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We use pressure to try to dictate and

limit what an offense can do. By being able

to create confusion, we hopefully can force

an offense to commit a significant amount

of practice time to preparation for our wide

variety of man and zone blitzes. This takes

practice time away from things that they

want to do offensively.

Once you have success putting pressure

on the quarterback, offenses start going tomaximum protection. They will keep their

backs and potentially their tight end in for

extra pass protection. Now, instead of getting

four or five receivers out into pass patterns,

we will start to see more two and three-man

routes. By using zone blitzes, we can put

pressure on the quarterback, plus have max-

imum coverage versus limited receivers.

Another thing that we have discovered

about zone blitzes is that our players have

fun running them. Our linebackers are

always wanting to blitz, and our defensive

linemen dream about having the opportuni-

ty to get an interception or getting a big hit

on a receiver while in pass coverage. Zone

blitzes give us something that our players

really enjoy doing and have a lot of fun

preparing to run each week.

How Do We Run Zone Blitzes?

We base our zone blitzes out of our 4-3

and eagle fronts. We have the ability to get

an extra rusher by bringing one or two line-

backers and dropping one or two defensive

linemen, depending on the blitz.

Behind our zone blitzes, we will primari-

ly play some form of three-deep. We can

roll to cover three strong, cover three weak,

or play what we call three robber, which is

dropping a safety into the underneath hole

area. As a change-up, we will run zone

blitzes from a two-deep look.

The first blitz we will look at is run out of

our eagle front and called eagle storm. In

eagle storm, we will blitz our Sam and Mike

linebackers and drop our weak side defen-

sive end. Behind it, we will play cover threeto the strong side of the formation.

Responsibilities

Bandit: Rip inside and attack the

guards outside shoulder. We want him to

take the A gap by crushing the guard inside

and then working vertically upfield.

Nose: Cross face on the center into the

weak A gap.

Tackle: Contain player.

E n d : Attack the offensive tackle to

check for run first. On his drop, he reads

from No. 2 to No. 1. He is a seam to flat

dropper.

Sam: Blitzes D gap. Is a contain player

Mike: Blitzes strong side B gap.

Scrapes tight off of the bandit going inside

to the A gap.

Will: Key is No. 3. Is a B gap player with

run at him. Plays strong A gap with run

away. He is the hole player vs. pass.

Rover: Drops seam to flat strong. He

reads No. 2 to No. 1.

Free: Rotates to the deep middle third.

Corner: Bail to deep outside third.

The next blitz we will look at is run out of

our eagle G front and we call it eagle G

flush. In this blitz, we are going to bring our

Mike and Will linebackers and drop our

weak side defensive end. Behind our flush

blitz we will drop our free safety into the

underneath hole and play our three-robber

coverage.

Responsibilities

Bandit: Contain player.

Nose: Cross face of the guard into the

strong B gap.

Tackle: Contain player.E n d : Attack the offensive tackle to

check for run first. On drop, read from No.

2 to No. 1. He is a seam-to-flat dropper.

Sam: Attack the tight end to check for

run first. On his drop, he will read from No.

2 to No. 1. He is a seam to flat dropper.

Mike: Blitz weak A gap. Come tight

behind the Will blitzing.

Will: Blitz strong A gap.

Rover: Rotate to the deep middle third.

Free: Drop into the underneath hole.

Diagram 7: Eagle Storm Cover Three

Diagram 2: Eagle Front

Diagram 1: 4-3 Front

Diagram 5: Three-Robber

Diagram 3: Cover Three Strong

Diagram 4: Cover Three Weak

Diagram 6: Two-Deep Diagram 8: Eagle GFlush

Three Robber

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Corner: Bail to deep outside third.

The third and final zone blitz we will look

at is called stack whip. It is run out of our

stack front. In this blitz we will bring our Will

and Mike linebackers and drop our strong

side defensive end. Behind it we will roll

Cover 3 to the weak side of the formation.

Responsibilities

Bandit: Attack the tight end to check for

run first. On the drop, he will read No. 2 to

No. 1. He is a seam to flat player.

Tackle: Contain player.

Nose: Cross face of center into strong A

gap.

End: Rip inside and attack the guards

outside shoulder. We want him to take the

A gap by crushing the guard inside and

then working vertically upfield.

Sam: Hole player. Read No. 3. Run to,

play B gap.

Mike: Blitz weak B gap. Scrape tight off

of the defensive end going into the A gap.

Will: Blitz C gap. Contain player.

Rover: Rotate to the deep middle third.

Free: Drop and become a seam to flat

player weak. Read No. 2 to No. 1.

Corner: Bail to deep outside third.

We have had some success with our pres-

sure package by incorporating the zone blitz.

Last season, we had a total of 36 sacks and

18 interceptions in 10 games. We believe in

the aggressive, attacking style of defense. Our

players and coaches believe in our system

and are committed to preparing it each week.

Again, on behalf of our head coach Rob

Ash and the rest of the Drake University

football program, we would like to thank the

AFCA for the opportunity to contribute to this

years Summer Manual. I would also like to

thank all of those coaches who, through the

years, have helped us grow in this profes-

sion. We hope this article can be of some

benefit to your program, and wish you the

best of luck in the 1999 season.

Diagram 9: Stack Whip Cover Three

The Drake defense held its opponents to less than 300 yards in total offenselast season and was a big reason for the Bulldogs earning their second Pioneer

Football League championship.

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