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7/23/13 RUNCODHIT FOOTBALL: 4-2-5 Alignments-Part I

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Saturday, July 3, 2010

4-2-5 Alignments-Part I

QUICK NOTE

This is part 1 of a 2-part series on alignments. The alignments I willdiscuss are in no means things I would do every time. Do ing thesame thing every time to a particular formation is a recipe fordisaster. The offense will be able to scheme you, because they willbe able to predict what you are doing. Also, you will be in a position

where the offense will predicate to you what you will be indefensively. So when looking at these alignments, consider them a

solid base alignment that can and should be adjusted to keep theoffense off balance.

In this part, I will discuss alignments versus 10 personnel. Doubles

and trips variations will be the focus. In part II I will cover spreadsets that involve tight-ends and pro running formations.

BASIC PHILOSOPHY

The 4-2-5 Defense is very flexible to multiple formations. The

fundamental thing to keep in mind when aligning to variousformations is common sense. The quarters coverage concept isvery self-adjusting and does not require too much move ment. An

important point is linebacker alignment versus 10 personnel spreadformations.

The idea behind alignment and coverages in this scheme, is tocreate an advantage where there is one more defender to each sideof the formation (+1 Rule). If there are two WR's to a side, thedefense wants to put 3 people in coverage to that side. Thelinebackers are the people for the most part that allow for this

advantage to happen.

As a rule of thumb, the linebackers should slide over to the side thatis needed to create this advantage. This usually fits into two rules.

1. Versus a 2x2 formation the backers should slide towards theaway-side of the coverage.2. Versus a 3x1 formation the backers should slide towards thetrips.

ALIGNMENT vs 2x2

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Versus doubles in the middle of the field, the alignment is simple. Ifthe call is 2-blue-solo. The read-side would be in cover 2 (robber)and the away side is in blue coverage. I will not go into the rules ofthese coverages, I have discussed this in a previous post. The

linebackers slide toward the away side. In the above diagram, theread side is arbitrarily to the left, not because of the back. The readside could just as easily be set to the right. When the ball is in themiddle of the field, other factors (devised by game-plan) dictate

which side is the read side when the ball is in the middle of thefield. A particular receiver, the quarterbacks preferred side tothrow, and the opponents bench could all be factors that push oneside to be the read side over the other. The time the back plays arole, is the option. If the team is able to run the option well, thenthe back is an important consideration. However, the offense can

easily move the back to the other side and or stack the back behindthe QB. This is why the back should not be a dominating factor whensetting the read side.

The backers slide to the away side in order to get the mike backer

closer to his coverage responsibility and maintain effectivepositioning on the run. Also, the FS will be involved aggressively to

the read side. This allows the backers to slide toward the away side.

One problem with this coverage to the middle of the field is the softcushion to the slot on the away side. If you sit in this look the

offense will attack the away side heavily. The smash, All hitch, andother quick combinations are difficult to cover consistently fromaway-side blue coverage in the middle of the field. In short, theaway side is susceptible to the quick game.

Fortunately, there are a couple things that alleviate this problem.First, the ball is not in the middle of the field often. Usually the ballis on a hash. With ball on the hash, these problems are not assignificant.

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Blue coverage is much more sound on the hash. The rule for settingthe read side in this situation is the field. Versus 2x2 on the hashthe FS should set the read-side to the field side. Away side blue isbetter on the hash for two reasons. #1 The mike is in a betterposition to get under both WR's, and #2 the receivers do not have

as much room to maneuver.

The other thing that alleviates coverage problems when the ball is inthe middle of the field, is the ability to mix in coverages to theaway-side. The easiest adjustment to the away side is to get into

man. Man coverage is designed to take away the quick passinggame. If the offense has to guess whether or not the away sidecoverage is in blue or man, then they will have a harder timeattacking you. They will have an even harder time if the WS andaway corner do a good job stemming their looks. The backer does

not need to stem coverage because his alignment is the same.

The backers do not have to change their alignments. The only thingthat changes, is the the away-side backer (mike) is now responsiblefor forcing the ball and covering the pitch on the option. Again this isnot an adjustment that you do all the time. But mixing in blue andman to away-side, when the ball is in the middle of the field, is a

solid strategy for dealing with 2x2 formations.

Another important consideration versus 2x2 sets is the splits of the

WR's. There are many different variations in their splits, too many

Strategy (2)

Trail Technique (2)

Weights (2)

46 Defense (1)

Feedjit
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to cover in this post. The important point is this: receivers usually

alter their splits and alignments for particular reasons. If a slotreceiver aligns closer to the core of the formation, he is usuallyleveraging an outside cut, conversely, if he aligns closer to thesideline, he is leveraging an inside cut. These variations must beaccounted for. Here is a common example.

When the receivers get closer to one another, they are usually goingto cross somehow. In this particular variation #1 has closed his splitand # 2 has widened and deepened his. This is a commonadjustment by the offense when the defense puts a defender inoutside alignment on the slot. In robber coverage the SS alignsoutside the #2 WR. However, versus this variation this would be a

bad idea. The offense aligns like this to put the SS closer to the #1WR. This allows the #1 WR to get around and inside the SS on aslant route easily. The FS will not be in a position to stop thecompletion. The play to expect here is a Bubble by #2 and a quickslant by #1.

The adjustment in a quarters concept is to adjust the coverage to

leverage the most likely route combination. Versus this variation theread side should check into blue coverage. This moves the SS insidethe slot in a position to slice the #1 WR, in this case, the slantroute.

If the offense does run the bubble slant combination the coverage

will be able to play it perfectly. The diagram below shows how the
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defense should cover these routes.

ALIGNMENT vs 3x1

Versus trips the alignment is simple. The backers should now slidetoward the trips side. The base coverage adjustment to trips is toplay SOLO coverage. Solo allows the read side to play cover 2 onthe #1 and #2 WR The read backer and WS will be responsible for

covering the #3 WR.

The backers slide to create a 4 on 3 advantage. The read-sidebacker is responsible for the short wall of the #3 WR. What thismeans is he cannot let #3 run a short crossing route. If he lets #3

get across the formation there is going to be a problem, becausethere is no one on that side to pick him up. The away backer andaway corner are both in man coverage, and are not guaranteed tobe there. The WS is responsible for covering the deep vertical andpost routes by the #3 WR.

Not all trips are created equal. Offenses think too! (For the mostpart.) Different trips variations are common place in today's game.Some of these variations will make x-out adjustments (like special)
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more effective. Versus displaced trips alignment should look like

this.

The read-side corner will man #1 (x-out), the SS and read-backerwill banjo the in and out routes of #2 and #3. The FS will be in deep1/2 to provide deep support. The SS, FS, and read-backer are

playing blue coverage on these WR's. The away side can vary theircoverage. In the above diagram I have shown man with the WS in1/2's. You could also run a 3-way with the backers and SS.

ALIGNMENT TO EMPTY BACKFIELD

Empty backfields are not a major alignment problem either. Keepingwith the idea ofcommon sense and the +1 rule, aligning to empty

is a simple process of following the rules. If a team run an emptybackfield, there are only two things they can give you. 3x2 or 4x1.The same split variation principals apply here as well. Versus a 3x2,alignment should look like this.

The backers should stack behind their respective ends and read forthe QB draw. Once they clear the draw they are on slice

responsibility. To the read side the corner x-out's #1 so the readbacker is slicing #2 and #3. This is the same technique he would bein versus any trips with an x-out adjustment being run. This is notdifferent. To the away-side the backer plays the same techniquethat he would play versus a 2x2 set. To him it is still just two WR's.
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If the offense runs a quads set, there is only one simple variation.Because the offense has 4 WR's to a side, a backer need to now getout of the box entirely to remain consistent with the +1 rule.

By bouncing the backer out, the defense now has a 5 on 4advantage. The mike is now the short wall player and the WS canrun his solo technique, this time reading the #4 WR. Again the #1

WR is discounted because the corner has him on an x-out.

SUMMARY

Again these are just some of the things you can do in split-safetycoverage in the 4-2-5. The rules are simple and allow you toleverage the formation and plays the offense is in a position to run.In the next part I will cover TE spread formations and 2-back sets.

Posted by aelephans at 3:33 PM

Labels: 4-2-5, Empty, Quarters, Robber, Spread Offense, Trips Coverage

3 comments:

Clifford December 12, 2010 at 10:18 PM

Great information....I couldn't find any mention about thedepth of the safeties or corners in these alignments. Anyoneknow?

Reply

CoachScott61 November 16, 2012 at 9:33 PM

Great information. The school that I coach at runs somevariation of your 3x1 coverage. I like how you explain it

better.

Reply

Jim Philips February 22, 2013 at 3:10 PM

Yeah you are right things should be random. If you stick with
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