Pressure Coverages 101

2nd Look at Blake Baker’s Defense: What happens behind the blitz?

The much-discussed foundation of the incoming LSU defense is pressure. While there are near-infinite ways to configure a blitz, the additional numbers in the pass rush whittle down your coverage options considerably. The main attraction of blitzing is the pressure, but the success of a blitz package is made, and broken, by the defense’s ability to remain as stable as possible in a reduced coverage. The fewer coverage bodies you have, the more vulnerable you are to punishment. While the happenings up-front get more complicated, the back-end simplifies. When sending pressure, your focus in coverage is usually to be as boring and sound as possible. Many of the disguises, as well as reads and on-the-fly adjustments you see in full-coverages go away. Additionally, the focus shifts away from stopping a route concept and toward delay. Essentially, your pressure coverage, especially in the zone pressure world, boils down to a stall tactic. The minimum requirements are simple:

1: Have a plan to cover all 5 eligible receivers.

2: Have a plan to take away the quickest/easiest answers for the QB.

Every pressure coverage must check these two boxes or your rushers will never even get near the QB. How the coverage shakes out is dictated by how many people you want in the pass rush. Your options when sending 5 are different than your options when sending 6. In some situations, which will be discussed later, the defense can live in both worlds, sending 5, 6, or 7 depending on what the eligible receivers who may also be blockers (mostly RBs) do.

Covering a 5-Man Rush

When sending 5, you’re only taking 1 guy out of the coverage, so your options are a bit more expanded relative to an outright blitz (6 or more designated rushers).

Man Coverage (Cover-1)

Man coverage is always an option, as it allows you to account for all receivers by simply assigning them man defenders and takes away anything easy and underneath with tightness to routes. The downside is that it can expose any bad matchups, but it’ll always be the simplest way to account for guys and tighten windows.

Fire Zones

With framework pioneered by former LSU Head Coach and NFL DC Bill Arnsparger and perfected by longtime Steelers DC Dick LeBeau, Fire Zone has become arguably the most ubiquitous pressure coverage in the sport. In its most standard form, the structure is organized around balance, with 3 deep defenders and 3 underneath. The idea behind Fire Zone is to remove some of the downfield vulnerabilities of man coverage by putting the corners in deep zones rather than sticking them up near the line. This places an increased burden on the 3 underneath defenders to account for a lot of space. With no help behind them in the seams or outside them to the flat, the two outside underneath defenders, called “seam/flat” or “SCF” defenders, have to cover anything into those areas with priority on the seams. The coverage works outside-in, as there is a free defender ready to take anything that goes between the hashes. The assignment for seam/flat players is taught as “match, carry, deliver.” You “match” anything into the flat, you “carry” anything into the seam, and you “deliver” anything underneath and inside to the middle hook defender (aka 3 receiver hook or simply 3 REC) who patrols the short middle.

While 3-under/3-deep is far and away the most commonly used Fire Zone configuration, variations exist for defenses that want to have 2 deep safeties instead of just 1. The 4-under/2-deep structure eliminates spatial conflict for the underneath defenders by putting corners in the flat and does a better job squeezing the seams with support from both shallow and deep. Because only 6 defenders are available, the corners cannot afford to be covering empty grass if nothing enters the flat. As a result, they play a “trap” technique, diagrammed above, which allows them to play anything into the flat and help the S down the sideline depending on which is needed. It’s not ideal, but pressure coverages are never ideal.

If you suspect that teams will try to send multiple guys vertical, you can play the same technique with the corners from the top-down in more of a 4-deep structure. Despite the deeper alignment, the corners can still trap anything into the flat, but playing this way allows them to stay on top of any vertical routes on the sideline instead of covering from underneath.

Covering the Blitz

Blitzing (sending 6 or more rushers), makes things even harder. With one fewer body in the coverage than before (and 2 fewer than normal), your coverages must be substantially modified.

Zero Sum Game

The most frequently seen blitz coverage is Cover-0. A modified form of man-coverage, 0 lacks a deep free safety. Without a deep safety, this allows you to crowd the line of scrimmage and present the offense with a ton of possible rushers. With only 5 in coverage and 5 eligible receivers, the simplest way to account for them is to just give everyone a guy. 0 is a bare-minimum coverage, but is good at forcing the QB to hold the ball just long enough for the rush to connect or to force him to panic and throw it away.

H-O-T-T-O-G-O

The drawbacks of Cover-0 are obvious. With a void in the deep middle, offenses will often keep everyone in to protect and send someone deep into the space.

Like the Bucs famously found out above.

Additionally, the tight 1v1s outside create vulnerability if your CB room is weak or an opposing QB and WR are really good, like above.

HOT coverage, AKA “eyes,” is a popular way to play more conservatively behind a blitz. Structurally, HOT is a Fire Zone minus one guy. This necessitates a change in technique for the seam defenders, who now have to take educated guesses to cover this much area. The technique changes to parking on the seam, reading the QB’s eyes (“eyes” technique), and reacting accordingly (as you can see in the 2nd clip). This gives the corners outside some cushion and provides free help in the deep middle. The unsoundness of the coverage means that if the blitz doesn’t get home quickly enough, you’re going to get punished somewhere underneath the 3 deep defenders.

Adjusting On The Fly With Read-Rushers

Who you’re rushing and dropping into coverage is usually not completely predetermined before the snap. With uncertainty existing about which eligible receivers may stay in to protect and which may release, defenses will often designate players to mirror those guys. For instance, if the RB stays in and only 4 guys are running routes, the DC may prefer that the defender tasked with the RB add onto the rush instead of covering nobody.

Green Dogs and Ham

Defenses will often designate a player, usually a LB, to “hug rush” or “green dog” a designated eligible receiver (almost always the RB, as he is the first extra guy to add to a pass protection). Simply, if the back stays in, you add on as a blitzer, if he goes out for a pass, you have him man to man. The advantages of this are numerous, as it allows defenses to optimize their numbers on the fly based on where they are needed. Additionally, this technique frees teams up to send 6 rushers and have a deep safety without having to play HOT coverage, as the green dog accounts for the back in coverage (if the back releases, the coverage has 6 guys, making it play like the standard 6-man cover-1 outlined near the beginning). Usually, when facing a blitz look, teams will leave the back in, and the “hug rush” allows DCs to prioritize pressure without losing an eligible receiver.

The Art of the Peel

A “peel” is a similar idea. In an all-out 0-blitz situation, you still need a way to account for the 5th eligible receiver if he releases. The idea is simple, a perimeter rusher is asked to “peel” off of his rush and match the back man to man if he releases, otherwise just continue to blitz off the edge. This is done mostly when defenses want to crowd the line of scrimmage and present 7 rushers. Because the back can’t really release through the middle in this situation, the only place you need to cover him is around the edge. You simply tag a peel to either perimeter guy.

A Game of Good Enough

These coverages are not designed to hold up for more than a couple of seconds, so they cannot be viewed independently from the pressure they back. Despite this, the coverage often has as much to do with the effectiveness of a blitz as the design of the blitz itself. The better a coordinator is at forcing the QB to hold the ball, the more effective the rush. LSU’s ability to execute on the back-end will play a large role in determining which side of the divide their boom-or-bust style of defense falls.