball.com and the Football Coaching Podcast. I want to show you our 4-2-5 defense that comes directly from the 4-2-5 defense system we have a Joe DanielFootball.com and talk about how we’re going to defend the Wing-T down play. This is the strong side down and what we’re going to look at here is just our base over front and the coverage is a 2 coverage so we’ve got a sky check back here. We’ve got the Week safety down as the force over here and corner play deep half deep half and the free safety playing that 2 Robber that would be the TCU split field type of coverage.

[00:00:41] You could play just a cover three or like that and we’ll be fine as well. Going through our blocking here we’re going to get these guys going to be working backside linebacker. Probably getting them working and looking for the weak safety folding in, not worried about the defensive end as long as that spark across his face. We are going to get a gap block here. Get the y coming down on the backer. And the Z can either arc. He might but it’s not going to matter here.

[00:01:07] So you know they may get extra help on the mike. And a pull and kick by that front side guard.

[00:01:17] It’s a really good play. Cut off block here. The backside block. We’re going to get the back to this side he’s going to be running like a pitch path and it’s going to look like an option and it can become an option and become a double option, not a triple, where his quarterback is going to reverse pivot out and the back is going to be running to get right off the down block and then the quarterback will carry out an option fake. So they’re looking to run it right in here and they want to run it right off of the gap block on your tackle and inside of the kick out there. So that’s what they’re looking to do against us so let’s look at our reactions to each one of these blocks and what we get.

[00:02:03] Now our nose is in a tough situation. He’s going to try to split this. He’s got two, as he gets the step the fire step by the center he’s going to step and trying to close out that double so as he strikes and he feels the center trying to go away from him he should be hipping in and getting a little chase down there and he’s just going to be a chase. This is a very quick hitting play so it’s not like he’s going to run this down but that’s going to be his reaction to it. The tackle is getting a pull outside so he has to strike and immediately feel and he’s going to have to really work hard.

[00:02:35] And so we talk about that 3 technique being so important that 3 technique has got to not get blown down on this gap block. So as he steps he’s going to feel that guy leaving him and stepping to the outside and he’s got to be stepping and hipping into the pressure from the Gap block here so we do the best he can. But really what we want him to do is not give ground. It’s a really hard thing to ask him to blow that guy up. I want him strike and try to follow the guard. It can be really hard hard to do and against a good gap can be almost impossible. You could also try to teach him to cross face but again against a good block that he’s not seen coming. It’s really really hard. So I’m not going to play imaginary you know Clinic talk that he’s going to strike him and cross his face. That’s all great. He’s in trouble right now. And you can teach it how you think you’re going to teach it. But I need him to not give ground now and I’ll just say that’s probably not the way I’m going to talk to him. I to tell him to strike and hip in and try to squeeze that block in as he feels that pressure. We usually to trying to bend the corner and turn the corner rather than going across the face of the field. But the reality is if he can not get blown out we’re OK.

[00:03:47] Our defensive end now is getting an inside release and he’s going to ride and squeeze that Y down.

[00:03:52] He’s not going to let the Y run through the inside and that is the most critical part of how we’re going to play this is he’s playing what we play is a 6 you play a 7 either a head up or an inside shade. Even we play the 6, it’s a tight shade. I teach him the strike point is the inside part of the inside number.

[00:04:10] So even though we’re held up we’re really playing more of the inside and he’s going to see the down or the Gap block down inside by the tackle with his visual Key and his pressure key and he’s trying to squeeze this thing down and he wants to wrong arm train wreck blow up cause chaos in this gap.

[00:04:30] And that is the key to the play. The key to the play right now is that six technique defensive and not allowing a clean release for the Y. If he doesn’t allow the Y a clean release through the B gap as long as he does that then he is going to be pretty good shape.

[00:04:48] Now if you’re in a 7, this guy will probably not come down to the mike he will probably try to go outside widen his split go outside of the defensive end the widen his split try to go outside of the defensive end to the mike backer. Either way this defensive end has got to squeeze down if he widens out and he’d have to by the rules know what point he doesn’t keep going with him. But if he widens out to four or five feet at the very least I’m going to play in a seven technique and really play a strong visual key because I know he’s going to be outside on me and I say visual key that means I’m looking looking at the hip of the tackle while I’m feeling the Tight End. It’s a difficult technique to work quite a bit with that Strong End. And that’s why we do flip our ends because only one guy is going to get enough work at that.

[00:05:32] The Mike backer gets pull outside. Now with pull outside what we do is check because of all the new things we’re seeing where we’ve got you know a jet sweep with the midline option off of it type of stuff. And so he checks on an outside pull and then he’s going to look to scrape if this defensive end is doing a good job of squeezing that Y from the 6-tech then he’s going to be able to scrape and get tight the color off the hip of the defensive end.

[00:06:01] We’re just building our wall right here around this B gap, spilling the ball to our strong safety who is our force. Our corner is going to stay in coverage in case of a keep pass and our free safety, the final piece in this is really going to matter.

[00:06:16] Our free safety is going to be running the alley so he’s a bounce read and then he’s running the alley to again continue the spill to our strong safety who will be coming down and finishing the play off and we’re expecting that R to continue to bounce.

[00:06:32] The strong say if he does have to respect the pitch on the option so he can’t come flying down in there. So I don’t have him in here playing any of this stuff. So he’s got to respect the Option component of it. Since this is an option that’s going to go outside of our defensive end most of the time I don’t want to have our defensive end necessarily respecting the option for if it gets to a point where we do slow the end down with a tag.

[00:06:57] So that’s how we’re going to play this thing. Initially we’ll have our corner deep and strong safety with the force. Free Safety will be coming down to play the quarterback in the alley.

[00:07:07] And then again forcing the spill out there. guys, backside end is going to be chasing. Your will linebacker doesn’t get anything but read going away from him. So he’s just going to be scraping he’ll be like an extra man on the spill if he gets there. And then your counter-reverse bootleg guy sitting back here with the weak safety being late on the pursuit. Stay in coverage and then the fence player at the end, last man to to keep him from getting in the end zone. If it comes down to that.

[00:07:33] So that’s the 4-2-5 defense, the base 4-2-5 defense over front that we teach our 4-2-5 defense system running against the wing T down, the 80 series down to the strong side. So hope that gives you some ideas on how to defend that. Of course you can run in different fronts you can adjust your front with the wing T.

[00:07:53] And we usually will do some different things to get some heavier looks and they’re going to do an under front maybe get into a 6-2 type of look or even a goal line type of look if we want to do that as well. Lots of options there. If this video helps out if you enjoy this video and you want to see more of it go head down below. Like and Subscribe to this channel and check me out on Twitter @footballinfo.