Defending bunch, pressures & coverages: Steelers, Browns, Rams, Bills, giants, Bengals, Chargers, Chiefs

 Every week in the NFL you see more and more  bunch and condensed formations.

Teams love to run mesh concepts out of bunch formations and condensed 2x2 sets with the following in mind.

1. get the ball to the RB vs man

2. If man and the RB isn't open, try to get the shallow crosser/mesh concept. 

3. In zone they may hit the crosser in a window but will hit the sit down route of not there. 

The mesh is one concept, but teams will run various routes out of bunch and condensed formation. I will try to discuss some thoughts on both sides of the ball.

1st, the back is often the first option on many of the routes. If the coverage dictates it he is the first read. You see it so often with the Chiefs, who make a living throwing to the running back out of the backfield. 

The Rams are another team that run the majority of their offense out of condensed sets. 

In order  to defend it you need to understand at times what the offenses are trying to accomplish.

1st, the back is often the first option on many of the routes. If the coverage dictates it he is the first read. You see it so often with the Chiefs, who make a living throwing to the running back out of the backfield. 

What's the best way to defend them when they run condensed and bunch formations?

Pressure and coverage:

• Do you play man with underneath help? That's tough at times because you know with the mesh teams are going to sometimes set 3 picks for the crosser coming across.
• Do you play zone and open up windows underneath?
• Do you blitz it and run 5 man pressures?
• Do you play combo, zone to the bunch and man to the single side?

Defensive things to consider:

• who is lined up where in the formation. Is the best wr single side?  Where are their best options?
• What do they do with the back? Where do they align him, to the bunch or away from it? 
• Do they keep  the rb in protection, free release or check release him 
•  Is the rb dynamic. Not everyone has a back that's dynamic. Can you cover him with a linebacker or do you put a safety on him
• Can they handle edge pressure? If they are free releasing the back, that may open things up from a pressure standpoint.
• If man, how are you teaching your dbs to get thru the traffic.

This article  will focus on defending bunch and some of the  difficult  concepts being run from condensed sets. 

Man/man free defense:

The most common man to man variation is to play #2 head up on the slot and #1 and #3 covered by the cb and safety. Sometimes the dbs will play it straight and at other times you may switch and take 1st man inside and the cb will take 1st man that releases outside. People have 2 different variations.

You will also see many teams drop the safety down from either side in which I call a lurk/hole concept.

Also, you must teach your dbs if playing it straight how they are going to align and drive on routes to allow the other db to get thru the traffic. This is very important. Some coaches will teach if one goes inside, drive hard on the outside shoulder so that allows #3 to sort thru the traffic and get to the outbreaking routes. There are different techniques but keep that in mind. 

Broncos

The Broncs show a 2 high look but the coverage is man free with the Safety to the side of the bunch diving down to help on crossers. They used it a few times vs the Jets in week 3 as show below. 2 clips are attached

On 3rd and 6 the Jets run the concept again. The Broncos switch the coverage and how they sort the bunch route out.

Nice scheme on defending bunch!

Bucs

Here the Bucs play #2 head up rush 5 and bring the free safety down as a rat defender to jump the crossers. They disrupt the route and end up getting a pick and a sack on back to back plays.

Saints vs 49ers 

3rd and 4

The Saints show 2 high but play 2 man hole and the lb blitz engages the rb.

Texans vs Browns

Texans bring 1 off each edge go man free. Browns man beater , condensed split x on the 9 route

Cardinals vs Jets

Cardinals in dime 

Coverage will blitz man free (dime rat) dime back looks for crossers underneath

Jets shallow cross with #1 with a whip route by #3

Notre Dame vs Vanderbilt

3rd and goal on the 8

The Vandy's go man free and bring 5. They move to an odd front and the protection call is wrong and allows the olb to come clean. Nice design by Vanderbilt switching to an odd front and bringing the sam and the will lb.  They play #2 solid and play #1 and #3 with the cb and the safety(They combo it)

                                                                        

Weaknesses of man

It is difficult to play man when you are getting pick routes trying to free up a crosser. Sometimes in bunch teams will run 2-3 pick routes and that makes it unwinnable at times for the defensive back.

The NFL Teams are smart they will put the third guy out wide, the defense will walk their safety out on him and teams will know it's some version of man when they motion him back inside. 

Look at how deep Hargreaves has to go to clear the traffic.

The next time the Chiefs decide to run the sail route. The Texans bring 4 and go man free with the weak safety playing as a hole player.

Sail is another term for flood route. #2 runs the deep out for a 17 yard gain.

Lurk concept opposite the 3x1 bunch

Here  the Chargers go man and the free safety will jump any deep crosser with their lurk concept. The other safety is playing deep 1/2 

       

     

Buffalo Bills Man with match up principles

In the following diagram the Bills are sorting out the bunch routes but are still playing man. The cb takes first thing outside. the outside safety takes 1st vertical and the inside safety takes the first in breaking route.

                                                 Zone coverages 

The most common coverage is to roll to a cover 3 strong look with a flat defender.

The 1st clip is the Giants playing it vs the Rams. Giants show pressure but only bring 3 and roll to the strong side.

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The Rams run a similar look vs the Giants but use the safety as a hole player looking for a crosser from the bunch look

Titans man concept vs bunch

The point man takes #3 and the safety takes #2

The man on the #3 wr plays outside leverage and the safety plays inside leverage on #2 

                                                              Combo coverages

NEW: The Bengals play man to the single wr side and bring a 5 man pressure to that side.

They play 1/4, 1/4 half to the 3 wr side and man on #1 weak with safety help over the top.

At first I thought 1/2 to the single side but definitely man single side.

NEW: Here the Browns play combo coverage against the Steelers. They are playing 1/3 over the top of bunch and middle 1/3 with the other safety. Backside single cb on an island man for man with no help.

The Steelers have a man and zone beater built in. In the first clip they throw to the single side on the fade for 27 yards.

In the 2nd clip they throw the sit route vs the Browns. The Browns played the same coverage on both.

Combo coverages are when you play zone on one side and man to the other side. 

Here the Chargers play zone to the bottom and man to man up top vs the Chiefs

                          

The Saints vs 49ers
2nd and 10, down 27-13
The Saints play combo, man on #1 and zone to the bottom. They role that way and play 1/4,1/4, 1/2. They do an excellent job taking the underneath stuff and Mullens tries to hit the deep route. It is underthrown and intercepted.

The Bills play combo against the Jets

Down and Distance 3rd and 11
Bills play m/m on #1 at the bottom of the screen away from the 3x1 The Jets run 1 on the out 2 on the shallow and 3 on the post corner up top.

In the bottom picture the  Bengals are playing man to man coverage up top and zone to the side of the trips bunch. 

Pressures

Here the Bengals run a 5 man pressure with 1/4, 1/4 principle

Offense The Falcons run a shallow cross with a sit route over the middle. vs zone they are trying to stretch the curl flat defender or vs man get the ball out to #1. The back is the first read so they get him the ball.

Defense: Sam pressure combo man to the top zone to the passing strength.

Here the Falcons run a  5 man pressure. 

The Colts bring 5 and play 1/4, to the trips side and cover 2 to the single side with the 5 man pressure.

BUCS 5 man pressure vs Raiders with Cover 2

Down and Distance 

Defense: Bowles gives a single high man free look to try to confuse Carr.

2nd & 11

Formation Bunch

Route concepts

Man beater: Shallow to dig on the bottom.

Zone beater: double out cuts to the right . Good cover 2 concept.

Protection: 6 man full slide

Carr sees it and wants to work the zone side on the right but gets sacked before he can get the ball out.

Conclusion:

Here are some of the ways teams are using bunch and how defenses are trying to stop them. 

3 game analysis of the Rams defense vs Seahawks offense

 The Rams played the Seahawks twice this year. They split 1-1 on the year. I've broken this into 2 parts, game 1 and game 2.

Game 1-Rams 23-16

Russell Wilson 22/37 for 248 with 2 interceptions.

The Rams had a great defensive day against  the Seahawks the first time they played. In addition to coverage they had 12 qb hits and 6 sacks by Floyd alone. They were really disrupting the passing game. 

They had a great game plan in which they did some good things to disrupt Metcalf and Russell Wilson and not let him get comfortable.

Most of the game they put Ramsay on his side, either covering him man to man or just playing zone at times but he did travel with Metcalf. They utilized some combo coverage as well and mixed up game 1. 

One of the things they did was play weasel coverage. Man on metcalf with zone on everyone else.

THe 1st drive was their worst defensive drive. Here they give up a 21 yard gain on man free that they just botch with the #2 and 3 wr.Assuming the safety takes 1st thing outside, the ilb has first thing vertical inside, cb has 1st thing outside vertical but that's just my guess

Then a few  plays later weasel and the lb  forgets  about the player in the flat for another 20 yard gain.

Ramsey is on metcalf man to man. He doesn't have the flat (PFF, grading him a 55) 

The lb botched the coverage above.

The bottom line is that the Seahawks went 7 plays for 78 yards but that didn't panic the rams or have them deviate from the game plan. They settled in and it paid off in the long run.

The 2nd series

Seahawks did hit a few routes like the one below but the coverage took Metcalf out of the game.

The big interception was weasel coverage later in the game but Wilson threw the ball late and they got the pick.(will show later)

They also doubled metcalf at times when he was in the slot with the sam and safety. They made him uncomfortable and took the best player out of the game. They didn't use a ton of motions this game like they do later on(see game 2)

2nd series 2nd and 4 here's a look at how they double him when inside. nickel cb knows he has help from both safeties. nice job playing outside leverage.

3rd and 4 they go weasel again. Ramsay has metcalf man for man, they play cover 2 with everyone else.

They come back to it.  Even though the Hawks got 21 on the first drive. They don't panic.

Heres another 3rd and short. Seahawks get 6 yards on it.

play weasel with cover 3 with everyone else

They end up getting a 10 yard gain. Ramsey takes metcalf out of the occasion again.

Here again on 1st and 10 they play weasel again and play the crosser with the other safety and 1/3 with the cb and ss.

leads to an incomplete pass and they get off the field 2 players later.

LATER,  they put the safety on him and they go cover 3 vs 12 personnel.

Still same concept, man on 14 zone with everyone else, They just do it with the safety this time.

2nd and 4 this is a similar concept to what they hit earlier and what was open with the interception which I will highlight here. This is a great play call as is the interception, Heres the concept. SS has to play curl flat because Cb is running with #1 

The wheel is wide open because the safety is late to the curl flat and doesn't run with the wheel. Ramsey has Metcalf one on one. Thats his job on this play. All on the safety pff

43 yard gain and its the safety fault

similar play 

Right before the half up Down 17-10, the Seahawks ball.

They run the wheel route away from 14 metcalf and it is wide open.

Wilson throws it late. both safeties run with #1 vertical

Should be a big play for the Hawks, instead an intereception.

BIG TURNOVER!!

Seahawks get 61 yard field goal trail 17-13 at the half

Game 2 Hawks vs Rams.

Seahawks win the game 20-9 
The Seahawks made much more of an effort to move Metcalf around using him in motions and in different positions game 2. This got him more targets and a little better day. The Seahawks did win but Wilson's numbers weren't off the charts. 

The Seahawks  were 20-32 and 225 yards. Another game in which the Rams slowed down the Seahawks passing atack. The Rams sacked Wilson 5 times and had 8 qb hits on him. Not exactly a great job in protection.

Here on 3rd and 5

Wilson tries to hit locket as the Rams go 3x2 on Metcalf.  Not exactly combo coverage but deep help over the top. 

The 2nd series of the game they go back to combo.

It is man to man on the left side with zone principles to the strong side. Great scheme. 3rd and 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now they go special but Metcalf actually motions and becomes the #2 wr. This allows him to get open on the crossing route as the wr on the ball became the new #1.

Good design against a nice combo coverage. Rams were man on the outside and zone inside.

16 yard gain on the reception

The one route the Rams had trouble defending in game 2 as well was the wheel. The Cb locks on 1 and the olb doesn't run with the wheel route. Same route concept as they had issues with in game 1. #2 on the wheel is a good man beater vs press quarters and special. 

on 3rd and the Rams go man free with 5 man pressure and double metcalf with the safety help over the top. risky as the lb is 1x1 with metcalf. 

On a key 3rd and 4 the Rams play bracket coverage on 14 metcalf. Man on everyone else wit a deep 1/2 player to the top of the screen. 

Darnold gets home for the sack.

Still a 13-6 game at this point. Excellent coverage to get the defense off the field.

Later they get a 3rd and 6.

Same score

The Rams send 5 and play 3 under 3 deep.

Seahawks go mesh. The problem is 

a. 2 players both sit down over the middle.

b. poor mesh routes

c. the rams have no respect for the rb and Wilson doesn't even look at him. Rams cover 3 does a nice job as the rcb stays lower once #1 goes inside(good coaching) He doesn't just drop to cover grass!

 

The last play design was a really nice one by Schotty. He knows Metcalf is commanding a lot of double coverage so he runs Lockett on a deep sail route vs the c-4 look. Cb has been sitting on #1 all day and he knew that as both the safety and cb run with 14 (metcalf) and bracket him leaving locket wide open.

He hits him on the deep out for 24 yard gain.  Offensive Coordinators get paid too!

Overall, the Hawks made some big plays in game 2 and took advantage of the double coverage that Metcalf was commanding. A few plays later on 3rd and 7 I don't know what Ramsay is thinking.

He has no other threat other than dk. surprised he's not on #1 and this is a huge play. Could have played this tough and gotten off the field with a field goal and gave his team a chance to win. This effort was very poor. 

The Rams score 2 plays later and win the game. Heres the play. The Seahawks go 3x1 strong and motion the back out. They throw the slant. They look like they are in zone up top and expecting Ramsay to be one on one. 3rd and 7 and they get 8 yards. 

2 plays later they score, go up 20-9 game over. 

Game 3 wild card game.

You saw much of the same issues the Seahawks had earlier. They ran the ball decently in this game but not enough. It's tough because on certain drives they get a penalty and look at 2nd and 20

The pass protection was awful. 5 sacks and 10 qb hits and Wilson was 11/27 for 174.

He had some opportunities but was always on the run, very rarely  getting a clean pocket. There were people open on several occasions but too often, Russell had to rush his reads and throw the checkdown right away.

Here's 2 examples 

3rd and 7

Seahawks run the sail route. TE is wide open, but the pressure gets him to come off his read and dump it off quick. Easy read vs cover 3 but the pressure makes him come off the sail route to the boundary.

On another down, the rams are up 20-13.

It's 3rd and 4 and DK beats Ramsay to the post. But Donald beats the left guard easily and the pressure forces russ to rush the throw and he overthrows him. Easy td if he has any time. Should be a tied game!
Rams were in cover 3 again and the post was open as free safety was late to get their. 

On 3rd and 6 in the 2nd quarter. Rams roll cover 3 to Dk's side. The 3x1 side is open with 2 hitch routes. He has no time to throw the ball. The Rams over play DK and this should be an easy throw and catch. Again no time! Russ scrambles for 5 and they settle for the field goal on 4th and 1.

This was just some of the ways the Rams defended the  Seahawks in the 3 games this season.

What will the Rams defense look like in 2021? Will it be a top 3 defense. Here's some insight from the turf show times.

https://www.turfshowtimes.com/2021/6/26/22551210/saturday-confidence-poll-will-rams-repeat-as-top-3-defense