Yea Alaba...er, Crimson Tide Kickoff 2011 Now on the Shelves | Deleted Scenes Edition!

GO FORTH AND CONSUME

If you didn't already pre-order and receiver your copy of Maple Street Press's Crimson Tide Kickoff 2011 then a) shame on you, b) why not?, and c) today is your lucky day, 'cause copies will be hitting shelves across the state at places like Books-A-Million, Wal-Mart, Publix, and pretty much anywhere else with a magazine rack.  And since we're the giving kind around here, instead of just throwing up another picture of the cover and begging y'all to go out and buy it we've decided to make this a "director's cut" post and throw out a blitz diagram that didn't get included in the final Disguising the Blitz article.  Enjoy.

This is a line stunt that was part of the "creating the illusion of pressure" portion of the article.  In this particular instance, we're only bringing pressure with four guys but trying to create the illusion of pressure with the Jack linebacker.  Instead of bringing the four down linemen, we'll drop the Jack into coverage and bring the Will to the opposite B gap while the strongside end stunts behind him. Since this one didn't get sent into the graphics folks at MSP, you'll have forgive the MS Paint diagram and trust us when we say the ones in the magazine are pretty:

click for big

What we're looking at here is a strong side LB/DE stunt.  The DE is lined up as a 5 technique outside the LT, while the Will is over the LG at a typical linebacker depth. The particulars:

1. Before the snap, the Will will motion over to the opposite side of the formation and, at the snap, go ahead of the DE to attack the B gap between the RG and RT, drawing their blocks.  This is why it's important in a 3-4 defense to have stud ILBs that can legitimately take on offensive linemen on a regular basis.

2. The NG is lined up over the C in a zero technique, while the weak side end and Jack are playing 3 and 5 techniques, respectively.  At the snap the Jack will drop into coverage while the NG and DE take on the C and LG, leaving the LT with pretty much nothing to do besides help the LG.

3. Meanwhile on the strong side, the DE will take a one step jab at the RT before coming behind the Will in a one gap reduction to attack the A Gap between the C and RG.  If the Will has done his job and the C and left side of the line are sufficiently occupied, he should pretty well have a straight shot into the backfield.  

You can find video of us using this particular line stunt against Florida here (play begins at the 12:55 mark).  A few notes on this particular instance:

1. We're playing man coverage instead of zone here.

2. We're actually in our nickel defense here with only three down linemen and Dee Milliner coming down on the line to take the TE since there is no WR split left in this particular formation.  However, Florida motions RB Demps out wide, drawing S Mark Barron out to cover him.

3. Despite those differences, the players to focus on are the d-line and Hightower.  They run this particular stunt perfectly until Sentimore comes in way too high on the QB and misses what should have been the easiest sack of his career.  Still, it's a perfect example of how we can create pressure by bringing four rushers....just not necessarily the four you would expect.