jerzeycane
All-ACC
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http://www.footballstudyhall.com/20...rback-Jameis-Winston-clutch-performance-blitz
Couple of key points that caught my eye in anticipation of the upcoming showdown.
I encourage everybody to read the entire article. It's an awesome read for football lovers.
Go to 3:19 of the video to see the coverage he's describing. We employed it last year, but to no avail being that we were dropping guys like AJ Highsmith and Jimmy Gaines into coverage.
Couple of key points that caught my eye in anticipation of the upcoming showdown.
1. You can't allow a QB to become "unconscious"
The moment a QB reaches a zone where he's barely having to think, he's in great rhythm, and he feels untouchable is the moment past when a defensive coordinator needs to have acted decisively. Ideally, in the 4th quarter the QB is constantly thinking about where the next hit is coming from, how bad it will hurt, and worrying about the players in coverage he can't see showing up in his line of sight after he's already delivered the football.
There's a lot of risk in bringing heavy blitzing early in a game since you are giving the QB and his teammates a good look at what they'll have to deal with in the 4th quarter, but it's useful to set a tone and keep the QB from ever finding that rhythm.
Similarly, I'm as big a fan of up-tempo football as anyone but if you can't trust your defense to hold down the opposing QB in big moments you have to think about exercising some ball control strategies as an offense to prevent your foe from getting extra looks at your disguises and game plan and figuring it out before the game is over.
The easiest way to stop a 4th quarter surge from a great player at QB is to have him beat before that moment arrives. Not just on the scoreboard but psychologically and physically.
3. Rotate pass-rushers throughout the game
Even if the offense isn't holding the ball much, it's important for a defense to rotate players because if the offense is running multiple hurry-up drives late in the game than the DL will get gassed whether they've been working hard all game or not.
If you have to blitz to have any chance of getting a hit on the QB, confusing him, or rushing his reads then you are probably already beat.
Obviously it takes a degree of experience, depth, and athleticism on a roster to beat a top flight QB. Dem's the breaks, there are no magic bullets out there.
4. Drop eight, rush three
Quarterbacks become used to dealing with the blitz and learning how to rifle the ball out to a weakened spot in the defense and land a kill shot that seals the game. Or if they can use the scramble, perhaps they escape and then find themselves confronted with wide open grass and very few defenders in position to reach them.
What college quarterbacks often aren't practiced at handling is a max coverage call that sits defenders in all of their favorite places to throw the football. Perhaps the best existing one for a dual threat QB is a Tampa-2 scheme with a shallow spy rather than a fourth pass-rusher
[video=youtube;FfCaePmiMZg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfCaePmiMZg#t=199[/video]
I encourage everybody to read the entire article. It's an awesome read for football lovers.
Go to 3:19 of the video to see the coverage he's describing. We employed it last year, but to no avail being that we were dropping guys like AJ Highsmith and Jimmy Gaines into coverage.
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