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Being up all night, I felt like writing a new blog and hopefully this can be somewhat useful to you. Football is a quite complicated sport, but here's a little introduction to the defense that hopefully can give you some clearance.
The defense consists of three main units:
- Defensive line
- Linebackers
- Defensive backs
Within these core units, the players are divided into more specified positions. One of the most important things being a part of the defense is to follow your assignment and not follow the ball blindly. But before we start going in-depth with the defense, I’ll tell you that a defense is built by different schemes where the two most common schemes are a 4-3 and a 3-4 defense. Even though they look very alike, they are very different. The first number indicates how many defensive linemen you have on the field, and the second one tells you how many linebackers are in your scheme.
For what it’s worth, the schemes I will be using as examples is from a 4-3 defense. That’s the scheme I’ve been playing in for years.
The defensive line
The defensive line has to different groups; defensive tackles and defensive ends. Tackles are those who’s in the middle of the defensive front. Usually these players are the biggest and strongest on the field – they are in need of being able to dominate more than 1 other player physically at the same time. The defensive ends are somewhat more athletic as they are often times the guys, who are running on the edge of the defense trying to close in the quarterback and force him to make an early throw or, if executed perfectly, sack him.
Mainly the defensive line has to assignments on a play. To put pressure on the quarterback, who will end up in making him throw earlier than he wants to or, even greater, getting a sack. The other task is to control their gap on the line and deny the runningback access.
Linebackers
Linebackers are also some of the biggest guys on the field. Typically he’s a bit bigger than the runningback, but still smaller than a defensive end. In a perfect world, he’ll have the same speed as a runningback, but possesses higher strength. As the defensive linemen, the linebackers often times also have a gap they need to control in order to stop the running game. Besides that there are a few other tasks for a linebacker depending on the play call.
- Man-to-man coverage (typically matched up against a tight end or a runningback)
- Zone coverage (most common zones are the hook-to-curl or the flat)
- Blitzing (Rushing the quarterback)
The coverage schemes are pretty straight forward. You either drop back in the zone, you’ve been assigned and control that space or you follow your man and take him out of the play. But some of you might not be familiar with the expression, “blitzing”. Blitzing is rushing the quarterback. A lot of teams use the blitz to apply more pressure to the quarterback in certain situations. There is also run blitzes that completely is designed to close different gaps and deny the running game 100 percent.
Those of you who follow football have probably heard the term a “sambacker” or something similar. But what is it? The three linebackers in this scheme has been assigned with three different names; Sam, Will and Mike. Sam for strong side, Will for weak side and Mike for middle. What the purpose of this is will follow later.
Defensive backs
The defensive backs are also divided into two groups – cornerbacks and safeties.
Cornerback
CB’s are those, who line up on the edges in front of the receivers. The tasks of a cornerback are pretty much the same as a linebacker, except that they don’t control a gap. Instead they control the outside. And of course they are not matched up with the tight ends and runningbacks, but the faster and more agile receivers. In a 4-3 scheme, there’ll be 2 CB’s.
Safety
The safety is the player, who is in the back zones of the defense. He has the same tasks as a cornerback, but the main difference on these positions are the physical appearance. A safety should be a little bit bigger and stronger than a cornerback since he’ll get matched up against the runningback a lot of the time. When you talk about the two safties, you talk about a free- and a strong safety.
But how does a defense actually look?
This is a pretty straight forward and a normal example of a 4-3 defense. The light blue dots are the offense.
The strong side on a defense is the side where the play is balanced towards – in most cases it’s the side where the tight end is lined up. In this case – seen from the defense’s perspective – this is a strong left due to the tight end lining up on the right side of the offense.
The zones
Before we end then let’s talk a look at the coverage zones. The orange circle is what we call the line of scrimmage, i.e. where the ball is placed before a play.
These are the zones. If you merge the two pictures, then you can probably figure out that the safeties often times cover the deep zones. Linebackers are very flexible in the zones – they pretty much cover everything but the deep ones.
Cover 2 Zone
An example of a defensive play call could be the Cover 2 Zone. A play that’s in every NFL playbook. Cover 2 Zone means that there’s 2 deep zones, right and left, and 5 short ones (2 flat, 2 hook and 1 middle zone). The weak spot in this call is the deep throw through the middle.
Note: There’s a mistake on the picture with the names. The FS should actually be SS and the other way around.
On this play, there’s called strong right – opposite of what we looked at earlier. The defensive line call is also called strong on this play. It means that they have to control the gap towards the strong side of the offensive line.
That was it for now. I hope some of you got to understand the defense in football a bit more. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
 
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Wow really helpful. Thanks. :p
My friend plays football, and whenever we play Madden, he ALWAYS reads my plays. I'm like ffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu what am I doing? What defense do I do? I think he's gonna run... but how do I block it? Dx This helps a lot in understanding football. :D
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Mainly the defensive line has to assignments on a play. To put pressure on the quarterback,
That is where i realized this was about american football and not real football lol >.<
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On April 09 2011 16:12 Kong John wrote:Show nested quote +Mainly the defensive line has to assignments on a play. To put pressure on the quarterback, That is where i realized this was about american football and not real football lol >.<
That means I'm such a raging American >.< It never occurred to me that he might be referring to another kind of football.
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what are the strengths of 4-3 vs 3-4?
what is the current trend at a professional level?
just curious, i'm more of a basketball guy haha. never played football in my life but i know basic rules.
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On April 09 2011 16:12 Kong John wrote:Show nested quote +Mainly the defensive line has to assignments on a play. To put pressure on the quarterback, That is where i realized this was about american football and not real football lol >.<
American Football is real football 
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On April 09 2011 16:42 shawster wrote:
what are the strengths of 4-3 vs 3-4?
what is the current trend at a professional level?
just curious, i'm more of a basketball guy haha. never played football in my life but i know basic rules.
With a 3-4 defense you really need to rely on your 3 defensive linemen to stuff the gaps and you usually blitz in either your Sam or Mike linebacker (one of the two inside linebackers). The two outside linebackers are more versatile since you can have them play zone coverage, the flats or blitz in from the outside. With the 4-3 defense you can really stuff the offensive line with your 4 DLmen and your three linebackers have a little more room to roam.
I used to play "Mike" MLB (tends to be the inside linebacker that blitz's in behind the nose tackle), some of the best years of my life.
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OP's country is set as Denmark and that I think that tricked many people.
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I was disappointed this was about US Football. Do Danes like American football? Looks like a good guide, though. I know nothing about my country's football.
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You have a few "to"s where it should be "two", American football is not real football, and if someone doesn't really know how the offense in American football works they'll end up clueless as to what you're talking about.
Perhaps you should include a legend for the picture. I assume that W, M, S are linebackers, but what are FS and SS? Safeties?
But overall it's pretty good for an intro into defense.
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Northern Ireland163 Posts
I like American Football, but Rugby is better in the long run. At least it's better than English football, one of those guys get touched and they go down like they are shot.
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in recent times 3-4 defenses seem to have become more popular, because it allows for more mobility and diversity as the outer linebackers can also be defensive ends and it can confuse the other team more often.
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On April 09 2011 17:41 Wtfux wrote:
I like American Football, but Rugby is better in the long run. At least it's better than English football, one of those guys get touched and they go down like they are shot.
The amount of G's a football player goes through, even with shoulder pads and a helmet, is actually proven to be much higher than Rugby players due to the ways in which they get hit. You need to understand that these football players are more like machines than you think, their mindset has a screw loose where they hit with the subconscious of trying to fuck the other person up every single play, not to make the play. You can wear all the pads in the world and getting hit by Ray Lewis or James Harrison will hurt more than [Insert Hardest Rugby hitters name here]
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On April 09 2011 17:28 Loanshark wrote:
You have a few "to"s where it should be "two", American football is not real football, and if someone doesn't really know how the offense in American football works they'll end up clueless as to what you're talking about.
Perhaps you should include a legend for the picture. I assume that W, M, S are linebackers, but what are FS and SS? Safeties?
But overall it's pretty good for an intro into defense.
FS = Free Safety
SS = Strong Safety
W/M/S stands for the specific positions of the linebackers, there are Mike, Sam, and Will, which just is short for Middle, Strongside, and Weakside.
Usually an offense will either have more personnel on one side (strong formation with a fullback on left or right, or a TE on one end, usually on the inside side of the field, depending on where the ball is spotted). The strongside linebacker will cover the side with more personnel, weakside the other way obviously.
Likewise, Strong Safety is the safety that will usually cover the strong side of the field, can also be called upon to blitz, and tends to be the bigger, harder hitting style safety. The Free safety is usually fast as hell and covers deep but can also take men in coverage who get past the CB's. Free Safetys can be the last resort, so usually the key is you do NOT let a man get past you if you are a free safety, you should always be the one deepest down field on a pass play
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Lol, someone rated it 1/5 stars. :-(
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Everyone rated it 1 star because it's not about football, so they downrated for having a misleading title.
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On April 09 2011 17:48 Juxx wrote:
in recent times 3-4 defenses seem to have become more popular, because it allows for more mobility and diversity as the outer linebackers can also be defensive ends and it can confuse the other team more often.
only if you have a nose tackle that doesn't suck. teams still run the 4-3 when they do not have a huge nose tackle.
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On April 09 2011 21:23 Lonyo wrote:
Everyone rated it 1 star because it's not about football, so they downrated for having a misleading title.
it is about football, not third-world-ball.
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On April 09 2011 21:26 annul wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2011 21:23 Lonyo wrote:
Everyone rated it 1 star because it's not about football, so they downrated for having a misleading title. it is about football, not third-world-ball.
That has to be the most offensive way to differentiate the two that I've ever heard. When you hear "football", doesn't the American version of "soccer" seem more appropriate to be named "football"? Think of how much time is spent in American football not using your foot to touch the ball. You obviously can't say the same about American soccer (which is every other country's idea of "football" for good reason). Summary: American "soccer" should be called football, but it's moot now since it's been a tradition to name the two the way we do now.
I've been following NFL since I was a kid and I understand the basic concepts and strategies fairly well, so I personally did not find much to learn from the OP.
Umm.. go Jets? 
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On April 09 2011 21:26 annul wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2011 21:23 Lonyo wrote:
Everyone rated it 1 star because it's not about football, so they downrated for having a misleading title. it is about football, not third-world-ball.
Hahahaha, sup annul. xD You're freaking hilarious.
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On April 09 2011 21:26 annul wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2011 21:23 Lonyo wrote:
Everyone rated it 1 star because it's not about football, so they downrated for having a misleading title. it is about football, not third-world-ball.
Surely you meant to say the American egg-ball.
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can't even have a thread about football without soccer kids bitching about the name
oh well, I liked your post anyway, OP.
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Could you do some writeups on alternate formations like nickel, dime, 5-2, etc?
I hope you are not discouraged by those who can't get past the name of something and prevent themselves from learning about a deep game. Particularly coming from a gaming site.
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On April 10 2011 01:32 Bear4188 wrote:
Could you do some writeups on alternate formations like nickel, dime, 5-2, etc?
I hope you are not discouraged by those who can't get past the name of something and prevent themselves from learning about a deep game. Particularly coming from a gaming site.
Honestly, I am a bit discouraged by the fact that people just throws a 1 out of 5 stars because either they are not interested or it's the internet. It annoys me a bit. I'll see if I can find the joy to write it sometime.
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On April 09 2011 22:39 EscPlan9 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2011 21:26 annul wrote:On April 09 2011 21:23 Lonyo wrote:
Everyone rated it 1 star because it's not about football, so they downrated for having a misleading title. it is about football, not third-world-ball. That has to be the most offensive way to differentiate the two that I've ever heard. When you hear "football", doesn't the American version of "soccer" seem more appropriate to be named "football"? Think of how much time is spent in American football not using your foot to touch the ball. You obviously can't say the same about American soccer (which is every other country's idea of "football" for good reason). Summary: American "soccer" should be called football, but it's moot now since it's been a tradition to name the two the way we do now. I've been following NFL since I was a kid and I understand the basic concepts and strategies fairly well, so I personally did not find much to learn from the OP. Umm.. go Jets?
I hate when people say this, Why do I call it cricket? There are no small insects involved. Why do I call it Rugby? Theres no carpets involved.
Of course football is a more appropriate name for soccer, but it is what it is.
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On April 09 2011 21:23 Lonyo wrote:
Everyone rated it 1 star because it's not about football, so they downrated for having a misleading title.
yea its about AMERICAN football
also random (and late) but tiki to possibly unite with his bro lol
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For everybody who is so upset that this is about "American Football":
HOW TO PLAY DEFENSE IN SOCCER:
1) Wait until the ball comes to your side of the field and then clear it towards the useful players
2) If you find yourself in a 50-50 contest for a ball, fall over as fast as possible. Your opponent is about to flop too, and if you don't beat him to it you are going to give up a PK
3) Something about forcing the ball to the corners/ being ball side during crosses/ always signaling "goal kick" no matter who touched the ball last
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Wow, I didn't realize American football was so similar to Bloodbowl. Thanks for the explanation, very interesting.
Major lol re the descent into what "football" should really refer to. Gogo TL hehe!
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I def enjoyed the read and although I follow football I never learned the zones. I remember playing some touch football with friends and them asking me to run certain routes which I had no clue about ... hook, curl, etc.
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good stuff. what i'd really want to know is what drives playcalling, but i guess that's much deeper than this topic calls for.
i wish i played football in highschool. too bad i was a geek/nerd at the time. when i started getting into weight training a few years ago i realized i had nothing athletic to use it for =(
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Great post OP. Looking forward to more indepth analysis since I love the game of football. Was lucky enough to play it for 6 years and its staggering how much strategy is involved on both sides of the ball, no to mention ST.
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Nice blog! I just wanted to ask, if the runningback is running at full speed then takes a step back to throw the defence's tackle timing off, then again charges forward at full speed, what is the best way to defend against this?
(Disclaimers: this move is from a certain manga)
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On April 10 2011 19:41 targ wrote:
Nice blog! I just wanted to ask, if the runningback is running at full speed then takes a step back to throw the defence's tackle timing off, then again charges forward at full speed, what is the best way to defend against this?
(Disclaimers: this move is from a certain manga)
It's all about angle and how you approach him. Also in the open field it can be pretty damn hard, almost impossible, to actually get a tackle in on a runningback.
There's no "real way" to defend against it. It's all about getting the right angle and timing. :-)
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On April 10 2011 19:41 targ wrote:
Nice blog! I just wanted to ask, if the runningback is running at full speed then takes a step back to throw the defence's tackle timing off, then again charges forward at full speed, what is the best way to defend against this?
(Disclaimers: this move is from a certain manga)
If you think about it ... if a running back is running at full speed and then takes a step back ... he's fully decelerating from a full speed forward motion. That wastes a LOT of time because then he has to get back to forward full speed. The delay imo, is usually disadvantageous for the running back and simply gives more time to the other defenders to come and help their teammate. The move just stalls the running back at the position.
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On April 10 2011 23:39 lac29 wrote:
If you think about it ... if a running back is running at full speed and then takes a step back ... he's fully decelerating from a full speed forward motion. That wastes a LOT of time because then he has to get back to forward full speed. The delay imo, is usually disadvantageous for the running back and simply gives more time to the other defenders to come and help their teammate. The move just stalls the running back at the position.
No, not really. It's a move that's either being used in the open field to be able to get past a solo defender, or it's used to be a little hesitant at the line to actually being able to see what hole is opening for him.
Besides that a runningback is specifically trained in accelerating and being able to go from a static stance to fullspeed in 1-2 steps.
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On April 10 2011 23:15 Bumblebee wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2011 19:41 targ wrote:
Nice blog! I just wanted to ask, if the runningback is running at full speed then takes a step back to throw the defence's tackle timing off, then again charges forward at full speed, what is the best way to defend against this?
(Disclaimers: this move is from a certain manga) It's all about angle and how you approach him. Also in the open field it can be pretty damn hard, almost impossible, to actually get a tackle in on a runningback. There's no "real way" to defend against it. It's all about getting the right angle and timing. :-)
Thanks for the answer. What you are saying would also seem to imply that if the runningback and defender are roughly evenly matched in speed and skill, the runningback would have a big advantage in a one-on-one if no other defender is nearby to help catch him. Is my understanding correct on this point?
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Hey thanks man!
I started following football last season, mostly because my friends got me into fantasy (but that doesn't help me focus on defense much  ). Your post is super informative and will help quite a bit in the future ^.^
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nice little intro. the only thing that i'd add is that while DEs are typically more athletic, this changes in the 3-4. T
Teams who run that formation will sometimes stick players who would be DTs in a 4-3 on the ends there for the purpose of plugging/opening holes on the line and not so much getting to the QB. A 3-4 DE will be like 300lbs~ whereas a 4-3 DE will be anywhere from 240-280 on average. in the middle of a 3-4 is a monster nose tackle who will often weigh in between 300-350 or something grotesque
The main difference between the two is that in a 4-3, you can count on those four down linemen almost always coming in at the QB hard. In a 3-4, the fourth guy coming in (if he comes at all) is disguised.
4-3 teams usually have sick DEs (Colts) whereas 3-4 usually have insane LB cores (niners). But to have success 3-4, you absolutely need a dominant NT. See the Ravens when they switched over to a 3-4 and got beat up until Haloti Ngata started killing people in the middle and opening lanes for Lewis again. I'm not 100% if they run a 3-4 all the time now though.
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On April 11 2011 22:49 Hawk wrote:
Teams who run that formation will sometimes stick players who would be DTs in a 4-3 on the ends there for the purpose of plugging/opening holes on the line and not so much getting to the QB. A 3-4 DE will be like 300lbs~ whereas a 4-3 DE will be anywhere from 240-280 on average. in the middle of a 3-4 is a monster nose tackle who will often weigh in between 300-350 or something grotesque
The 3-4 is really flexible in how it can bring pressure. The DT is not always a huge blob in the middle. For example, the Dallas Cowboys have Jay Ratliff in the middle who actually weighs less than the DEs. For the Cowboys, their standard pressure is created from the DT (Ratliff) knifing up the middle and the OLBs (Ware/Spenser) rushing from the outside. The big DEs are used to plug holes holes on the line and letting the ILBs read the plays. I personally cannot wait to see what Rob Ryan will do with this defense.
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Ratliff is 300++, which is similar to his DEs. Still smaller for a NT but yeah, def not a huge blob. My point is that the role is usually different for 3-4 and 4-3 DT. The former is generally lane plugging first to free the LBs and rushing 2nd. Vice versa for 4-3
bsing football strategy makes me realize how sad I will be come fall 
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This was a great introductory post. Like has been pointed out the roles of D-Lineman in a 4-3 differ hugely from their role in the 3-4. But this post does a good job of cutting the more in depth analysis and getting to the meat of the subject.
I was actually thinking about doing Madden style defense introduction, help people to pick the right formation, and play on defense based on what personnel the offense brings out.
By the way, if you play Madden, and pick your defense before the offense picks their play, don't. You should have a general idea of what you want to run, the most important part is the formation you pick, mostly do you want 4 DBs, or 5. However if they come out in the spread, and you picked 4-3 or 3-4. You're probably screwed.
Moral of the story. Defensive personnel is entirely dependent on offensive personnel.
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On April 12 2011 00:40 Hawk wrote:Ratliff is 300++, which is similar to his DEs. Still smaller for a NT but yeah, def not a huge blob. My point is that the role is usually different for 3-4 and 4-3 DT. The former is generally lane plugging first to free the LBs and rushing 2nd. Vice versa for 4-3 bsing football strategy makes me realize how sad I will be come fall
Yep, I realize he is still 300+. He just fills a completely different role than the "typical" NT and it shows off the flexibility of the 3-4.
I dont think we will have to worry about losing a season. There is too much money on the line to keep the lockout in place during the season. I think worst case is we lose a couple pre-season games.
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