The Two-Back Power and How to Defend It (Part II)

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Since this post turned out a lot longer than I expected, I'll break it up into two parts - Part I dealing with the offensive side of the ball and Part II dealing with the defense.

Defense

Now that you've seen how this play is run from the offensive side, I'll take a look at what needs to happen to stop this play. However, I'll first explain how run defense is supposed to function and how the moving parts work together, as things are a little more complicated than "everyone chase the guy with the ball". I'll try to keep this short and simple (maybe look at it in more detail some other day). 

Some think that the only way to stop the run is to "load up the box", put "8 in the box", drop the safeties down, etc. If you do some counting in the diagrams below and in part I, you'll notice that there are 7 defenders in the "box" and 7 blockers (5 OL + 1 TE + 1 FB). All things being equal, and assuming the offense hits all their blocks correctly, the offense should have a blocker for each defender. The ball will be in the secondary if none of your guys can shed their blocks. They are not going to run a play where there is a defender accounted for. So as a defense you need to figure out a way to a) occupy two blockers with one player, and/or b) use players outside of the box as part of the run defense scheme and funnel the ball towards them since they are not accounted for by the offense. To get an idea of what that looks like in practice, peek at the diagrams below and imagine the NT occupying both the guard and center to prevent them from reaching the MLB - you've just exchanged 1 for 2 and you have a free man at the point of attack. Or imagine every defender hitting his block, but maintaining inside leverage to force the ballcarrier to bounce the ball outside where you have a waiting defender, or keeping outside leverage to force the ballcarrier to bounce back and reverse his field, where you have a safety waiting.

While it's not necessary to simply have 8 players aligned in the box before the snap, you need at least that many responsible for run support if you want a sound defense (three interior gaps to each side of the center, an "alley" player, and a "force" player - explained below). To stop the ball, you need to have your defense working together to close the interior gaps - generally every gap is accounted for by a defensive player depending on where the ball goes (what kind of "flow" the defense reads). 

Many modern defenses are looking to "spill" the ball outside to the force player, and defend inside-out, which means that you force the ball to move east-west. As athletes have gotten faster I think more teams have gone to this model as you have 230 pound linebackers who are fast enough to scrape over top on the spill. The opposite of this is to "squeeze", which means to force the ball north-south.

Squeezing is in blue and spilling is in green. The LBs read direct flow to the weakside B gap as it is an iso play. In the first example (blue), the WLB hits the FB at or beyond the LOS with his inside shoulder, taking away the outside and squeezing the ball back inside. NT must feel the double team quickly as they are looking to combo him to the MLB. If NT can split the double he can make the tackle as the ball is squeezed to him; otherwise he needs to sacrifice himself and create a pileup to keep the MLB clean. He cannot get driven back - if he can't beat the double team he needs to drop to a knee and create a pile, hopefully taking out both blockers.

In the second example (green), the defense is spilling the ball outside. WLB contacts the blocker using his outside shoulder to take away the inside and spill the ball outside. The MLB scrapes over the top outside to avoid the double team (it will be tough for either OL to block him since he is moving quickly outside) and makes the tackle as the ball is spilled outside of the WLB. Spilling takes more speed on defense but the beauty of it is that it allows you to string the ball laterally which buys you time for the secondary to close down. However you just need to make sure you have someone outside to catch the spill.

The key, as you head outside, is a "force" player (some call him "contain") on the edge to "force" the ball back inside and maintain the edge - if this player gets beat outside then the back is likely gone down the sidelines. The "alley" player should be flying down the alley between the force player and the interior of the defense. I was taught that coverage is the most important factor in your defense because it determines how you can defend the run as it provides you with your force player - generally the player responsible for the flat. In cover 2, with CBs squatting in the flats, the CBs will be run force and your OLBs will probably play the alley. CB doesn't have to make the tackle but he has to maintain the edge and squeeze the hole down to give the pursuit time to get there. If you run quarters coverage with the safeties looking to play the run and the CBs bailing to deep coverage, the safeties will be run force. If you want man coverage then you can't count on the cornerbacks to play force since his back will be to the ball - your DEs will probably be the ones who need to maintain that edge. The coverage determines who will be your run force and dictates how you will be able to defend the run. Below is a little diagram showing what you can expect from a defense that reads flow to the right (green) vs to the left (blue), for three different coverages.

At the top, with a 2-deep look, the corners are in the flats and will be run force. Safeties are deep off the ball and a non-factor so the LBs will flow aggressively to the playside, with the backside corner and safety picking up the cutback. There are only 7 in the box but there are 9 involved in your primary run support. The second diagram is a 3-deep, 4 underneath where the the curl to flat defenders are run force with the free safety flying down to close the alley. Finally, at the bottom, the defense is in "quarters" coverage with the corners in a bail technique - they aren't involved in the run support. The safeties are reading the EMOL for a run/pass key and will fly down quickly to play force if the run goes to their side in this look.

Sky support to the strongside - the defense keys the block of #2 (the TE) and reacts based on what he does.

These "run fits" aren't married to any particular coverage or defense - changing up these assignments during the week and on gameday to fit what the offense is doing is the real meat and potatoes of coaching defense - it's more than just selecting a coverage and front and praying that the players execute. If you are running cover 3 with SLB force and they are killing you with the strong-side toss by having the WR release inside to crack block the SLB as he tries to get outside force, you can switch it up by having the SLB press into the alley instead and allowing the free safety to fly over top to play force, or have the cornerback read the crack and fly down as force. 

The actual front you line up in can be fluid, and the number of DL or LBs matters even less (see the example of Cal above; they have 3-4 personnel but they are basically doing the same thing as ASU in the 3rd example (with 4-3 personnel), only that the backside DE is standing up and is listed as a linebacker. The coverage and the way you want to defend the run are what determines your defense, just like the routes and blocking schemes define your offense rather than just the formation you are in.

Defending the Power

So much for keeping it short and simple, but if you're still with me I'll get back to defending the power. I'll explain two ways defend it that mirror the two principles above - you can either squeeze the kick-out block and force the ball north-south, or you can have your EMOL perform what's known as a "wrong arm" technique to spill the ball outside and allow your linebackers or alley players time to scrape over top to make the tackle.

Here is spilling in green and squeezing in blue. Spilling forces the ball laterally and squeezing forces it north-south. From what I've seen from UCLA's defense in 2009, we tended to try to squeeze vs. power - I couldn't find any clips of us wrong-arming kick-out blocks. However, it is the way I'm most familiar with so I'll explain it first.

In the first example (green), the playside DE feels the PST step inside to block down, and follows the "block down, step down" rule which is exactly what it sounds like. If PST blocks down then it is either run away, a kick-out block coming back, or some type of bootleg/playaction/reverse-type play; either way you want to step down to constrict the gap. DE needs to be aware and ride the PST for a few steps to make it tougher for him to block anyone (the LB), and then look for a kick-out block or anything coming back to his side.

Against the power he should notice the FB barrelling towards him and attack the block with his outside shoulder. His outside shoulder should cross the blocker's body and make contact with the blocker's inside thighboard.The reason for this is that he wants to close the gap - we do not want the off-tackle play going where the offense wants it, we want the ball to instead have to bounce outside laterally rather than gaining ground. The DE is basically exchanging with the WLB as he scrapes over top. If there is another blocker (as there will be vs. the 2-back power) he will also maintain inside leverage and he can spill the ball again, as by now the force player should have closed down and there should be either another LB scraping over top or an alley player such as a safety coming down - the man who is unaccounted for by the offense.

In the second example (blue), the EMOL takes on the block with outside leverage - he attacks it with his inside shoulder, keeping his outside arm free to prevent the ball from bouncing outside of him. WLB should recognize the down block by the PST and fill the gap, attacking the pulling guard and maintaining outside leverage as well (if he does not then there will be a hole between him and the DE). MLB needs to defeat the PST's block and make the tackle, or at least squeeze it down again to the next LB or a backside safety who is playing backside run support.

Tennessee used the wrong-arm technique last season under Monte Kiffin. Above is a screengrab of them defending a power concept against Virginia Tech in their bowl game. The EMOL attacks the block as he should - he uses the  wrong-arm technique, head across, and closes up the gap and even takes out the fullback, forcing the ball to bounce. Unfortunately for the Vols there is no force player outside and the LB who scraped over top (#37) did not seem to realize the ball would be spilling - he is in position to make the play and there is no blocker on him but he doesn't step outside far enough for some reason. See the video at the bottom.

Arizona State seems to use this technique as well - in the video at the bottom, the playside LB attacks the FB lead block maintaining inside leverage, forcing the ball to spill to the next LB, who scrapes over top. Unfortunately, the MLB, Vontaze Burfict, does not do the same. He takes on the guard's block with outside leverage, giving Chane Moline a hole. If he had spilled the ball outside, the cornerback, who appears to be the force player, would have been there to make the tackle as he was unblocked. Video is at the bottom.

Here's a shot of UCLA trying to defend Stanford's power play. Akeem Ayers is the EMOL and plays the FB kick-out block well by maintaining outside leverage and forcing the ball to move north-south. The guard pulls through and looks to block Reggie Carter. The safety is flying down and should be able to make the tackle if Carter can force the ball back; however he instead tries to run past the guard to the inside to make the tackle and a hole is opened between Carter and Ayers - the guard instead blocks the safety. Can't be sure but it looks like Carter should have kept outside leverage on the guard and the safety would have filled the gap for a 2-yard gain. Instead the result is a gain of about 9 before Sheldon Price is able to drag down the runner.

Defending the power, or any play, is tough - there's a lot of moving parts and there are a lot of players that need to be on the same page. I chose examples of defensive efforts that didn't work out as well as they should have to show you how easy it is to turn a minimal gain into a few more yards. There were a few good examples where our defense stopped this play for a negative gain, when the DL were able to split the double team, or when guys like Brian Price just manhandled the guys trying to block them. However, when you do not have a talent advantage, you cannot count on having BAMF's to do that consistently and the success of your defense lies on being able to read keys quickly and correctly and then reacting accordingly - taking proper steps, taking on blocks with proper leverage, and using the correct techniques to gain a man advantage. As I've said before, it takes practice and repetition in order to get your EMOL reading a down block and stepping down to wrong-arm the kick-out block on instinct and defensive players knowing where their help is to funnel the ball to them.