Utah defense Morgan Scalley Bear Front pressures and coverages

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Bear Front Pressures and Coverages 

Front

The Bear front is played with 2 3i a nose guard and 2 5i's. When teams get a tight end, you will often see  the dt to that side shift to a 4i. Some teams like it from a defensive perspective playing it that way. Some teams will move with it like the diagram below. All in all, it is a good scheme and ties in nicely to a 4-2-5 as you can play it without subbing and walking a will linebacker down(#22) and kicking the d line the other way. In the exampe below it is to the right. 

Bear is an excellent run defense, especially against teams that run some gap schemes because you can cover the guards and cause some issues in the run game. 

You also have to decide how you want to play your nose guard.

You have several options:

1. Do you play him to the side away from the back.

2. Do you have him play half man behind(offside A gap away from flow)

3. Do you have him play front side A gap and let the lb play offside A

4. Do you allow him to play 2 gap with the LB just playing off him.

5. Do you have him play the tight end (run strength A gap)

You can also sub the front like below and bring an extra d lineman in if you don't like playing your will on the line of scrimmage. Take a safety out and bring a d lineman in. I've done both. 

Coverages

Zone concepts 

Cover 2  

Below is an example of how you can play cover 2 with the de playing as the hook player in bear.

You can play the coverage by dropping your will , who is on the los and your DE to the hook,You can send the mike. This is just one option. You can also rush the end and drop the mike into the hook and send a 4 man pressure that way as well. 

You can see the defensive end playing the middle hook and walling #3

video  

Bear Cover 3 

Fire Zone pressures

Bear Strike Cover 3 , They send the sam to the field in the bear look and drop the olb to the boundary. They play cover 3 and slant the whole defensive front. 

Odd Pressure vs BYU

Similar concept 3 under 3 deep with a defensive lineman playing the hook. They will often have the de drop to the hook as opposed to the flat like several 3 under 3 deep teams when they blitz off the edge.

Another pressure from the bear front. They bring the cb to the bottom of the screen and the mike to the boundary vs the closed set. They get a 2x1 on the tackle as the tackle blocks the LB. In the rpo game that leaves the cb unblocked, qb does a nice job getting the throw off. 

You can  see here as the guard takes the blitzing inside linebacker the cb has a nice free run at the qb. Qb does a great job reading it and is well. coached to get the ball out. The safety does a nice job tackling the wr at 5 yards. 

Clip with it.

Man concepts cover 0 and cover 1

Below is an example of their alignment in bear cover 1. Cover 1 is man free

Here's how it looks vs man as they align the mike directly over the rb. You can also see the safety, play 
right over the man he is covering so you can see them in man pre snap.

 The Safety comes down to play the h back with the Mike Lb responsible for the RB. Easy for him as he goes where the rb goes. They play press to the single side and on the #2 wr to the passing strength.

Short yardage defense 

3rd and 1

Bear O

You will also see it in short yardage situations. Below is a diagram where they go bear cover 0 and bring the FS down as a run support defender. They play the Mike #30 to the A gap away from the rb and the safety comes down to play run

Arizona runs zone read and the defense plays it hard with the olb on dive, forces the pull read and the safety is coming down in cover 0 and plays the rb. Nice design by scalley as they get off  the field.  They get the first down but the scheme is great. 

Video of the bear cover 0

Another example of bear cover 0 vs unbalanced to the boundary.

You can see the safety make a great play on it as he's unblocked and comes down hard to make the play on the screen. #15 is on the h back and #13 is free. #30 is the offside A gap with #41 the nose guard playing half man behind. #92 is in a 4i to the tight end side. 

The safety makes a great play on it.

 

A few more cover 1 coverage clips

Vs USC in the Pac 12 championship game they ran a few bear pressures.

 Bear Pressures: 

Bear below is a nice pressure with the sam off the edge and the olb to the boundary dropping. It looks like quarter , quarter, half. 

USC 4 man slides and the pressure gets home as the guard is conflicted and no one takes the Nose. Nice design by Scalley. 

Another example, is going bear with a cover 3 fire zone. A nice 4 man pressure that forces the ball out quick. Nice job of disguise as they go cover 3 from it. Not sure if the DT is going the wrong way on this because they leave the #2 wr uncovered.

This is the 2nd article on Coach Scalley. He is an innovator who does a great job as a coordinator and one of the reasons they are going to the Rose Bowl!