8/21/2014

Alabama's 3-4 Defense: D-Line Basics | The Key Play

Alabama's 3-4 Defense: D-Line Basics

By french60wasp
columnist
on June 17, 2013, 9:02 AM | 50 comments
Over the course of the summer, I will be examining the matchups and schemes of the
Hokies' opponents, and no scheme presents more conundrums and challenges than
Nick Saban's NFL-style 3-4 defense. Saban comes from the Bill Parcells/Bill Belichick
coaching tree, and brings an NFL-esque attention to detail that is unparalleled in
college football. Yes, Alabama has talent, but the true genius of Nick Saban (besides his
ability to represent strong the Lollipop Guild) is to ensure that his talent executes the
scheme.
Several years ago, Smart Football[1] posted an excerpt from Saban's LSU playbook.
While the post has been lost in a sea of bytes, Saban's own words on his defensive
philosophy live on (via Pats Propaganda[2]).
[Our] philosophy on first and second down is to stop the run and play good zone
pass defense. We will occasionally play man-to-man and blitz in this situation. On
third down, we will primarily play man-to-man and mix-in some zone and blitzes. We
will rush four or more players versus the pass about ninety-percent of the time.
"In all situations, we will defend the inside or middle of the field first defend inside
to outside. Against the run, we will not allow the ball to be run inside. We want to
force the ball outside. Against the pass, we will not allow the ball to be thrown deep
down the middle or inside. We want to force the ball to be thrown short and/or
outside.
"... Finally, our job is to take the ball away from the opponents' offense and score or
set up good field position for our offense. We must knock the ball loose, force
mistakes, and cause turnovers.Turnovers and making big plays win games. We will
be alert and aggressive and take advantage of every opportunity to come up with the
ball ... . The trademark of our defense will be effort, toughness, and no mental
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mistakes regarding score or situation in any game."

The 3-4 defense describes the alignment of the front seven defenders. Alabama's
alignment features a nose tackle lined up heads up or over the strong side eye of the
center, and two "defensive ends" lined up over the offensive tackles. On occasion
Alabama overloads the strong side by aligning the defensive end to the strong (tight
end) side lines up on the inside eye of the tackle, while on the weak side, the end lines
up on the outside eye of the guard. Two inside linebackers line up over each guard.

The 3-4 defense is more similar to the Bud Foster 4-2-5 and 4-4 than most recognize.
In both defenses, the inside linebackers have straight ahead gap responsibility, and the
defensive line forces running backs to go where the defensive coordinator wants them
to go. The defensive linemen have similar roles, but execute very differently. Foster
uses his four-man front to slant and occupy defenders, while Kirby Smart recruits large
defensive linemen that work to tie up blockers, freeing up their linebackers to make
plays.
Despite the prevalence of the 3-4 in the NFL, it is a restrictive, assignment based
defense for defensive linemen. Their job is to tie up blockers so linebackers can make
plays. It is no accident that there has only been one Hall of Fame 3-4 true defensive
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end (Bruce Smith), several 4-3 ends moved out to weak-side outside linebacker at some
point in their careers like Ricky Jackson. Furthermore, no true 3-4 nose tackles have
been elected, despite man-mountain's like Ted Washington excelling at the position.
The Nose Tackle
While outside linebackers are the star playmakers in a 3-4 defense, the nose tackle is
the most critical in executing the defensive concept. The nose tackle lines up over the
center and has gap responsibility for the entire space from the inside shoulder of the
left guard to the inside shoulder of the right guard. In most cases, the nose tackle is
massive, but more importantly, he must be strong enough and quick enough to
neutralize the center and move laterally to tie up the guard that delivers the double
team. By completing his assignment he takes away the middle of the box, which should
be the most vulnerable part of the defense to the running game. By occupying interior
blockers, the nose ensures that the inside linebacker to the play side will be unblocked, as the defensive end will tie up the offensive tackle.
Saban will also throw a curveball at the offense and shift to a four-man front.

Here Auburn (and Scot Loeffler) try to run the insize zone against Alabama last season.
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36:4737:14
Watch the nose tackle, #54 Jesse Williams. At the snap, Williams takes on the center
and gets double teamed by the backside guard. Williams occupies the center initially
and then stands his ground taking on the guard. He resists getting too far up the field,
where the guard can get on his hip and create a cutback lane. The center can't get to the
second level in time to create a bubble for the back, and he has nowhere to go.

Auburn took an interesting tactic against the 3-4 early in the game. During the first
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series of the game, Auburn's offensive line made every effort to completely bypass the
nose tackle with the center and block him with the back side guard.

18:5520:08
If Loeffler intends to use the same strategy on August 31st, it presents a huge challenge
for the footwork and strength of Mark Shuman, Brent Benedict, and David Wang. It
requires the guard to not only be physically strong enough to handle 6-4, 310-pound
sophomore nose tackle Brandon Ivory, but the guard must also take a lateral step and
cover nearly 5 feet of space, then move Ivory horizontally. With the 3-4 outside
linebacker playing outside the tight end, the interior is much more susceptible to
interior running plays IF the Hokies can handle the nose. This will be the most
important matchup on the field, and Virginia Tech's track record against quality
defensive tackles is abysmal since dominating Dan Williams in the 2009 Peach Bowl.
Saban will also use a four man front on passing downs, or against spread formations.
On early downs, the nose tackle stays on the field. The fundamentals of the defense
remain the same, but sometimes one linebacker will move into a 4-3 end position and
put his hand down. When the Tide goes to a 4-man front, the nose slides over to play a
1 or 3 technique (lined up on the inside or outside eye of the guard). In that role he will
still most likely be playing a 2-gap technique, occupying the guard along with the
double team blocker assigned to combination block.
Defensive Ends
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In the base 3-4, the defensive end does not play in the Deacon Jones style classic edge
rusher mold. 3-4 ends are more like defensive tackles. Similar to the nose tackle, the
defensive ends have two-gap responsibility. The ends line up over the offensive tackles.
The defensive end must occupy the gaps to the inside and outside shoulder of the
tackle. On occasion, the end will line up on the outside eye of the tackle. This is more
common on the strong side of the line where the tight end is lined up. Regardless of
the alignment, the defensive end must occupy the offensive tackle and if the tight end
is on his side he may also neutralize a double team. Just like the nose, the defensive
end's primary assignment is not to make tackles, rather occupy blockers. The end only
gets up field if he reads pass. As a result these guys won't put up big numbers.
When Kirby Smart shifts to the four man front, one of the defensive ends must slide
down to play a 1 or a 3 technique just like the nose tackle. This flexibility requires most
3-4 ends to have a very similar body type to a 4-3 defensive tackle. Alabama recruits
tall, strong side defensive ends and tackles who come out of high school around 6-4,
250-260 pounds, but with frames to carry much more weight. The typical Alabama end
grows to the 280-300 pound range. Jeoffrey Pagan (6-4, 290, JR) and Ed Stinson (6-4,
292, SR) will start at defensive end for the Tide. Both were four-star recruits.
Not only do the ends tie up blockers straight up, but they work to create blitzing lanes
as well. Here, we see a designed 3-4 run blitz designed to stop the zone stretch play.

37:1437:51

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The design is pretty simple. Auburn runs a fake quick pass right, then opens up and
pitches the ball back to the left. Auburn must have had a strong tendency to run back to
the trips side, because Alabama looks like they audibled to a mike blitz. On the play,
the defensive end stunts hard to the inside, crossing the left tackles face and sealing
the guard inside, almost like a trap block by an offensive guard. The linebacker then
shoots through the gap, and with the tackle fixated on the stunt, the linebacker blows
through the hole and crushes the tailback. (We will discuss how the outside linebacker
keeps contain in our next segment.)

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As you can see, the ends are doing the thankless work that allows the inside linebacker
to make the play. At the same time, they have the talent to beat blocks individually,
and Smart will shift to a four man front and allow them to get upfield, especially on
long yardage downs. These ends will be the largest defenders that Jonathan
McLaughlin, Laurence Gibson, and Ryan Malleck will see all season, and Alabama will
do whatever they can to not only physically dominate the young tackles, but confuse
them as well.
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In the past, I have commented that the Hokies offensive line is sometimes at a
disadvantage in early season blocking matchups because of the amount of time they
must devote in preseason blocking Bud Foster's slanting gap scheme. Foster's defense
presents many of the challenges that a defense faces when playing the Georgia Tech
offense, in that in order to succeed against it you must change your fundamentals, and
often it messes up your scheme later in your schedule. The Hokie blockers will face
defenders slanting and stunting during the first couple of weeks. Then, as they shift to
gameplan preparations against Alabama, they must adjust to physical defensive
linemen who stand their ground and challenge double teams. Also, the Hokies do not
have the depth at defensive line to simulate the size and strength of Alabama to
accurately give the offensive line a good look. Tech has a decent track record of success
attacking a 3-4 against Georgia Tech, UVA under Al Groh, and more recently Boston
College, but those teams do not present the size, strength, athleticism, or attention to
detail that Alabama will bring to the table. The Hokies must follow their blocking rules,
and unlike last season, compete on every block to win this football game. If Tech can
run inside the tackles, they have a good chance. If they have to resort to throwing the
ball 40 times, it allows Kirby Smart to use those pass rushing linebackers and disguised
coverage to force turnovers. We will discuss some of those schemes in my next article.
1. http://www.smartfootball.com/
2. http://patspropaganda.com/post/3032677294/nick-sabans-belichick-influenced-defensivephilosophy

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