{"id":14416,"date":"2011-01-26T19:19:14","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T02:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=14416"},"modified":"2011-01-26T19:21:55","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T02:21:55","slug":"chalk-talk-the-zone-blitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=14416","title":{"rendered":"Chalk Talk: The Zone Blitz"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Ted Clarke <\/p><\/div>\n

By Ted Clarke<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to trick them with with a guy there not figuring on coming, or somebody shows up in a place you\u2019d never expect him to be.\u00a0 That\u2019s the concept in a nutshell: you hold them by the nose, then sneak around and kick them in the tail \u2013 just like General Patton used to say.\u201d Dick LeBeau<\/strong><\/p>\n

The phrase \u201czone blitz\u201d is a term that is thrown around quite a bit by commentators during pro games and college games. While the actual play unfolds in front of us, few actually understand the basics of the scheme. Let\u2019s see if we can simplify it. Bringing pressure has always been the answer to a great QB, team speed, offensive scheme or a combination of the three.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pressure is brought by bringing more defenders the offense can account for and having corners or safeties cover receivers man-to-man.\u00a0 The obvious disadvantage here is that pass defenders often find themselves on an island, alone, with no help.\u00a0 Unless the defender plays perfect coverage, the result is a long gain or a touchdown. The other disadvantage here is if the rush is picked up by the offense, generally the result is a completed pass.<\/p>\n

A new wrinkle was needed.\u00a0 Bursting upon the scene in the 1990\u2019s season, Dick LeBeau was credited with devising this new wrinkle.\u00a0 He believed that by showing his basic defensive front and coverage but have players simply swap responsibilities that it would create confusion and failure for offenses. Pretty simple in design, but difficult to execute.<\/p>\n

For the purpose of explanations we will use a 40 front or an even front.\u00a0 The even front has four down linemen, and three linebackers.\u00a0\u00a0 The DL is arranged in front of the OL with their hand in the dirt.\u00a0 The linebackers are aligned at their usual depth and alignment behind the DL. By alignment the defensive linemen have been designated as rushers, and the LB\u2019s are expected to drop into coverage.<\/p>\n

An easy example would be using the \u201cWill\u201d LB to swap responsibilities with the weak side DE with Cover 2 being played behind it.\u00a0 As a reference for Cover 2 there is a good Chalk Talk by Whittier Christian DC Pete Karavedas.\u00a0 In this zone blitz the \u201cWill\u201d blitzes through \u201cA\u201d gap and the defensive end drops into coverage.\u00a0 Now remember that the DE started with his normal alignment and stance, hand in the dirt.\u00a0 When the center looks at the defensive alignment to call protection, he sees a normal alignment.\u00a0 But what they get is a DE, a rusher, dropping and a LB, a pass defender, rushing through \u201cA\u201d gap. This has created confusion for the offense, as the OT is now wasted blocking air. By adding the \u201cWill\u201d to the rush the offense has to account for him somehow.\u00a0 The easiest fix is to keep the RB in.\u00a0 That eliminates a receiving threat for a simple 4 man rush.<\/p>\n

There are numerous combinations that are possible for the defense to use in an effort to create pressure.\u00a0 The concept is to create confusion by constantly changing who is coming and who is dropping.\u00a0 It makes it difficult to account for and block the right man.\u00a0 So the good guys win and the bad guys go back to the white board.\u00a0 This weekend as you hear the announcers talking about the zone blitz, the scheme may be slightly different, but the principals are the same. Rush the passer and play zone coverage behind it.<\/p>\n

Ted Clarke is a former High School Head Coach and Commnuity College Coach.\u00a0His high school stops included\u00a0head coaching\u00a0stints at San Dimas and Glendale.\u00a0He most recently was on Monrovia’s staff as defensve coordinator.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ted Clarke \u201cWe want to trick them with with a guy there not figuring on coming, or somebody shows up in a place you\u2019d never expect him to be.\u00a0 That\u2019s the concept in a nutshell: you hold them by the nose, then sneak around and kick them in the tail \u2013 just like General […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3738],"tags":[4434,3599,3382,2147,4433],"class_list":["post-14416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chalk-talk","tag-cover-2","tag-dick-lebeau","tag-pete-karavedes","tag-ted-clarke","tag-zone-blitz"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14416"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14434,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14416\/revisions\/14434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}