You know certain rules in your defense that just have to be followed. You face utter chaos and disaster if you do not get those ideas across to your kids. Some rules of defense are just universal to every scheme, while some fit only your particular style.
The 4-3 Defense is no different. There are 8 universal laws of the 4-3 Defense that you will not get very far without your kids following them. You can learn more in depth about all of these points by reading Installing Football’s 4-3 Over Defensive Front.
Block Down, Step Down
The Block Down, Step Down rule is one of the most important concepts to get across to your defensive line and linebackers. They can not allow seams to open up inside of them! The 4-3 Defense is a spilling defense, where everything is expected to either be tackled our bounced to the outside.
If a defensive lineman allows a little air to open up between him and a down blocking offensive lineman, you could be in trouble. The hard-scraping linebackers are expecting the ball to continue to bounce, and instead a back squirts through a little seam? Not good!
Spill Everything
Every player in the 4-3 Defense needs to fit on the inside half of his gap, with the exception of the box players who either keep the ball to their inside or force it to bubble to the sideline.This goes hand in hand with the block down, step down rule. We want every play to bounce to the sidelines. The spill concept is important for the safeties and corners to understand. They have to be patient if they are supposed to fit outside, and wait for the ball to bounce to them.
Sometimes safeties can get nosey, especially if you are using the aggressive safeties needed in Quarters coverage. If they start getting over excited about jumping in on a B-gap Iso play, they won’t be there when the back finally bounces it.
The box defenders (contain players) have to trust in the interior players to do their job. They must trust that the interior 7 will spill everything and be patient enough for it to come to them.
Box Defenders Must be Sure Tacklers
And when they are patient, and the ball gets to them? The box defenders, often the Safety or Corner, must be your most sure tackler. You cannot put any schmuck out there and line him up 17 yards deep and tell him to just stay behind everything.
There is no place for that guy in the 4-3 Defense. Our Safeties and Corners, whether the box defender or secondary contain, need to be sure tackler – even if they are not devastating hitters.
Physical Corners or Safeties
Depending on whether you want to run Cover 2 or Quarters behind your 4-3 Defense, you need to have some physical cats in the secondary.
If you are going to use Cover 2 as your primary coverage, you will need physical corners who can jam and funnel a receiver. Again, they do not have to be vicious hitters, but sure tacklers who are not afraid to mix it up.
They same is true of the Safeties in Quarters Coverage. They are going to need to fight off edge blockers on an Outside Zone or an Alley Screen pretty often. Your safeties need to be able to block destruct like a Linebacker.
Maximize Speed on the Field
Not only do your safeties need to be able to block destruct like Linebackers, you probably want to move a couple of safety-type players to Linebacker. The 4-3 Defense is all about speed!
The common thought process with the 4-3 Defense is to bump everyone down. Make physical corners into safeties. Make your bigger safeties into Outside Linebackers. Your one true prototypical backer is at the Mike. Your other outside backers become defensive ends. Your ends become defensive tackles.
If he’s too slow to play defensive tackle, let him concentrate on offense.
The Linebackers are 2-Gap Players
You should not try to get around this one. Trust me, it seems complex at first, but it is not. It is just good, solid Linebacker fundamentals.
In any 7 man front, you have to 2-gap somebody or you’ll have open gaps. In the 4-3 Defense, that responsibility falls on the Linebackers. The Mike is the only one who has true two-gap responsibility, in that he is responsible for a playside gap on both plays.
The Will and Sam linebackers are going be responsible for a cutback gap if the play goes away from them.
This is in contrast to an 8-man front where each player has a gap, and knows what that gap is on every play – whether he gets flow to or flow away.
The Mike Linebacker Takes a Pounding
Your Mike Linebacker, or Middle Linebacker, has to be mentally read to take a pounding. He is going to be in a 48 minute (or 60 minute) war with the Fullback against I-Formation teams, or the Dive Back in an Option Offense.
He will be blocked, much more often than the OLBs, by Offensive Linemen, too. He has to be able to block destruct. He will almost never have a play where he is not having serious physical contact with someone.
The Mike is the one true, prototypical linebacker on the field. He needs to have a tough mentality, leadership ability, and a durable body to play the position every play of every game.
Use Zone Blitzing and Disguised Coverages
The whole beauty of the 4-3 Defense is to use the 2-high safety look, the beautiful angles created, and the speed on the field to cause confusion and chaos for the offense.
If you are not using zone blitzes, line stunts, and multiple coverages with disguise, you are not getting all you can get out of the 4-3 Defense. While the base defense is excellent in its own right, the fact is there is just more to it.
You cannot be afraid to roll the dice in the 4-3 Defense. You should look to cause a few problems for your opponent, and accept that you might cause one or two for yourself in return. Weigh the risk vs the reward. If you are teaching the defense properly and using all of the weapons available to you, you’ll be sure to have some success.
Do you want to learn more about the 4-3 Defense and how to use it effectively? Click here to find out about Installing Football’s 4-3 Over Defensive Front.
