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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!
Utah played USC twice in 2022. One was a 43-42 shootout in which Utah won. The other game was a 42-24 victory over USC in the Pac 12 championship. Both games were interesting but the way Utah defeated USC was impressive. I thought it was mostly because of the adjustments Coach Scalley made on the defensive end. Let's look at 2nd game and you will see the adjustments in closer detail.
In the first game they played, Scalley ran some various coverage concepts and fronts. Surprisingly he stayed away from the odd front and primarily went 4-2 and bear. They played zero snaps of the odd look that was very successful game 2.
Also, in game 2, they brought continuous pressure. This hurt USC run game as well as their great play action game. The game plan of bringing pressure and playing more zone defense was very effective. Game 1 rushing , USC was 27-175 yards with their tailback getting a big chunk at 15 for 92. The rest came from Williams and Addison on a few jets.
In game 2, USC was 27 for 56 yards with their half back accounting for 15 carries for 35 yards. The ineffective run game definitely was a major factor as they also got away from their play action game. The constant 5 man pressures gave Williams fits all game.
The other part that was key was the 2nd half adjustments made by Coach Scalley. They decided to go primarily zone in coverage and it was highly effective. They ran 21 snaps only ran 2 snaps of man concepts and 19 of zone when in odd. They held USC to 7 points in the 2nd half.
Fronts used by Utah in game 1
Total snaps 65
Bear 7 snaps 11%
4-2. 58 snaps 89%. 1i mug looks from the 4-2(zero double mug looks game 2)
odd. zero snaps!!
IN GAME 2
Utah played primarily 3 fronts without subbing and shown below:
Out of the 68 plays on defense they ran the following fronts in game 2
4-2. base 31 snaps. 46%
bear front 8 snaps 11%
odd front 29 snaps. 43%.
Notes
Of those od fronts they brought 5 or more 60% of the time! 18/29 was the amount of times they brought 5 players or more. That is a very high percentage of blitzes.
When they went bear they brought 5 or more 8/8 times which is 100% from the bear front.
Lets take a look at the fronts implemented.
4-2 front
4-2 was the other front they played a ton of. 21 and 20 are the inside linebackers and #8 is the strong safety.
#8 is the strong safety.
Odd Front
This was the biggest change that Scalley made in the pac 12 championship game.
What they did is they lined #91 in that spot for a number of snaps, but always brought him in pressure. It was brilliant and highly effective in their 4, 5 and 6 man pressures throughout the game. They brought him every time and didn't use him in coverage for 1 snap.
Bear Front
The 2nd odd front was the Bear front. They would kick the DE down away from the strength call and walk the OLB up to the line of scrimmage.
Here are some interesting stats excluding (goal line 10 and in)
Coverage Breakdown by Odd and Bear
Odd 30 snaps
Rush Coverage Snaps
5 man rush. cover 2 11 snaps
5 man rush. cover 3 3. snaps
6 man rush cover 0 4 snaps
4 man rush. cover 4 3 snaps (late game over)
4 man rush. cover 0 4 snaps
4 man rush cover 2 5 snaps
Bear 8 snaps
5 man rush cover 3 4 snaps
6 man rush cover 0 4 snaps
This is some of the alignments fronts and coverages they played in the Pac 12 Championship. Part 2 will look more closely at some of the schemes that were utilized. His game plan was very effective as well as some of the adjustments he made in the second half.
Morgan Scalley runs a very effective scheme at Utah.
In his 15th year overall as a Utah assistant coach, Morgan Scalley is in his seventh season as the defensive coordinator in 2022. His best year was in 2019 as the defense was tremendous. This year they are #1 again. They are #1 in the pac 10 this year in points allowed. They have allowed 20 points per game. They won the pac 12 championship in 2021 and 2022, and his defense had a ton to do with it.
Here's some stats about his defense:
Utah has led the Pac-12 five times in his six seasons as defensive coordinator in rushing defense (2016, '18, '19, ’20 and ‘21) —ranking third in the nation in 2019 after ranking fifth in in 2018.
The Utes have finished in the top-three in the conference in sacks and tackles for loss three times under Scalley, leading the league in both in 2021 and 2016, while finishing the 2018 season ranked 11th nationally and first in the Pac-12 in sacks.
Utah has finished in the top-half of the Pac-12 in total defense five times in the past six seasons, ranking second nationally and first in the league in 2019.
Over the past four seasons, Scalley's defense has held opponents to 15 points or fewer 20 times, third most in all of FBS.
I took a close look at his 2019 defense, breaking down a few games. Some of the schemes include some fire zone pressures and normal cover 2 as well as man free at time..
FRONTS
They bounce between their 4-2-5 and bear/odd front. They utilize both dependant on who they played and the situation they were int.
Here they are in man coverage in the 4-2 front so you see the safeties down and alignment. But again they set the front to the side of the rb.
The 3 technique is to the side of the back. Everyone has a primary gap based on the alignment.
In odd, they played it 2 ways. At times a 4i and others a 3. The LB will be to the side of the back if it's man coverage but opposite if it's zone.
Here they are in man coverage vs Arizona, as the LB is to the side of the back and the stacked safety has #9 the h back.
zone again with the lb opposite the rb. The nose will play half man behind weakside A gap with the Mike #30 responsible for the playside a gap.
Coverage schemes
Base Downs (1st and 2nd down)
Man Free
They are. my type of defense as they love to play press man free coverage and challenge offenses. They have had great success being a man free team on early downs.
You will see Utah play man free coverage vs various formations on early downs.
In the diagram below Arizona comes out in 12 personnel. They play man free with the LB's combo on the rb.(03)
They at times sprinkle in some man and bring the free safety into the box. He will play the rb man for man or get into the run fit. In the example below, they play it with their bear front.
vs Arizona
Another example of bear cover 1 vs 11 personnel. 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.
The one thing you will notice is the alignment of their db as they like to press the man on the line of scrimmage regardless of if he is the #1 or #2 wr. (see below)
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.
America's blitz
Here they run America's blitz to the field and get home except the qb Zach Wilson avoids the rush. He does a nice job escaping a well designed pressure.
CHANGEUP
They did do some unique things when playing against Wash St who was air raid. They got away from their 4-2-5 and played a ton of odd.
Utah run fits vs the Air Raid
In the run game, you can do a couple things. Utah liked to use the Safety as a c gap player which makes things difficult. How do you account for him in the run game.
There are certain fits in the run game. It often depends on whether your ends are 4i b gap players. In the example below, it looks like Utah has the de in 4i and the middle safety is responsible for c gap.
Utah run fit film
Utah
Utah runs it vs cover 2 with a 3 man rush on 1st down. Wash State is 2x2 and the back is strong. The mike opens to the side of the rb. Since it's 2x2 their is no carry so the 3rd safety just plays the deep middle hook.
The cb does a nice job getting under the post corner route so the qb checks it down to the spot route.
Here is the film with the clip
Cover 2 hole
Utah will run some cover 2 hole which is a cover 2 with a low hole and middle hole defender. It is very effective in taking away the middle of the field, dig and deep post routes.
Utah version:
On 3rd and 15 Utah plays a soft cover 2 hole look. They use the safety in the middle of the field and take away all vertical routes and windows. They dare Washington state to check it down.
The left cb does an excellent job sinking and knowing where the sticks are.
Here are the clips that go with it:
This is part 1 of his defensive scheme. Next up is his defense on 3rd down. Stay tuned for more!
Here's some additional clips of the game vs use last night.
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