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.

Coaching Football Defense, Defending 3x1 formations Part 1 Man coverages

 Defending 3x1 formation with man coverage Concepts 

3x1 pas concepts hav evolved in the NFL over the years. You see 3x1 bunch, 3x1 with three tight ends to a side and 3x1 out of 11 personnel. Only 2 teams in the NFL use 10 personnel more than 10 % of the time, the Bills at 17% and the Cardinals at 19%. 

What do you do as a defense. What do you try to take away? Do you play zone, man or combination coverage. Ive covered combo and zone coverage and now let's look at different ways to play man to man. 

One of the issues you see is the league has fallen in love with 11 personnel. 

In 2008, the league used 11 personnel 34% of the time. In 2020, that number has become 60% of the time. 

NFL teams are using different formations out of 11 and other personnel groupings which make it very difficult on defenses. Teams have adjusted as you see more nickel as base personnel with dime personnel on 3rd downs. You don't see too much traditional 3-4 and 4-3 times anymore vs those sets. 

So when you see 3x1 you will often see a tight end in that 3x1 strong formation or on the backside of 3x1. That has factored in to how teams defend it.

Lets look at the 3 variations you see

Man Coverages and concepts:

There are 3 basic man concepts:

A. cover 2man (3 or 4 man rush), cover 2 man with some type of robber variation(safety lurks and dives and plays the hole)

B. cover 1 with and without pressure out of nickel and dime 

C. cover 0 with pressure and with underneath defenders and 4 man pressures.

D. cover 1 bracket-Double the teams best wr

 2 man 

Down and Distance 3rd and 4. 

2 man hole(lurk concept)

Saints vs 49ers 

3rd and 4

The Saints are in a load front with 3 defensive lineman to one side. The Saints show 2 high but play 2 man hole and the lb blitz engages the rb. The safety opposite trips is looking for a crosser.

the safety is playing off #3 to the the strong side. 

3rd and 8 The Eagles go 2 man lurk vs the Seahawks.

The Hawks run 1 and 3 on 8 yard in routes and they hit #1 on the 8 yard in for the first down. The Eagles took away #3 with the hole defender but #1 was open.

Free safety drops to play the hole opposite the 3x1 side.

3rd and 10 vs Chargers

Really this is man free but the cb and fs weak make this really interesting. The pats put the safety on #1 if he goes across, which he does and leave the cb weak to play crossers. Really an interesting concept.

The Patriots send the CB down to play the crosser. The safety takes #1 and the CB passes the route off. He then plays the crosser coming back the other way.

They get the sack but the nice exchange between the CB and safety helps with the coverage.

Man free 5 man pressure- 4 -2 look with a lurk concept oppoisite 3x1

Bills bring 2 inside rushers and play man free with both DE peeling for the RB and tight end. Good design vs 3x1 and the jets passing game.

2 man lurk concept to the side of the 3x1

Steelers  run man free with using the free safety as a rat. They end up getting a huge interception for a pick 6. Great changeup by the Steelers and great read by the free safety.

Heres is the big 3rd and 6 vs the Bucs that the Rams sealed the game with. Bucs run 4 vests and Brady gets fooled as he sees the hole defender

Man free

Steelers run a game with the 2 ilb and nose, play man free out of dime. The safety has the rb now.

Man free with pressure odd front

Rams vs WFT 

Rams run a 4 man simulated pressure with man free. They use the defensive end as an underneath rat defender. They combo on the inside 2 wr.

Jets defense

The Jets play a man free concept with matching the #2 and #3 wr with the mike and the sam

front odd 3-2

pressure concept: overload concept to attack slide protection

In this situation the Jets anticipate a slide and put the RB in limbo with 2 rushers attacking him. One inside and one outside.  They actually send three LB's and the first one does a great job occupying the RB vs the Falcons 4 man slide. Great design and ability to take advantage of the RB. You can see the Mike and the safety playing #2 and 3 in the passing game. Safety has outside leverage and mike does a good job on the #3 wr. 

 Jets vs. Saints

#3Texans vs Browns

Texans bring 2 off the edge go man free. Browns man beater , condensed split x on the 9 route

Man free 5 man pressure- 4 -2 look with a lurk concept

Bills bring 2 inside rushers and play man free with both DE peeling for the RB and tight end. Good design vs 3x1 and the jets passing game.

Ravens vs Steelers

3rd and 5

Play crosser with a LB opposite.

Ravens run a great inside 5 man pressure with the lb blitz engaging late as a 6th rusher. But, they pull the de out to play the crosser. Ben almost throws a pick but pulls it down and gets it off.

 

Falcons vs. Saints

The falcons bring a nice 5 man pressures vs the Saints. The Saints try to hit the down and out but it is incomplete.

Man free without Pressure with 1 rat underneath defenders 1 on rb.

Ravens go man to man with 2 rat defenders, (underneath help), result inc pass

Everything covered no place to go with the ball. They wanted to hit the rb off the mesh concept, 

Coaching points: pick routes but the  Ravens are smart and just put the lb way outside. Look at the underneath rat defenders playing the crossing mesh routes on both sides. Great defense 

3 man rush man free  2 rat defenders and free safety

Patriots run this coverage concept vs the Chiefs on a few occasions. Andy Reid comes out and dictates coverage by putting Helaire out on the perimeter and motioning him back in.  Cover 1 so he runs the crossing route.  The Pats collision Kelce with a def lineman.

Andy Reid runs Hill on the crossing route but look how shallow it is. The depth of the route makes the safety question whether he should jump it or not. Really puts the safety in limbo. Hill usually runs much deeper crossing routes. The safety underneath is expecting help on the crosser. They hit it for 18 yards

Example #2 vs the Chiefs

Here is the collision concept as the Pats love to disrupt the under routes. 

You really see the emphasis of the patriots defense to not allow the first read. They collision both the back and Kelce in the #1 wr slot to the boundary. The Chiefs love to run mesh/pick routes for the back in this set. Patriots do a great job defending it. Also, you see the man single coverage with Hill. Good route design up top as the free safety has a long way to run.

Example #3 Rams vs Bucs

Man free with blitz engage principle 

Here the Steelers play man free with 2 lbs playing the rb and te. They blitz engage once they see their men block you fill add in.

 

Cover 0Man with 6 man pressure

Here the Patriots bring 6 as they overlap one side. The olb has peel rules if the rb releases.

Cover 0 with rat defenders underneath.  

Cardinals come out in 3x1 back weak. Here the Dolphins run the concept vs the Cardinals. They are playing straight man over the top with lb as rat defenders underneath. watch the olb drop into passing lanes. They get the good pressure. 

6 man pressures vs empty are usually double a mug or double b mug and go. Playing man or off man with all 5 wr. Defenses try to force a slide one way to free up the rush on the other side.

Syracuse runs a nice 5 man pressure with cover o and 2 rat defenders spying the back

Man free with bracket concept on the best wr. 

Super Bowl 2018

One of the things they did effectively was double team Robert Woods and play Brandin Cooks straight up. They played bracket coverage on at least 8 occasions in this game and played man on everybody else vs 3x1.

2nd and 9 

3-3 in the 4th quarter

They play man free and bracket Robert Woods 2 plays in a row.

The first they get an incompletion.

On 3rd and 9 they try to force it to Woods who is getting doubled vertically by the Free safety and the CB. Nice design as everyone is covered down field. The nice game inside gets home and forces a bad throw.

Here's the end zone view in which you can see the pressure getting home. Excellent job of scheming and running a nice 3 man game inside for the pressure.

Dime package 

3-2 inside game

Here's another example of them bracketing woods and playing straight up with everyone else.  They played this on numerous times and it was a major reason they were successful in the super bowl. 

Patriots play bracket coverage vs Robert Woods in the Super Bowl. They play man on everybody else with  free safety help. Nice design and concept from Coach Belichick.

This concept was evident on several occasions.

2nd and 9 

3-3 in the 4th quarter

They play man free and bracket Robert Woods 2 plays in a row.

The first they get an incompletion.

On 3rd and 9 they try to force it to Woods who is getting doubled vertically by the Free safety and the CB. Nice design as everyone is covered down field. The nice game inside gets home and forces a bad throw.

Here's the end zone view in which you can see the pressure getting home. Excellent job of scheming and running a nice 3 man game inside for the pressure.

Here are just some of the man coverages you see in the NFL. I hope you enjoyed this article.