Nickel Stunt Defense

Our regular base 4-3 Defense (above) is the defense from which we do all our adjusting
from. With our regular Nickel Defense we felt that we have a good pass defense and it
has been very good for us. When we went to play the defending State Champions in the
second round of the playoffs in 1999, we felt that we needed something extra. In
reviewing the scout films we saw that they were very good a picking up the blitz up the
middle. Their line was superior in pass protection. They were averaging over 330 yards a
game passing. We had to do something to get them out of their rhythum. What we noticed
was that they had no provisions in their pass protection for blitzer coming off the edges
and up the middle at the same time. While the inside blitzer was likely to be picked up the
outside blitzer would have the chance to come clean.

Nickel Cover 5 Zone

This is our basic Nickel Cover 5 Zone alignment with wide side to our left. The
Nickelback aligns on the wide receiver to the left. The scouting report may have us
position him on the other side of the formation. Basicly, we want our better pass
defenders on their better pass receivers.

The NickelBack has the far flat; the SS has the near flat; The W (WLB'er) has the flat to
the boundary.

From this basic alignment we determined there were many different stunts that we could
run which would be to our advantage

We put together the following stunts which proved to be very effective for this particular
game and we have keep the package together and made it a part of our regular pass
defense. We were playing the State Ofensive Player of the year and he was throwing to
the number 1 receiver in the state. They averaged more than 300 yards a game. these
adjustments limited them to just 35 yards passing for the entire game. We ended up losing
22-12, but it was not because of our pass defense.

Lightening

The first stunt is called Lightening because the Left side of the defense is involved in the
stunt. That means that the NT is going to take the left A gap, the SB is going to take the B
Gap, the DE will strike the TE and take the C Gap; and the SS will stunt from the outside.
The backside DE will rush from the outside in for contain. By rushing 4 defenders to one
side of the formation leaves the offense at a disadvantage because when the TE releases
to get into the pattern, there are two defenders for the FB to block - the SS and the DE.
He cannot get both, and in fact, often gets neither.

Behind the stunt, we usually run Cover 5 zone. The Nickelback has the flat, W has the
opposite flat, with three deep zone behind them.

The MLB'er checks for run/draw and drops over the middle.

Nickel Rain

Nickel Rain is the same stunt run from the Right Side of the defense. This time the NT
takes the other or right A Gap, the MLB'er takes the B Gap, the DE takes what would be
the C Gap and the W takes an outside rush (someitmes we refer to this a the D Gap).

Note that the Nickelback has come over to the Stunt side. We have the Nickelback align
to the stunt side so that he might take the flat while the inside rusher (SS or W) stunts.

We still have 3 Deep Zone behind all this with flat coverage to both sides.
 Nickel Storm

Here we have Nickel Storm. Storm means that we are running the stunt from both sides.
We are going to rush 7 and cover with 4.

The DT takes the A Gap to the wide side; the inside LB'er take the B Gaps; the DEs take
the C gaps; and the SS and W takes the D Gap.

The rest of the secondary aligns like they would in normal zone coverage, but they are
going to lock up man-to-man (indicated by the dotted lines).

What we learned this year on this and other stunts is that when facing superior passing
teams, these 4 defenders have to step up and lock up much sooner than they do against
average teams.

Of course the idea is that we are going to get to the QB before he has a chance to release
the ball to a 'hot' receiver. It becomes a game of who can beat who to the punch the
fastest.
 Nickel Cover 7

This is Nickel Cover 7. Cover 7 to us means Man under, two deep zone. What we have,
therefore, are defenders for all the pass receivers who lock up in man under coverage.
What we want these defenders to do is to play "inside and under" the receivers while the
two deep zone guys play "outside and over" the receivers going deep.

If the receiver is not going deep, the QB will still have to pass the ball through a defender
to get to a receiver. And that pass will have to be 'under' the boundary (like on an out) or
under the deep defenders.

You have to have a really good passing attack to be able to do all that against this type of
coverage.