Teaching Spill Overlap Technique in the 4-2-5 and 3-3 stack

 Spill  overlap Technique

Spilling is a term teams will use when they get a kickout block by either a guard or h back. The Defensive lineman will take it on and try to attack the offensive lineman's inside shoulder.  It could be a fb or other lineman as well kicking out but most times it will be a guard in the counter game or h back in the zone slice game.

There are two trains of thoughts when teaching how to take on this block:

1. Wrong arm it and take it on with the inside shoulder. The disadvantage to doing this is you don't have the ability to come off the block and make a play. Your defensive lineman gives himself up.

2. Having your de play it with his hands. This allows him to dent it and punch through the inside number. The 2nd way allows you to get off the block and make a play. 

Both will hopefully have the desired effect which is to bounce the ball outside. Your LB will overlap and your Sam and Safety will hopefully fill as they expect the ball to be spilled to them.

In the 4-2-5, again we teach to get it spilled and have the safety(press quarters) filling outside in and the inside LB overlapping to anticipate the spill. We practice this often. LB plays C gap and the FS plays the D gap. Mike will play cutback. 

Here's an example from a 4-3 look.

You can see how you gap exhange it by spilling it to the OLB

3-3 Stack

The 3-3 stack will run it with the De spilling. 

Mike overlapping with the safety flying off the rb. C Gap

The sam will spill at force it back inside. Box it

Playside LB boxes it back inside D gap

Let's take a look at some teams.

We will start with the 4-2-5

Michigan plays spill technique. 

Rules: 

Playside DE stays flat, tries to play off the heels of the tackle and get inside of any puller or slice block to get it to bounce.

Playside LB will scrape off the DE and also spill any Guard, puller or block by the fullback.

Viper/Sam Lb is the D gap player. Secondary will play alley and any perimeter type runs.

Their technique is excellent though as they don't do it with shoulders but actually play the technique with their hands. They use no shoulders which allows LB's and De's to make plays rather than just force the ball kicked when they spill it. 

Here is an example vs Wisconson. Watch the DE spill it, then the playside LB spill it, and the overlap LB make the tackle. They do a great job executing their technique. 

You see the DE spill with the OLB there to play it

Overlap is in perfect position as the LB and DE both take it on with the inside arm, getting it bounced to #12

Nice Tackle

Here is the film with the pics above:

Michigan vs Wisconsin 2018 

The LDE plays great technique, squeezes off the tackles heels, blows up the slice block and makes the tackle. The LB scraping over the top is there to clean it up. The safety plays it outside in.

THE DE CAN MAKE THE PLAY BECAUSE HE'S NOT GIVING HIMSELF UP WRONG ARMING!

Again, you see the example of how they take it on with hands. Hands allows you to come back out and make a play. Either way, the de attacks and gets really tight down the los.

The ball is spilled, but look at the hands by the DE, it allows you to come back outside.

The DE actually makes the play with the safety and LB both working there to make the play.

Watch the DE on this play stay square and on the line of scrimmage after denting the OT. 

Iowa in their 4-2 front.

Again watch the DE dent it with hands and actually take out the lead blocker on the play. He dents hard and causes the 2nd blocker to stumble to the ground.

Here you see the technique by Iowa.

Ball bounced to #44 and the safety. 

They are disciplined and the ball gets sent to him and they have the +1 with the safety.

Good job by the defense.

Teams in the 3-3 stack can also spill and overlap. The spill defender is the de 5 technique or 4i.

3-3 stack

DE Spill

Mike Fills C gap and overlaps.

Sam boxes it and keeps it inside. 
FS fills off the RB

Mike Flyies to c gap

OLB stacked will box it. 

Free safety flies and fills off the RB.

RUN FITS 

Let's look at a few examples of how well they fit the run on all three levels. UNC comes out in 11 personnel and they align in their odd front cover 3. They move the De inside and watch the spill overlap technique. DE spill everything, LB box it to the safety. Mike often will play the c gap with all the pinching up front. Safety just fills off the rb. Just mirrors him and is often a free hitter.

They spill it to the safety in the run fit.

DE spills it and LB and OLB are there to make the play. 

They have their LB's right where they need to be

Safety is unblocked as the De got the ball spilled to him.

The Safety usually just plays off the rb in the scheme. 

2nd example of how they play it on all three levels.

They will often move with the de, he's hard inside so they get the spill, with the overlap LB. Safety usually fills off the back unless they change that with a call.

Mike is a C Gap player, Nose usually off A, OLB will play the cutback.

Here comes the safety again as the DE gets the ball bounced outside. 

Nice tackle.

Good job defensively. 

These are the the ways teams spill. I hope you enjoyed this article on spill technique out of the 4-2-5 and 3-3 stack

The Cowboys Defense: the Dan Quinn Factor

 Dan Quinn was known as the defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks and the Legion of Boom. They dominated many years under his guidance. Now Dan Quinn has taken a below average defense and turned it around in Dallas into one of the the top in the NFL in just 2 years. They play primarily a 4-3 and he has an excellent defensive line and a game changer in Micah Parsons. 

 They are near the top in several categories:

Points allowed: 19.8 #5 in the league (just 2 years ago they were at 29.6 ppg)

Sacks:  #2 in the league in Sack Percentage

Completions allowed: #8

Great Red Zone Defense: #8 in touchdowns allowed

They are top 10 in yards allowed and completion Percentage

Noticeable differences in the defense and what makes them successful:

1. They seem to be blitzing less in 2022 and stunting more with their active defensive line. They utilize more 4 man games and are getting great pressure from Lawrence and Parsons. According to PFF, they lead the league and have stunted on 124 snaps. The 2nd closest is the 49ers with 82.  They have only blitzed 1/5 times this year at slightly below 20%. Micah parsons is unblockable at times as he had 10 qb pressures in the playoff game vs the Bucs. 

2. They are playing less man coverage this season. Last year they were 3rd in man coverage rate and this year they are at 15th in man coverage rate. They played a ton of single high. This year there is a  considerable difference as they are more balanced with several cover 2 and hole concepts. They also play their variations of cover 3.

3. Trevon Diggs is a great CB and has been rock solid all year. He is a great cb as was evident against Mike Evans last night holding Mike Evans to 6 catches for 74 yards, most of it late when the game was on  the line. He has been matched up often against a teams top wr, which was evident at times vs Mike Evans in the playoff game last week. 

4. Dan does a great job of moving players around and playing to their strength and let's look at some of his schemes. You will see Micah Parsons as a LB in a 4-2 a mike in a bear look and then either on the left side and right side in their base scheme. They play to his skill set designing some pressures for him and getting matchups they like. It causes issues preparing for them defensively because you have to have special plans and schemes for Parsons and where he aligns. You want to try to avoid a matchup issue with him on a RB.  SEE BELOW

5. They do a good job of using the safeties in the middle of the field as hole defenders, taking away those in breaking concepts that teams like to run. They do it in their nickel often and it can cause problems for qb's in their progressions. They don't play them as deep as other teams and they are active in the middle of the field, jumping routes. 

Lets go to some film: 

Stunts:  Here's 2 they ran vs the Bucs last week. Quinn will find your weakness and attack it with games.

1st one is a T and E stunt

2nd one is one where Parsons rushes inside and the DT will be a late looper. 

Using the safeties

Here you can see the safeties with eyes on Godwin and Evans. They play combo coverage, zone to the trips side and man backside. Both safeties are aggressive. The free looks like he's eyeing Evans and the SS with eyes on Godwin. Nice design by quinn

Moving Parsons around to create protection issues.

Here's some examples of Micah Parsons being utilized. In addition to being on the line as a defensive end, Quinn will have the Micah package each game. 

#1 Bear  , he's at the middle linebacker spot. He gets the mismatch on the RB

#2 Here is Micah in the 4-2 look, they get the mismatch with RB on #55 as they run a cross dog. Nice job of getting pressure.  

These are just some of the reasons the Cowboys defense is top 10 in several categories. Dan Quinn is a top coordinator and outstanding football coach. Hope you enjoyed the article.

Lincoln Riley Offense Part 4-red zone and goal line playbook

This is part 4 of my Lincoln Riley Offensive Series.

This section looks at some of his red zone & short yardage concepts. He does a nice job with his red zone package and has some staple concepts on the goal line.

#1 is a run pass option.

He runs a simple play where it is very similar to triple option. He reads the DE for the dive and will throw the ball to the h back or #3 wr off the fake if the OLB is leveraged. It seems to be  a staple for him. 

He loves to leak a wr or h back away from the action often in the red zone! 

This is shown below!

2 back bootleg

Now, this may be an Rpo and has some zone read elements, with the Qb reading the DE, the nice part about this it is a designed pass to the HB and the wr are blocking downfield, which makes me thing it's an RPO. If the DE Takes QB I assume he gives it.

Nice job on the boot

Here's the same play at USC in the red zone when they played Utah. The difference is really just the formation.

Another short yardage play when they go tempo on 1st and goal on the 2 yard line. The only difference is they do it with the wr on the los in the h back spot but is essentially the same play.

Nice Run pass option.

hits the h coming across the formation

Another great play on the goal line is displayed below:

12 personnel

Play action-fake to the back throw to the back

Excellent design vs man coverage.

The back gets a nice pick route by the wr.

He's wide open off of the fake.

Easy catch and throw.

Trips bunch right, back weak with TE 

Fake the Jet left , fake tight zone rt  and hit the TE on the TE dump.

Nice concept vs Man coverage

Tons of window dressing on this play.

nice fake on the jet, nice fake wide zone the other way and the TE is wide open on the dump on the left hand side.

see the DB chasing the jet man

LB loses the tight end.

Jet man draws the defense TE wide open.

3x1 bunch.

They ran this play 2 times vs Tulane.

Nice route concept

Hit it both times 1st time was the wr on the line.

The 2nd time was the wr trailing the endline.

Nice design

WR is wide open

Easy completion in the bunch route.

Offense Game Planning-Top 10 thoughts on developing an offensive playbook

 Here are 10 thoughts in developing an offense. I'm sure there are many moreI may be  leaving out but here's my thought process!

1. Run game- Choose the run game that best fits your players. 

Personnel groupings: 12, 11 ,21 or 10. What do you want to be on offense.

Gap/Zone- If you can move laterally and have quicker o lineman then run a zone scheme. More size and less speed run a gap scheme. Don't try to force round pegs  into a square hole. 

Every run game you should have:

    A. Bread and butter-what 3 plays are you going to have 

    B.  Perimeter run-toss, jet sweep, wide zone, maybe pin and pull-You need to stretch the field horizontally as most big runs will happen with a missed tackle on the edge. 

    C. Misdirection: Counter and trap. With all the 4-2 fronts, why we don't see more trap is a big surprise to me. 

   D. QB designed runs: Always a fan of 3x1 speed option away from the trips. QB power game is a great play and some of the other ones you can scheme up. 

    E. Zone read game: We all have our zone read and rpo variations. We can write a book on those.

2. Pass game- 

    A.Drop Back- quick and 5 step game with route concepts that will work vs both man/zon concepts:

    3 Examples include: Mesh, dagger and sail route.

    B. Boot game

   C. Play action pass game

   D. Crack Screen game-In college you can block when ball is thrown behind the LOS. Take advantage of that with a a crack screen game and take advantage of 2 for 1's on the perimeter vs teams that play man.

    E. Traditional or quick screen game if you have athletic lineman that can play in space. Some teams can't run screens. 

    F. RPO game and ability to make things a definite give

   G. Protection schemes-drop back, sprint or dart and move the pocket, Half man-half zone, and full/4 man slide protections      

3. Pre snap read component:

    There are always some easy throws that defenses give you on early downs. Rather than check to it make it part of the equation  and system on early downs.

Here's an easy example:

You come out in 3x1. 

A) you have 3 over 2 to the trips side, the qb can throw the bubble

B) You have a 1 wr pattern that is built in to your system: slant, hitch or out for arguments sake. 

C) Neither look you like you run the designed play. It may be a zone read or an rpo but you have A and B built into your offense. 

You have a presnap throw to the single wr side. If CB is 7 yards off you throw it.

4. The ability to play tempo at any time:

    A. 1 word calls to get them off quick

        Example: Arizona-everyone gets lined up in the predetermined formation and runs inside zone

        Pass game: Michigan-Auto mesh

  B. Something to get lined up quick and try to draw them off. A quick call like Delta, its's 3rd and 2 get lined up try to draw them off. If it doesn't work, call the play at the LOS. 

5. Unbalanced component

    A. Run to the strength of unbalanced, run away from the strength

   B.   Pass play away from unbalanced when teams over rate in the secondary (CB in the middle of the field) 

6. Formation into the boundary

    A. How do they handle this:

        Do defenses roll the coverage into the boundary? Do they align the sam to the boundary? How do they play it and have a few answers depending on what they do.

7. Stack Formations:

    Will they give you a 5 man box. If so run the football. Give you 6 have a few easy pass concepts from stack formations. 

8. Motions

    How do they handle it. Most teams will tell you zone or man. Use motions to give you leverage in the run game and also give you 

Some will spin the secondary and others will shift some LB. Have your answers based on what they do.

9. Empty Component out of 12/21

If you run 12/21 you should run empty, most teams will go zone vs 12 defensively so you can create some easy throws and completions with some easy formations and routes. Stick to the 3 wr with 2 slants weak is an easy one. 

10. Less is more

Have answers for everything the defense can give you. You don't need 50 plays to accomplish that.  Take 10% out of your playbook and see what happens. Have answers!! 

These are my 10: Subject to change!

Game Day:

A. 3rd down component-The following situations need to be looked at

3rd and 1-3

3rd and 4-6

3rd and 7-10

3rd and long

B. Automatics for various situations

•          Tempo
•          Catch them 3rd-4th down or draw them off sides
•          1 word calls 

C. Screens/Alerts

D. Coming out

E. Short Yardage and 2 point play

F. 2nd and 1 take a shot call or 3rd and short in their territory take a shot

G. 4 minute both slow down and quick package

H. Special Situations-need a field goal, need to kill clock, staying in bounds

I.  Openers-1o plays you want to run early in the game

Seahawks vs 49ers Preview: How The Seahawks can upset the 49ers.

 The Seahawks open the playoffs against one of the best defenses in football. The 49ers can flat out play on the defensive side and have won 10 straight. It will be an intriguing matchup and here's what the Seahawks need to do in order to beat the 49ers. 

 They have a very good matchup but a game they can win. It will come down to several things on both sides of the ball.

Offensively
They have to get some run game going early. They 49ers are so aggressive, I think you have to run some trap schemes and influence schemes. They are so well coached so it won't be an easy task. In the last meeting they threw the ball 44 times and ran it 14 times. The only shot is to be more balanced offensively.

#1 trap them and influence them as much as possible to slow them down early

Raiders run counter scheme with the guard kicking out and the H leading up. Very effective in my opinion as it slows them down. Mix in some play action off the same scheme.

#2 Quick screens and maybe even some fake screens to slow them down early. 

Raiders had a few good ones which slowed the pass rush down.

#3 Heavy play action with one or 2 man routes. Here's one out of 13 personnel. Take some shots in the passing game. With 13 you are going to get probably cover 3 and some type of zone coverage which may allow you to hit some things in the passing game. Could even do it with a tackle at tight end which will dictate coverage even more.

 

#2 example of effective play action to slow them down. They go jet motion, fake the jet and hit Adams on a wide open crossing route vs cover 2. 

Look at the middle of the field and how wide open it is. If they try to take away Walker in the run game some of these concepts may be there. 

#4 Run right at them.

Defenses predicated on speed will at times overrun things. 

Heres 2 plays vs the Raiders week 17. Lead and toss. 

On Defense:

In the last meeting the defense played well with the exception a few plays. The offense didn't help things with some turnovers.

#1 They must limit the big plays. Again, no big plays due to Shanahan scheming up a screen, some fancy play action and every other gimmick he runs.  

#2 Keeping Christian McCaffrey in check. That is not an easy task as he was very effective last time they played rushing 26 times for 128 yards. The Seahawks have struggled against the run so they need to find a way.  The best way to do that is to load up the box and try to take away gaps and running lanes. Playing man coverage will help things as well as they can match up with the 49ers on the perimeter.  

Here's how he hurts you when you don't blitz engage him in man coverage. Tough with all they do in the run game. Cover 0 pressure below. 

 

#3 Play more man coverage:

    A. Fact-Brock struggles against man coverage. He isn't that efficient a passer. Shanahan does a gret job scheming things up for him. We know the Seahawks like their zone concepts but getting more aggressive and playing man could be utilized. 

    B. It helps in the screen game because it allows you to blitz engage and take away their effective screen game. Watch the 49ers in their screen game and it's effective use vs man coverage. Ever notice that every time they run a screen they run it with motion? If you watch the last game, the Seahawks were more efficient in man coverage but got hurt several times in zone. Will Pete Carroll be more aggressive against the rookie Brock Purdy?

 #3  Kittle needs to be accounted for. Both big plays last game came against man coverage were critical. The screen was against zone and the 60 yard td was just a blown coverage. Account for him, bracket him at times while still trying to get a rush on Brock and get him off his spot. That guy will not beat us in the  pass game.

#4 Bait Purdy into some bad throws. Cover 3 weak gave the young qb some issues. There was almost 1 pick and another play if the ball was late as the weak safety was lurking on several throws. They get 1 or 2 of those picks, they easily are in the game.

He often doesn't see the weakside safety in his progressions so a savvy safety may be able to pick him off. You can see he gets locked in on film and don't be surprised if the Seahawks get one this game. 

Overall, I hope you enjoyed this article and I look forward to a great game. It will be a closer game than people think.