NFL and COLLEGE FIRE ZONE CONCEPTS
NFL Fire Zones are a concept that have been around for a long time. This was prevelent back when some great coordinators like Dick Lebeau made them very popular. Sean Mcdermott, Todd Bowles, Leslie Frazier, Robert Saleh and more have been running them for years. This article will look at blitzes with cover 3 zone concepts. This will include running fire zones with 3 components:
1. Rolling the safety to the strong side
2. Rolling the safety to the weak side
3. Bringing the Safety to the middle of the defense to play the hook.
4. Showing cover 3 to one side and rolling the other way
Lets start with the Jaguars in the 2022 playoffs vs the Chiefs.
They bring the cb and mike linebacker from a 3-2 mug look.
Chiefs vs Jags
Jags bring the cover 3 fire zone.
pressure-4 to a side weak with the cb off the edge.
Here is a great article talking about some of the foundations of the fire zone. The Steelers made it famous under Dick Lebeau and Keith Butler used to run more when he first started but now is more a man free fire zone team.
https://steelersdepot.com/2016/01/steelers-film-room-keith-butlers-fire-zones/
Fire zones can be run several ways.
Traditional blitzes-Sending a lb or safety and playing 3 under 3 deep or cover 2 behind it. You can also play some roll stuff depending on personnel groupings. But lets look at cover 3 variations in this article.
Creepers- These are blitzes where you send a linebacker from depth and drop a defensive end
Sim pressures- These are pressures where you will walk the lb up into the gaps and then run a variety of blitzes from there. At times dropping a defensive end into coverage in the process.
Coach Hoover and Ron Roberts do a great job explaining this in the link below:
But here are some examples of some of the fire zones you will see in college and the NFL and college level
Titans 2nd and 9 vs the Steelers
They bring a traditional sam off the edge and roll to cover 3. This is a common concept as teams can bring the sam or will lb and just roll the secondary the other way.
Cover 3
USC VS Washington DC Todd Orlando
1st and 10
USC on defense Runs a 2 off the edge fire zone from their 3-4 defense. Nice rotation in the secondary.
Odd cross dog
cover 3
USC drops the middle safety to the middle of the field
plays an aggressive cover 3 match concept.
Bills cover 3 rotation
3rd and 8
Bills vs Chargers.
Leslie Frazier against the rookie Justin Herbert.
They show 3 strong but run the pressure and the coverage becomes 3 weak. 5 man pressure with the mike in a game with the defensive end. Nice design as the weak safety takes away the dig by #1 and can rally late to the back. The Mike does a nice job rocking back into coverage and taking away the bender by Allen. The rush gets home and disrupts Herbert enough to hit his arm as he throws.
3rd and 9 Falcons Defense vs the Panthers offense.
The Falcons go double mug and bring the safety off the edge. They roll to cover 3 opposite of where they aligned.
Here is the video with the clip above.
Here the panthers versus The Cardinals from a 3 safety look.
Washington University
Creeper-4 man pressure with cover 3
4-2 front
First the coverage
They run a nice stunt (considered a creeper in todays terminology)
Mike blitzes the A gap
The DT goes b but will contain rush and the de takes 2 steps upfield and loops tight for the sack. Nice stunt by Washington.
Here's a few of Jimmy Lake's Washington fire zone pressures.
Panthers vs Cardinals
2nd and 1
They bring a double a gap cross dog and drop the weak end opposite 3x1. The weak side defensive end drops and plays the curl/flat.
Arizona Cardinals Fire Zone
On 2nd and 17 the Cardinals run America's favorite blitz
Sam and mike lb,drop the de and play cover 3 behind it.
They play the weak safety as a curl read 3 defender and give up the playside flat.
The Panthers have a screen called.
In the Super Bowl, 3rd and 8, Bowles runs a 3 under 3 deep from a 3 safety high look. He drops the safety down to play the middle hook and brings a nice 5 man pressure with a game between the lb and de.
The Pitt Panthers are a team in college that likes to run 3 under 3 deep fire zone principles.
In the situation below the ball is on the hash.
Pitt runs a corner fire or cowboy vs Notre Dame and it catches them off guard.
Pitt runs a corner fire or cowboy vs Notre Dame and it catches them off guard.
They end up getting great pressure and the qb panics and they get the sack.
Nice design by Pat Narduzzi.
Penn State defense cover 3 strong
