NFL and College football 4 and 5 man pass rush games and pressures

 This article looks at  4 and 5 man pass rush games. Teams get creative and can run these stunts out of 4 hands down and 3-2 nickel looks. Also, some teams like the Steelers and Bucs will run it from their 5 man big package with 2 de, watt and dupree or barrett and JPP and it causes protection issues.

When you study sacks and sack percentage, you will find more sacks and pressures are obtained with movement and stunts than actual fancy pass rush moves. We all love to spend time with the fancy club moves, chop and rip, etc, but statistically teams get more out of games than anything else. 

How you devise your games is very important. Here are some things to consider:

 #1 it is based on protection. How do they handle games and what is their protection. 

#2 I think you need to look at personnel and see how they handle twists and stunts. Do they have a weak link and that's the guy or guys you want to attack.

#3  The most important aspect in my opinion is to look at how their guards and centers set. Look at the center and guards. Do they have a tendency to turn and move their body on an angle. If that is the case they are very vulnerable to pass rush games and that's the guy you want to exploit. 

Look at the Jets and Alex Lewis. Sometimes teams will run some games at players because they have a tendency to turn their shoulders. The Dolphins run one and they get home. McGovern should have stayed front side on that because the 3 technique was to his right,  but Lewis turning and overextending contributes to the pressure and sack.

3rd and 8 the Rams are in a 5-1 look odd front. 

They run a nice 3 man game with the LB and Nickel Safety off the edge. The RG turns and takes the LB and the RB stays outside, thus no-one to take the looping Safety. They play man free with the concept as you can see on the film.

Odd 3 LB DL Personnel

5-1 look

3rd and 7 Giants vs the Vikings. Vikings run a game with the olb and defensive tackle. The issue is that the RG turns to help on the defensive tackle and can't flatten out to take the looper.

The OLB Loops inside as the right guard turns to help on the defensive tackle

The LB is by him and gets the sack.

4-2 defense

4 man sim pressure

Here's an example at the college level where the USC right guard turns way too much and isn't able to work back and handle the stunt.

Example #3 is the Jets vs the Seahawks.The Seahawks run a game and get the sack. The left guard turns and can't redirect back.

 

A team that excels in the game department is the Patriots. Here are a few examples vs. The Chargers. They run it from their odd look.

Below you can see it live. 

Here's 2 clips vs the Chargers where they get great pressure off inside games against the Chargers.

How does the center set. Let's say you run a mug look, does he try to get vertical and sort it out or does he turn his shoulders and try to take a man right away. If he's a turner, he's ripe for a pass rush game with the mug linebacker to the side he turns to. 

Here's an example where the center turns and the Looper gets free. The Chargers don't exchange it and the pressure gets home.

Washington Defense vs USC

Here's an example of where the screener gets the sack. The first rusher, who is essentially trying to attack that near shoulder, ends up getting the sack with a 4 man game off a simulated pressure from Coach Jimmy Lake.

#4 Games to me is like setting a pick and roll in basketball. You are trying to get some type of advantage by getting one guy home. You want the picker to be violent when he sets that screen to get the roller home.  But often when you run games, the picker is the guy that often comes free. Teach it that way. Its very similar to basketball, that when you set a screen you end up being the roller and scoring. The player that sets that violent screen can often get the sack.

Below is an example from a mug look where the LB's cross and get home as the Jets are running standard NFL protection. Back steps up to take the mug LB and the center goes the other direction. This is the most common NFL protection. 

When you run 5 man games you will see the following coverages:

Cover 1- man free with a  free safety deep. All underneath players are in man.

Cover 2- You can play cover 2 and give up a zone underneath.

cover 3- 3 under 3 deep

cover 6/8 1/4, 1/4 half to either the single side or 3x1 side.

Ravens vs Titans Playoffs.

3rd and 9 

Ravens run a nice 4 man game with the right defensive end coming clean. This one is tough at the college/hs level because it takes time.

The right guard turns so much he can't redirect to take the looper. This forces a poor throw and the Ravens get off the field on 3rd down.

Steelers 

big front  3-4 personnel with Watt and Dupree at OLB. They run an inside game with the nose guard and defensive tackle. 

Example #2 4-2 front

Michigan is in a 4-2 but moves to a bear front

They move from a 4-2 to a bear look, They run a 2 man game inside with their 2 interior lineman and the mike lb who moved down to the los. They run a 3 man game with the 2 dt and the mike lb.

3-2 

3-2 dime look 

Iowa State brings the cb and will to the boundary and plays cover 2 vs 3x2. They use the weak safety as a fat defender.

LSU Version of America's blitz vs miss state. They dont do a good job disguising it and Miss state sends the protection that way with the tackle, guard and center. They play man free with the lb on the rb.

3rd and 9 and 3rd and 10 The Dolphins run a 5 man pressure with an inside game vs The Rams Empty.

Dolphins vs Rams

The. 2nd time they run a game out of 3-2  dime.

Here are back to back games in which the Bears get great pressure. The DE plays it with such violence that they are able to get the looper home on both occasions. The first is a sack. The 2nd is an interception.

Later in the game, they run a tackle and end stunt on the defensive right and then and end and tackle stunt on the defensive left. Nice design as the defensive end forces the qb to scramble into the Defensive tackle.

The Bengals run a nice 5 man game with a 3 man game on one side with a game with the mike lb and de on the other.  They run it from a load front.

From an odd 3 man look, Pttt Panthers run an effective stunt with the mike and the nose guard.

The Mike picks for the nose but ends up coming free as a result.

Mike engages the center

After disrupting the center, the mike comes free and gets the sack.

Baylor

Baylor runs a 4 man game from their shade front. They shade with the nose on the right side and run a tackle and end stunt on the other.  The center is unable to help as they don't slide and he takes the nose with the left guard helping on the defensive end. Simple but effective.

Rams vs Bucs

Bucs run a 3 man game out of their 4-2 front

3 tech DT opp A gap 1st #93 

2 I RT DT.  OPP B GAP. #60 

ILB Left A gap.  #45

Nice Job .

WIsconson vs Ohio State

wisconson gets empty runs a show pressure with a 4 man game, dropping the DE in their man free concept. The LDE drops and plays a rat concept with the 4 man pressure/

pressure 4 man free with rat defender as the de with the middle safety free.

LSU 2018 Under Dave Aranda who is now the Baylor coach. Run a nice 3 man game on the left side out of their load front.

Jets run a simple game vs the Packers that gets home. Sheldon Rankins gets the sack on a nice 3rd down pressure

These are. just some of the 4 and 5 man pressures you will see from team at the NFL and college Level. 

Miami Dolphins RPO and Play Action Passing Attack

The Dolphins are having an excellent season and they are because of the improved performance of their qb Tua.  Miami currently has two co-offensive coordinators with George Godsey and Eric Studesville and together they are doing an outstanding job. They are really playing to Tua's strength. 

You can read more about the two of them here.

Their offensive rankings are:

16th in passing yards per game

8th in completion percentage

7th in completions per game

11th in red zone scoring touchdowns

31st in yards per completion but this is because the offense is designed this way for efficiency

They are successful because they are excellent in 2 aspects, the rpo game and their play action components. They are very successful on early downs, which as led them to more favorable 3rd and short situations. Thus, their 13th ranking in 3rd down is very good because of their ability to manage success on early downs.

The Dolphins are one of the best rpo teams in the NFL. They do an excellent job with their concepts and run them very often on 1st and 2nd down. They do a great job scheming and running their rpo's vs different defenses (both man and zone concepts) but also running them out of different formations.

 Here's one of their rpo concepts. The Dolphins will get a ton of cover 2 which makes this rpo very effective. It's a good cover 2 beater.

Route Concept:

#1 runs a slant to occupy the safety

#2 runs a wheel 

#3 tight end runs the chute to the flat

Concept: High-low the cb 

The dolphins run some nice variations and this is one of their best. It is very effective vs cover 2 because the #1 route has to be taken by the safety and they in essence or trying to high low the safety. Now they also run a snag version which makes defending them quite difficult.

They ran it in both meetings with the Jets, here they hit it for a nice 25 yard gain. Again, you know you are getting cover 2 but because they also have the snag option, they put some different concepts into use which causes confusion defensively.

The route combo: #1 on the slant. #2 on the wheel/swing and #3 coming across to the flat. The cb hangs on the slant which opens the swing for a 25 yard gain . The #1 wr occupies the safety and the wheel route beats the cb. The concept has a few variations by #1, glance/post corner/sit down component. 

Very nice design by the Dolphins vs the Jets

2nd and 9

Here they run the glance rpo. The Glance route is an RPO attachment that reads outside linebackers in one-safety looks or third level defenders in two-safety looks. The Glance itself is a five-step skinny post that replaces defenders filling in the run. Here they get cover 2 and the tight end is wide open.

Now,what happens is teams will send the de right for the qb, but with that comes a huge risk because it opens up the running game. Here the Jets try to attack the mesh point and force the give and it's a nice gain in the run game.

Huge hole that is created by the success of the passing gains early. Jets try to adjust and take away the passing piece and Tua makes the read for a nice 11 yard gain.

It's tough to defend because the Dolphins do a really nice job with their scheme and take what you give them.

Vs The NY Giants:

Here's a few examples vs the Giants, again the wr #1 looks like he just reads the defense and can run some type of option route. The giants Cover 2 safety bails so the #1 wr sits it down at 7 yards. Easy completion

In the 2nd example, they run the glance route with #1. Again the qb reads cover 2 and sees the safety drop which opens up the glance window.

Vs the Giants

Here is an example of a similar rpo vs the Giants. Nice read and route for a 12 yard gain.

Play action component:

The Dolphins mix in some really effective play action concepts as well.

It's not just the rpo game which makes their offense so hard to defend. They excel in the boot concepts off their run game and will take their deep shots.

The nice thing they do is they take advantage of coverage as they know many times they are going to get cover 2 with the condensed coverages. Here they run a nice play action scheme. They motion from 3x1 to 2x2 and presnap tell Tua it's zone. Post snap, it's an easy cover 2 read so he know's he will have Parker against the cover 2 safety on the post corner concept.

On the very next series vs the Jets, they run a sequence off the previous one. Instead of having Parker run a post corner, they have him run a sit route where he just reads the defense and sits it down in the zone. 

Here's a nice 16 yard gain to Parker. Again, they get the presnap zone coverage read with the motion. 

Play action vs the Giants

Giants decode go cover 1 and the Dolphins hit the post with the post dig option. This is a nice design and Tua recognizes the coverage right away with the pre snap motion. Nice route combo as the safety overplays the outside and doesn't help inside on the vertical post route. This puts the cb in limbo as he expects help to the inside based on his outside leverage. Tua sees it and throws a good ball for 25 yards.

Here are just some of the Miami Dolphins Run pass options and play action passing attack. Please check back as I plan on adding more to this post with other pertinent clips.