Teaching Defensive Structures: Numbers
Teaching the quarterback the numbers of the defense.
This will be part 1 of a series building a teaching method for anticipating where the ball will go post-snap through the pre-snap process. You can boil football down to many things, and today and in the rest of this series we will boil it down to numbers, space, and leverage.
We want our quarterbacks to play with confidence in what they see and in turn, play with confidence. Quarterbacks might play “slow” for a number of reasons, and the primary reason is they don’t have a plan when they come to the line of scrimmage.
We do not want to have a process, however, that turns the quarterback into a robot that is going through the motions/reads/progressions. This process would be a failure if the quarterback could successfully go through the pre-snap process but not apply it to the given play called.
So the pre-snap process has to be fluid enough to handle any play call. The QB must be allowed to take pieces of the process as it relates to the current play call.
The working theory that will underly this process is that a strong understanding of defensive structures is the most sound way to navigate any given play.
By starting here, we want to help our QBs build pattern recognition. Pattern recognition is the foundation for anticipating future actions. Which precisely takes us to the purpose of our pre-snap process. We want this process to help the quarterback anticipate where the ball should go. Call it the facilitation of an educated guess.
This post will focus on understanding numbers as the foundation for building that understanding of defensive structures.
Numbers Overview
We begin with numbers simply to find out where the people on defense are and then get the ball where they aren’t. You’ll notice that a lot of the language around numbers use space language — more on that at the end of this post. The two are interlinked and can’t be talked about without talking about the other. Onwards we go.
To help see where the defenders are more clearly, we split the defense up into two parts: front and coverage.
The Front
The front refers to how the defense allocates numbers to defending the run space. We can categorize the defensive fronts into one of three:
Odd
Even
Bear
In my mind, I think of each of these fronts in numbers (examples below are in relation to a 10p, 2x2 set).
Odd = 5 core defenders in the box
Even = 6 core defenders in the box
Bear = 7 core defenders in the box
The formation and personnel can and will change these numbers from the defense. But this is the starting point.
In the same way that we know that 10 personnel means there are 4 WRs, you can think of each front in the same way to determine the number of players out of the box.
For example:
Odd = 6 out of the box
Even = 5 out of the box
Bear = 4 out of the box
Of course, at any point, one of those defenders “out of the box” can enter the box. Thinking about fronts like this is a little too exhaustive and intricate for how you naturally think about the numbers of a front, but it’s a good exercise to define and see numbers the defense is allocating to defending the front.
And another factor that determines these numbers is the formation and personnel the offense comes out in. Those numbers I used for the front are fluid depending on the numbers the offense chooses to use.
Now for an example to show how the formations dictate numbers (gaps) before we move on to coverages: here is an Even front where the defense has six players in the box:
In the drawing above, the defense has a player for each gap (there are five offensive linemen creating six gaps to defend). If the offense were to get into 11 or 20 personnel, then the defense would have seven gaps to defend; if in 12 or 21 personnel, then eight gaps; etc. Adding the QB as a runner puts the numbers in the box even more so to the advantage of the offense because now the RB’s ability to block adds an extra gap.
How many people the offense puts in the box should attract more defenders in the box. If it doesn’t, then the offense has the advantage. Now let’s move outside the box.
The Coverage
Coverage refers to how the defense allocated numbers to defending the pass space. We can also think of coverage in numbers.
Cover 0: 0 deep
Cover 1: 1 deep
Cover 2: 2 deep, 5 under
Cover 3: 3 deep, 4 under
Cover 4: 4 deep, 3 under
However, instead of thinking strictly in numbers in this section, we focus on how they defense is defending the middle of the field (open or closed) and how they are defending space (man or zone). That idea will be more of a focus in next week’s post on space.
For now we will think about how the defense is defending against the offense using those coverage numbers listed above.
Below, the defense is playing Cover 3 — 3 deep defenders and 4 underneath. Simply speaking, the advantage is deep since they have more people allocated to defending underneath than deep.
Below, the defense is playing Cover 4 — 4 deep defenders and 3 underneath. Simply speaking, the advantage is now underneath since they have more people allocated to defending deep than underneath.
Once again, space is a factor that can’t be ignored. The defense has tools to match numbers with their technique throughout the space they’re defending, but we’ll have to cover that in the next post in this series dedicated to space.
Now let’s take a more micro look at a 2 receiver set and how counting how many defenders are over the receivers is the beginning of identifying whether or not we have an advantage.
We see below 3 defenders over 2 wide receivers. When teaching players about bubble screens, for example, you would teach the offense does not have the numbers advantage here and that this would not be a good decision to throw the ball. Space is a huge factor, though not yet in the teaching progression.
Whereas this might be a more advantageous look based on numbers because the overhang is now playing closer to the box and can be counted as a part of the box. You could just as easily look at the below picture from a space lens and see the same thing. But in the simplest terms of numbers, this is a clear advantage based on numbers — the defense has 2 defenders over 2 receivers.
Conclusion
While “space language” was sprinkled throughout this post, the focus was on how numbers are the beginning to understanding how the offense attacks the defense. Football is all about creating space and defending space, so it’s impossible to talk about numbers without it.
Think back to when we were talking about fronts. Identifying the front is about space: we’re defining a space — the box — and counting how many people are in there.
Coverage too — we separated coverage into underneath space and deep space to identify where the offense had an advantage.
There is much more that could be said about numbers when it comes to the front and coverage and how they relate. For example, imagine an 11 personnel formation. A 1 high defense brings one more man than the offense can block into the front (box). Whereas a 2 high defense brings that player out of the front (box) and potentially puts him in a run-pass conflict. This is the next step in teaching numbers, and especially vital to understand if you ask your quarterback to make decisions in the run game whether that be direction or run-pass options. But that’s for another day.
In sum — numbers and space are interlinked. In other words, you can’t talk about one without talking about the other. But we must begin somewhere and numbers is a good place to start.
Until tomorrow,
Emory Wilhite
P.S. Next up in this series will be released next Monday and will be titled: Teaching Defensive Structures: Space
===
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up
Want to write a guest article? Submit an inquiry