Category Archives: Defensive Football

Cover 2 Trap: A Fire Zone Blitz

I’ve recently discovered Vine, a twitter app for iOS (and soon android) that takes short snippets of video and shares them easily. I’m going to start sharing a few of these football videos that I do on Strong Football’s twitter account. I wrote my first vine… Tweet on cover 2 trap you can see the video later in this post.

The big advantage of vine is how quickly it works. I will be starting chalk talk sessions using the #fbcoach hashtag. If you have questions or thoughts, please share them by messaging my twitter account or retweeting it. There is a lot of great football coaching material…

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Defensive End Drills and Technique

I’m a big believer that defensive ends should be taught separately, if the resources are there, from interior defensive linemen. When I say defensive end, I mean anyone who is primarily a rusher from the end of the line of scrimmage. Specialized defensive end drills and defensive end techniques will help these edge defenders, whose play in space is different from those inside.

For the most part, I think a 7 technique skills, aka inside alignment inside of a tight end for this post, can be taught like an interior linemen. However, a lot of times a 7 technique will be playing a 5 technique. For these players, it…

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3 Keys to Defensive Game Planning

I’m a firm believer in a few crucial keys to defensive game planning. Over time, I’ve gone from someone who was very complex to someone who is very simple when it comes to defensive football game planning, as some of Strong Football’s most loyal followers probably know.

This post details 3 crucial elements, in my opinion, to defensive game planning. I think when you try to stick to more than 3-5 keys, you really aren’t emphasizing any one of them in-particular.

Defensive Game Planning Key #1: Only Coaches Know Tendencies

Your job, as a coach, is to understand what the opposing play caller is doing. Your players goal is to…

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Importance of Defensive Line Stunts against the Pass

defensive line stunts bears

I’ve become a big believer in relying on a simple yet fast defense. I believe, given all the looks we see in today’s game, that being really good at a few things goes a long way. Out executing people and knowing exactly what you need to do and how you need to do it is often under valued by coaches who simply want to overwhelm an opponent. One would be surprised by the mileage they can get out of a few coverages by just getting after the passer with good defensive line stunts. Even 4 or 5 stunts, if practiced from the beginning of training camp in your off-season, can…

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Football’s One Gap 3-4 Defense

Football’s 3-4 defense has become a very popular defense in the last couple of years thanks to teams like the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oregon Ducks. It affords teams the luxury of disguising who will be their fourth rusher. However, most 3-4 teams have to have at least one two gap linemen. In the world of high school football, a lot of teams do not have the size on the defensive line to play a 3-4 the way college and pro teams play their 3-4. However, if you slant your defensive line strong and weak, you can play a single gap 3-4 that allows teams to use…

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