20 GAP DEFENSE

The keys to the 20 Gap defense are stance, alignment, keys and most importantly, discipline to
execute assignments. We will work on tackling, stance, technique, sheds, and keys every day that we
work on defense. We will be known for our stifling defense. Take pride in our D!

Gap & Technique Numbering

D C B A A B C D

987 654 321 0 123 456 789

In the 20 Gap defense, gaps are lettered, and techniques (where players line up) are
numbered. Gaps are lettered based on how far from the center the gap is. The
closest gap to the center, or center-guard gap, is the A gap, the guard-center gap on
either side is the B gap, the tackle-end gap on each side is the C gap, and the gap
outside the tight end is the D gap. We will also use names to represent the gaps for
use in our stunting game. The left A gap is ALAN, A for A gap, L for left. The right
side A gap is ARNIE A for A gap, R for right. The B gaps to either side are named
BARRY, the C gaps are CHARLIE, and the D gaps are DAVID. Only the A gap has
different names for right and left sides.

D C B A ar B C D
A H A L ni A H A
VI A R A e R A VI
D R R N R R D
L Y Y L
IE IE

ALIGNMENTS IN THE 20 GAP

E T T E
S M W R
C
C
F
The strong side end is in a 7 technique (inside eye of tight end), the strong side tackle is
in a 3 technique (outside eye of guard), weakside tackle is in a 1 technique, (inside eye
of guard), and the weakside end is in a 6 technique when there is no tight end on that
side. When we see a double tight end look, the alignment will vary based on call. Mike
and Will are both aligned over the guards at a depth of 5 yards from the ball to allow
them to play downhill and not get caught in the wash of linemen and legs. Sam and
Rover are aligned 5 yards outside and 5 yards back of the end man on the line of
scrimmage (E.M.O.L.). Corners are at 7 yards with an outside shade, and the Free
Safety (Fred) is at 10 yards deep in the middle.

DOUBLE TIGHT END ADJUSTMENTS

E T T E
S M W R
C
C
F
First adjustment, weakside end moves to a 7 technique, but on snap executes a
"pinch" technique, slanting immediately to the near hip of the tackle closing down the
Charlie gap. Used if no other call made.

S E T T E

M W R
C
C
F
Second adjustment: Even call, either to the weak side or to the strong side. Shown first is
an "EVEN RIGHT" , or the the strong call to the weak side. Sam walks up to head up on
the wing, the strongside end moves to a 6 technique, the strongside tackle moves to a 1
technique, the weakside guard moves to a 3 technique, and the weak end moves to a 7
technique. Technique steps will be to the right.
 E T T E R
S M W

C C
F

The diagram shows an "EVEN LEFT" call, with the strong call made to the strong
side. The only change here is Rover walks up into a 9 technique, everyone else
plays the same. Which calls are used depends on game plan.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES & KEYS

TACKLES
Stance - The tackles will align in a four point stance with most of your weight forward on
hands, with feet staggered so that the outside foot is up, with heel to toe relationship. Stay
low, don't stand up, keep your head lower than guard's or tackle's. Low man wins

3 - TECHNIQUE TACKLE

(Drawn here to the left, but could be other

side, depending on strength call)
T
On the snap, the 3-technique tackle takes a single slant step with the strongside foot, towards the
offensive tackle's ear-hole, while seeing the guard. The defensive tackle will read the guard and
feel the offensive tackle. The single step leaves a post leg (the right in this case) to take on a
down block by the offensive tackle without getting washed out of position. The 3-technique can
never get reached by the offensive guard. If they want to reach block, the 3-technique must make
every tackle until they double team. Your main job is to draw a double team and keep offensive
linemen off of the Mike and Will linebackers. If you have a reach block coming, with the guard's
head trying to cross your body, you will skate and fight the pressure with your outside arm free,
and keep across the face of the guard to the outside. Escape with a rip technique and find the
ball. (See diagrams for examples of offensive blocks).

The next block that can happen is the guard blocks out on you. (Diagram 2). Now, fight across
the face of the guard back to the inside, never run behind the guard, also cross the face with a rip
move, or a spin if you are beaten and can't escape.

A double team between the guard and tackle can happen, this is the block we want you to draw.
Most importantly, defensive linemen can never give ground to a double team. At worst, once you
feel the double team, you get down and make a pile, or spin in the direction of the down block if
you can't split the double team. DO NOT GIVE GROUND. (Diagram 3).
The next series of blocks are trap or pull blocks by the guard in front of you. There are traps to the
outside, and traps to the inside. Each is a little different for you, but basically you will be looking
for the same thing inside or outside. On a trap to the outside, one of two things will occur, the
tackle will block down on you, or you will not feel any pressure from the tackle on your initial step
at him. In the first case, fight across the face of the tackle with a rip move and work to the outside
for sweep or power type plays. In the second case, step to tackle, no pressure as guard pulls, you
must squeeze back inside fast and trap the other guard coming to trap you. This is called trapping
the trapper. You must meet him as far back inside as possible and stuff him into the hole. This is
also the same technique if the guard down blocks to the inside, and the tackle doesn't block you.
The trap from the far side is coming at you and you must smash it deep in the hole. A pull by your
guard back to the inside will have either the center or the fullback blocking back on you, same as if
tackle blocks down, or guard blocks down, rip across the face and move laterally to the ball.
(Diagrams 4-7).

The last block is a pass block. If the guard and tackle set up to pass block, penetrate and collapse
the pocket to the quarterback. (Diagram 8).

T T
Diagram 1 Diagram 2

T T
pile or spin to down block
Diagram 4
Diagram 3
Trap the trapper

T T Diagram 6
Diagram 5

T T
Diagram 7 Diagram 8

The 1-technique tackle will see the same blocks but from the guard and center.
ENDS

Stance: The ends will align in a two-point stance, with feet shoulder width apart,
good knee bend, and hands in the grass looking at your offensive key. The
defensive ends will need to keep that good deep knee bend to stay low, keep your
head below the end or tackle's head. Low man wins!

Strongside End: The strongside end lines up in a 7 technique with your outside foot
splitting the crotch of the tight end. On the snap, your first step is a slant step into
the tight end, reading his block, and the offensive tackle's block. If the end blocks
down, fight the pressure, and rip across his face getting width. (See diagram 9).

E
Diagram 9
If the end releases without blocking you, and the tackle blocks out don't fight across
the face of the offensive tackle like the defensive tackles would do, instead, you
need to squeeze the offensive tackle back down into B gap keeping shoulder square
and check flow. If flow goes away, you have contain and chase. Do not penetrate
more than a yard deep, and slowly follow the ball looking for counter, power (pulling
guard from backside, trap the trapper) or bootleg by the quarterback. (Diagram 10-
11)

Trap the Trapper

or collision FB

E E
Diagram 10 Diagram 11

Double team blocks will be handled the same way that the defensive tackles handle
them, Do not give up ground, if the double can't be split, make a pile or spin out in
the direction of the down block, but you can not give up ground! (Diagram 12)

E Diagram 12

form pile
Weakside End: The weakside end lines up in a 6 technique versus no tight end on his
side. The possible blocks against you are the same as against the strongside end. So
the reads and responsibilities are the same, just one gap closer. Technique steps are
towards to the tackle.

With a tight end to both sides, with no other call, (Even or Tom to the weak side), then
the weakside end will move out to a 7 technique, but on the snap, will execute an
automatic "pinch" call (see double tight end adjustments below). The pinch technique
is a hard slant charge to the original hip position of the offensive tackle squeezing
through C gap to B gap. Again, do not penetrate behind the line of scrimmage

E T T E
S M W R

Other adjustments would be "Even" calls. Even calls determine which side we will play
as our strong side. If Even is called to normal strong side, then the only change is
Rover walks up to a 9 technique. If Even is called to the weakside, then all personnel
line up as if the strong side is to the call, and Sam walks up to a 9 technique. (See
below diagrams from double tight end adjustments).

S E T T E

M W R

Even Right

E T T E R
S M W
Even Left
 E T T E
S
M W R
Tom Right

Defensive line lines up in Tom call as if strength is to that side.

Again, the keys to good defensive end play in our defense are to stay low, to use
proper technique and to be able to react to the different blocks correctly. The
offense the opponent is running doesn't matter, the blocks all stay the same. We
will work every day that we do defense on stance, steps, keys, sheds, and tackling.
Take pride in your position and especially in our defense.

INSIDE LINEBACKERS: MIKE & WILL

Stance: Mike & Will line up in a good hitting position stance, feet even at shoulder
width apart, fingertips down like the defensive ends. You are aligned over the
guards at a depth of 5 yards. This depth allows you to stay out of the line wash,
and to be able to play downhill to attack the offense.

Stance: Mike and Will will line up in a two point stance, knees bent, hands hanging
down towards the ground. Alignment will be 5 yards off the line of scrimmage in
front of the offensive guards, keying on the guards movement. You are 5 yards off
of the ball to stay out of the wash of the O and D lines, and to be able to attack
downhill. It is very important that you become very good at reading the guards.
The guards will take you to the ball, if you try to read the backfield you can easily
get confused by any deception in the backfield, and then be slow reacting to the
ball, making yourself more vulnerable to be blocked. By reading the guards, you
can fly to the ball and make many more tackles. We will work on keys and
reactions every day, as well as tackling.

The blocks that the two inside linebackers can see are the same on either side,
the only difference is to recognize the blocks versus your 3 technique tackle, or
the 1 technique tackle. Each linebacker can see each technique depending on
the call versus double tight end sets, so we will practice all the reads against all
the different blocks with both a 3 and 1 techniques in front of us. Remember that
as linebackers, your tackles need to draw double teams, which frees you up to
make more tackles.
 E T T E
Red Sea
M W
If the guard reaches the tackle, get one width step and read immediately to the
defensive end, this is called the RED SEA. Based on what the end is doing
determines your response. If the end is working inside, then you attack outside
and run any outside play down from the back, if the end is fighting outside, then
you attack inside, you will see a definite parting, which is why we call it the Red
Sea. If your tackle doesn't draw a double team, you may have to rip through the
offensive tackle. Same read on the weakside, read the guard's downblock, get
one width step, then read the end for the Red Sea. The read is the same if the
guard pulls to the outside.

E T T E
Red Sea
M W

Same on the weakside.

E T T E
Red Sea
M W
If the guard traps, or pulls back to the inside, the Mike or Will needs to step
to the midline (right in front of the center), you need to stop here and check
for the fullback with the ball, or for cutback from the sweep. Do not
penetrate across the midline until you know that the ball is not coming
back.

E T T E
M W
midline
 Against a double team on the defensive tackle, width step, and read the Red Sea.

E T T E
M W

If your guard blocks back towards the other inside linebacker, (GAB block, guard at
backer), get width step and read Red Sea, other backer will read his guard, and
attack midline, rip across face of blocking guard.

E T T E
M W Red Sea

Out block - especially on the weak side, if the guard blocks down on 1 technique, and
tackle blocks out on the end, fill the hole quickly and meet the isolation block at the
line of scrimmage. Do not run around the block, blow the block up with your inside
shoulder. Make sure that you don't wait for the lead block to come to you. Meet the
back as deep in the hole as possible, be the hitter, not the hittee!

E T T E
M W

On pass read, drop to designated zones, or man coverage. Sprint out passes,
onside linebacker forces the quarterback, while the offside linebacker rotates to the
onside backer's zone. See pass coverage section for zone drops and coverages.
OUTSIDE LINEBACKERS: SAM & ROVER

Stance & alignment: The two outside linebackers are in a two point stance like
the inside linebackers, they are aligned in the base defense at 5 x 5. 5 yards
outside the end man on the line of scrimmage, and 5 yards off the line.

5 5

5
5
E T T E
S M W R

Sam: Strongside:The first block that you may see will be a downblock by the tight
end onto the defensive end. When he blocks down, you need to come up hard
knock in the wing (if there is one) or take on the pulling guard or lead back as tight as
possible. (A wing will be treated like a pulling guard or fullback.)

E T T E
S M W R

If the end releases, either downfield or out without blocking on the defensive end, you
must look to the tackle to determine run or pass. If he pulls back inside, yell
COUNTER, COUNTER, COUNTER, and then hang out checking for the fullback
coming back through on a pass route, or a screen. If the tackle blocks down, check
wing for block or release. If tackle pass blocks, drop to C drop. (See pass coverage
section.)

E T T E
S M W R

Read tackle
 On sprint out pass, the outside linebackers always play their drops to C zones, the
force on the QB will be by the onside inside linebacker.

E T T E
S M W R

Versus an option play, generally the outside linebackers will have pitch. The
outside linebackers don't have to go directly to pitch though, they can play soft on
the quarterback stretching the play out until the pitch is made. Do not attack the
quarterback when he turns up though, or else the pitch will go to a big play.
Someone else has the quarterback as primary responsibility. You will just play it
soft so the quarterback doesn't know whether to pitch or keep.

Again, just like the other positions, the keys to successfully playing outside linebacker
are being able to read and react very quickly. It will take many repetitions in practice
to be able to do both effectively. To that end every day in defensive practice we will
work on tackling, keys, reads and sheds.

PASS COVERAGE
Secondary: The corners and safety have a primary responsibility for pass first, run
second. To that end, we will work every day on footwork and reading keys and
reacting to those keys in the correct ways so that we don't get burned for a big play.

Our main pass defense will be cover 3 zone. Cover 3 zone is a three deep coverage
where the corners and safety each have one third of the field to cover. All three
players always stay deeper than the deepest man in their zone and break on the throw
of the ball. We will play a rotating cover 3 zone on run downs, if run action shows, the
corner on the play side rotates up to force the ball, while the safety rotates to the deep
outside third on the play side and the weakside corner rotates to the middle of the
field. The keys for determining run/pass are as follows. Corners read #1 to their side.
If he releases off the line, backpedal and play pass first, then run. If he blocks, come
hard. Safety reads #2 the same way. Do not look in the backfield. The underneath
zones are covered by the linebackers. The linebacker zone drops are labeled as A, B,
or C drops. The C drops are the outside linebacker drops, they are halfway between
the sidelines and hash marks, and 10 yards deep. On pass reads, Sam and Rover wil
drop to their zones and react to the ball. B drops are 5 yards inside the hash marks
and 10 yards deep, they are the inside linebacker drops. A drop is used for rotation
on sprint out passes.
 "PASS"

E T T E
S M W R

C B A B C
C C

1/3
Hash
1/3 Hash
1/3

S E T T E

M W R
C C

Run action to left, Rotate to run action

S E T T E

M W R
C
C
F
Run action to right, Rotate to run action
 g

E T T E
S M W R

Sprint Action

In obvious passing downs, we will run a pass defense set we will call BANDIT. Bandit
is a two deep, man under coverage. Rover drops back into a two deep shell look with
the Free Safety, Will widens out to cover the outside. Sam, Mike & Will and the
corners will play man coverage underneath, while Free Safety and the Rover will play
over the top and help out over the top.

E T T E
S W
M
C 1st back out
C
1st back out strongside
2nd back out weak

F R

1/2 1/2

"BANDIT"
We can also play "Bandit Zone, where Corners play C drops, Sam and Will play B
drops, and Mike plays A drop.
STUNT GAME

FIRE Stunt: The Fire stunt involves 1 or more linebackers. Each linebacker is
assigned a number, Sam - 1, Mike - 2, Will - 3, Rover - 4. On a Fire stunt, the
called linebacker(s) will decide which gap they are going to fire through, if not called
by the coaches. The linebacker will then call the gap name he is going to fire
through, the defensive linemen then knows that he automatically has the other gap
to fire through. Everyone else plays normal. Example, Coaches call Fire 1, Sam
at the line then calls David, this indicates he is going to attack D gap, the end on his
side then knows on the snap that he will crash C gap.

E T T E

S M W R

C
C F
Fire 1 David

E T T E
S M W R

C
C F
Fire 2 Barry

E T T E

S M W R

Fire 1 Charlie, Fire 3 Barry

Exit Stunt: Combination of tackles and inside linebackers. Both tackles will step to
the B gap and get upfield. Mike and Will will cross into the opposite A gaps.

E T T E

S M W R

C
C F

Mug Stunt: In the Mug stunt, Mike lines up in a 3 or 4 point stance right on the
center, with Will stacked behind. Both tackles line up in 3 techniques and step
to B gap reading the tackles block. Will makes the Alan or Arnie call, Mike
goes to the opposite gap. We can line up in this look, back out before the
snap, or walk into it just before the snap to try to confuse the defense and not
let them know if we are coming or not.

E T M T E
S R
W
C
C F
Mug Arnie

Mug Look stunt: Mug Look lines up just like in Mug, Mike on the nose
Will stacked behind. Only in Mug look, Mike & Will don't cross. Mike
plays like a nose and attacks the center, while Will is free to roam to the
ball behind. Can call fire calls with this look at well. Will will have back
out to either side in pass, Mike would rush. Also a good short
yardage/Goal Line look.
 E T M T E
S R
W flow to ball
C
C F

Mug Look Fire 4 David

Pinch: If Pinch is called, and a tight end is on your side, then cheat to an 8
technique and pinch to the outside hip of the offensive tackle. We will use this
on option teams. Responsibility for the end is then dive back, and the
linebacker has quarterback instead of pitch. Corner will have pitch on option in
pinch. Mike/Will has dive to QB to pitch.

E T T E Automatic pinch vs. 2 TEs

S M W R

C
C F
Pinch Strong

Spike Stunt: 3 technique tackle cheats to a 2 technique, then shoots A gap to hip of
center trying to get to QB.

Rock Stunt: A Spike and Pinch to the same side.

 E T T E
S M W R

C
C F
Spike

E T T E

S M W R

C
C F
Rock

TED call: Weakside, used in passing downs. Tackle goes first and goes outside the
offensive tackle, takes over ends responsibilities. The end goes behind and attacks
through A gap.

ELVIS call: Run or pass. End goes first shoots at hip/shoulder of the guard down
the line looking for run, Tackle takes a lateral step and takes ends responsibilities.

In both of the above stunts, the tackles and ends should get more head up
techniques to allow them to get to their responsibilities easier.

E T T E Tackle goes first (TED)

TED
 E T T E
End goes first (ELVIS)

ELVIS

CARRIE - Stunt between the two defensive tackles. 1 Technique goes first
shooting at the opposite guard's shoulder looking for downblock or getting
upfield. 3 technique, who has cheated to a 2 technique, steps laterally then
get up inside of A gap.

E T T E

CARRIE

ANGLE: Strong or Weak: Both tackles angle to the side called.

E T T E
Angle Strong

E T T E

Angle Weak