Gameplan

Welcome back to The Call Sheet!

Today, we’ll dive into all things pressuring the quarterback. From all-out blitzes to simulated pressures, I’ve got you covered in another edition of Foundations of Football. TLDR:

• Cover 1

  • Foundations of Football: Pressures

• No Quick Game Today

Cover 1

Foundations of Football: Pressures

Every defensive coordinator’s favorite pastime is calling a blitz to sack or, less excitingly, speed up the quarterback. Even a gameplan to avoid blitzing isn’t enough to keep a DC from calling one in.

Nothing may be more thrilling than calling a blitz on 3rd down and anticipating its success.

Casual football viewers are likely aware of man or zone blitzes, but there’s more nuance to pressuring the quarterback than casuals might realize. Nationwide, defenses leverage five different types of pressures throughout the year and, often, throughout a single game: cover 1 pressures, 0 pressures, green dogs, zone pressures, and simulated pressures.

Cover 1 Pressures

Your standard cover 1 pressure consists of man-to-man coverage, five players rushing the quarterback, and a single deep safety. On many occasions, defensive coordinators use them to disrupt the run by plugging up gaps with bodies. Additionally, it’s one of the least risky blitzes any defense can use, as the offense can use their five linemen to block the five rushing defenders.

Theoretically, cover 1 pressures can be exotic, but most teams elect to rush their down linemen and add on a linebacker or safety.

0 Pressures

The sexiest type of blitz is also the riskiest. 0 pressures, as the name implies, have no safety help. I affectionately refer to cover 0 as “Cat Coverage” since it’s this cat (on defense) against that cat (on offense), so let the best man win. However, the allure of 0 coverage is the assumption of having a free rusher. Defenses send six, hoping that the offense only uses the five offensive linemen to block them, thus guaranteeing a free-hitter.

I’ve seen defensive coordinators have a field day designing 0 pressures to create sacks, incompletions, and turnovers. The beauty of a well-designed blitz is surprising the offense with where the rush is coming from.

Green Dogs

So what happens when an offense keeps a running back or tight end in pass protection to account for the six rushing defenders? Bring on the green dogs. Pass protections for the offense often involve an extra body to check-release, check for unblocked rushers, and then release on a predetermined route. So when a defense calls a 0 pressure, the running back or tight end with the check release stays in to block. With this possibility, DCs still wanted to create a free-hitter, so they adopted the green dog.

When a running back or tight end stays in to pass protect, the defender responsible for them in man-to-man coverage will add to the rush. Green dogs can also be used in cover 1. It’s a simple wrinkle to win the numbers game and create an advantage.

Zone Pressures

Similar to cover 1 pressures, zone pressures usually involve a five-man rush. There are scenarios where a team might rush six, but it creates bigger voids on the backend that are likely to be exploited by competent QBs. The most common zone pressures at the college level will have three deep players with three underneath to defend the hook/curl areas or two deep players with four underneath.

Zone pressures are truly designed to speed up a quarterback into making a mistake, ideally throwing the ball into a dangerous spot. However, well-designed zone blitzes will consistently land hits on the QB.

Simulated Pressures

Simulated pressures tie heavily into last week’s topic of coverage shells. Defenses elect to show a threat of a blitz before bailing out into coverage, often sending only three or four men to rush.

My favorite variations of simulated pressures involve utilizing the offense’s pass protection against itself (i.e., forcing the line to slide right when bringing a DB/LB hard off the left edge). Similar to its zone pressure cousin, simulated pressures are best used to speed up quarterbacks into making mistakes.

If you’re new, you can catch up on previous posts here. Thank you all for spending a little bit of your day with me. See you next week!