NFL Defense-defending 12/21 personnel on 1st and 2nd down

 This article looks at defending 12/21 personnel on early downs. Some teams will play it traditional like the WFT,  Bucs and Steelers and go to a 3-4 defense and other teams will play it hybrid like the Patriots and stay with their nickel personnel.

When WFT played the Rams they played a traditional 4-3 when the Rams were in a wing set, but made an interesting adjustment when the Rams went 21 or the tight ends were on opposite sides.

The WFT played an even front with 4-3 personnel vs the Rams. But they played the Strong lb to the formation strength.

1st example they go cover 3 but the lb is to the twins side. SS rolled down to Higbie the other te. The rams stick Everett in backfield as a fb. 

On the 2nd snap of it, Looks like cover2  but I find it interesting where they align their lb's. Looks like they put the ss to higbie and the lb to Everett's side who is more of their run strength. again interesting strategy vs the rams.

Interesting enough is the one time the WFT stays nickel vs 12, on 1st and 10, the Rams run play action and hit Everett in the flat for a 40 yard gain. They got away from it on 1st down because they shut the Rams down early out of 12 and then went nickel and got burned. Either the cb or 31 is wrong. 

But you can see the nickel look, either c2/4 but it looks like 4.

Lets look at the Steelers.

The Steelers play 3-4 against 12/21 but get creative at times with how they move guys around and give offenses different looks. They play a ton of cover 1 or 3 with it. 

They also go 3-4 personnel and play games with the de and use him as a blitzing lb. 

Vs The Browns in the 1st time they played, the Steelers blew them out. On 1st down you saw the Browns go 12,13 and 21 and run the ball. The Steelers matched and went 3-4 personnel. Watt and Dupree are usually lined up on other sides but here they play a reduced front to the split end side and traditional 4-2 look to the tight end side.

Vs the Eagles,

The steelers go 3-4 cover 1.

They combo the back and tight end with the ilb. They often bring 5 man pressure. (I covered more of them in my other posts so feel free to check them out)

Nickel vs 12

The Patriots will play multiple fronts but they like to stay with their Nickel vs 12 personnel.

They did it vs the Rams and the Rams made a heavy commitment to run the ball.

The Patriots stayed with their nickel personnel with #35 Kyle Dugger as a LB or #21 Philips at times in their nickel stuff. They are undersized lb's playing the role of lb.  In the 1st diagram, they go bear with a 4i to the tight end , in the 2nd picture, they go 3-4, both times in nickel.

Here you can see the 3-4 but the Patriots use the SS 21 as an inside run defender.

The Patriots like to keep their personnel in the game and may at times give up yardage in the run game, but are more sound in pass coverage.

The Giants are similar as Patrick Graham is part of the Belichick coaching tree.

The Giants play a ton of bear with 3 lb and 3 def lineman vs 12 personnel.

They ran it on quite a number of snaps vs the Bears. They play a 4i to the tight end side in bear and a 3 tech with the dt away from the tight end.

Below their isnt a tight end so they play 2 3i technique with the de

Te to the left so the giants are in a 4i

Williams 99 does a great job and Martinez plays a gap and gap isnt threatened so scrapes over top

Vs 21

They use their nickel personnel but go under front. They play a 1 , 5 and 9 to the tight end side. The safety is a box defender to the split end side. 

Steelers Defense:

Usually against 12 they go 3-4 or their swarm front. 

The Steelers go to what used to be considered a swarm front. It's there 3-4 personnel with watt being a blitzing lb. They do this a few times each game with either dupree or Watt and have a tendency to play more man free out of it.

They do a good job here and get a nice interception.

Later on a 2nd and 6 the Steelers run the same concept, Bring Watt to the 3 technique side and play man free. The coverage rules are the same as if they are in their traditional 3-4. Great scheme and excellent coverage downfield in man free. 

Above are some of the concepts you will see from NFL defenses, more to come!

This year I am seeing the Patriots play some more true 3-4 like they did vs the Titans this year. They didn't go small on early downs and played a true 3-4 defense.

Here are just some of the ideas and concepts you will see vs 12 on early downs.