neuronet

I have a kindergarten understanding of football, many here are PhDs. I hope you don't mind if I ask some simple questions in this thread. Here goes...

A. The other night an announcer said that a corner was being used in 'nickel situations' and that this put pressure on the corner more than usual. What was he talking about?

B. An announcer last night talked about the A slot and B slot in regards to the offensive line and running game (not sure I got the jargon right it went by really fast). What was he referring to?

C. Is there a good web site people can recommend to learn the nature of the different positions on the O- and D-lines? I don't know the difference between a guard and a tackle, for instance.

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Ice_Ice_Brady writes:
The difference is that Brady calmly calls audibles while Manning flaps like a chicken, barks 11 code words, and makes sure every camera in the stadium has documented his once-in-a-generation (and patented, I believe) ability to see a defensive formation and change the play. Both have the same effect, but Manning transcends measurable human intellect while Brady merely chooses a different play.

ALP

well, LOL, i might have an elementary diploma, cuz i can answer only the last quesiton....

the offensive line is composed of 5 players, looking at it from behind the line its

left tackle - left guard - center - right gaurd - right tackle

the center is the guy who snaps the ball, the left tackle is usually the best offensive lineman, because he usually protects a QB's blindside

on the Pats Matt Light plays left tackle, logan mankins left gaurd, koppen center, neal/connolly right gaurd, and vollmer right tackle

the names tackle and guard simply distinguish the position, tackles are on the outside, and gaurds on either side of the center....

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Last time I lived in New England the Pats became a Dynasty

Then I moved away and they haven't won since

...now I'm moving back, and a Lombardi I predict

Dufflebagz

A. A nickel defense is when there are 5 defensive backs on the field (2 safeties and 3 corners). So he probably meant it put more pressure on him because in a lot of cases a corner will have more responsibilities in a nickel defense.

B. I'm guessing he was referring to the A gap and B gap. The A gap is between the Center and Guards and the B gap is between the Guards and Tackles.

C. I don't know a good website, but I can tell you.
A 4-3 defense would contain:
defensive end-defensive tackle-defensive Tackle-defensive End
and a 3-4 (Patriots base package) would be:
End-tackle-End
or a player example:
Wright-Wilfork-Warren

The o-line is set up like this....
Left tackle-Left Guard-Center-Right Guard-Right Tackle

Hope I helped

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Joker

google NFL football for dummies...there's about a billion links that answer questions from "what's a red dog?" to "cover 4...better than cover 3?"...take it from a REAL moron

http://football.about.com/cs/footbal...ootball101.htm

TheRealMcCagh

A. a nickel back is when the offense lines up a 3 wide reciever set instead of two, so the defense must pull a linemen out and have 5 players in the back (hence nickel). not sure why they would say this is harder for the corner though, maybe because there is only 2 safeties so someone is left alone with their receiver.

B. the A slot and B slot they were probably talking about was when a running back lines up to the side of center and usually up a little (called a slot back). this mostly means they are going to end up blocking a loose linebacker. sometimes they also break loose to catch a pass for a screen or something.

might wanna double check on that, but im pretty sure it's fairly accurate.

jmt57

There's a lot of people that know way more X's and O's than me, but I'll get you started before they come in with better explanations.

Normally in the defensive secondary there are two cornerbacks and two safetys. Often on passing downs the defense goes with another corner, giving the team five defensive backs (five, as in nickel.) I'm not sure if the announcer was implying more pressure on the third corner (usually a guy covering the slot receiver closer to the line, as opposed to the flanker and split end - receivers furthest from the ball, or true 'wide' receivers) or more pressure on the corners covering those wide receivers. Maybe the announcer was referring to the fact two safetys had to help out three corners rather than two corners, therefore more pressure on each of the three corners since one would be left with no help?

Think of the offensive line: a center in the middle, a left guard and right guard next to him, and after that a left tackle and right tackle. The area between the center and guard is the A gap, the area between the guard and tackle is the B gap, the area between the tackle and tight end is the C gap.

I'll take a look around tomorrow and see what I can find. Maybe others can chime in with some suggestions as well.

sbpatfan

Patriots also like to use the "Big Nickel." Instead of three corners they use three safeties with two corners. An additional safety, as opposed to a corner, tends to produce better match ups against a TE that a corner might struggle with due to size.

Sometimes you'll see a lot of the Meriweather / Chung / Sanders combo.

Wax Frog

Relative to the overall board population, I seem to have a mere HS diploma, or at least be in HS, and even that only because of watching since '86, and having spent way too many hours on the ORIGINAL John Madden Football*. It's why I seldom post, and wisecrack when I do.

Aside from the time investment, another big help in building my understanding way back when were Bud Wilkinson's "Winning Offense/Defense" books, which I used as an aid in learning to design plays in JMF, and since kept for sentimental reasons. They're the only football how-to books I ever bought, so I can't say they're the best, and they are somewhat dated, but I found them very 'newbie-friendly', a good primer on the basics

I'd like to note that I appreciate your thread, as I was beginning to feel as if I was the only "dummy" here...

*I still fondly remember being able to fully design my own plays, including wonderfully illegal ones I tried an updated version many years later, didn't care for it, mainly because the play design options were all presets.

Elijah

I still don't know much, but most of it I learned by lurking here. This is a good place to get that knowledge if you can just pick things up in context

Willie55

6th grader here.

In regards to A and B, I think it was Gruden who was saying 'A' gap and 'B' gap on the offensive line.. Each team could have there own terminology also. When I played for example the gaps were labeled as 1, 3, 5 on the left side of the offensive linemen, with the holes being between center/guard, guard/tackle and outside the tackle respectively. 2, 4, 6 was on the right side of the line. The quarterback and running backs each are designated a number, QB being 1, FB 2 and HB 3. When the play is called in the huddle, if they want to run being the HB to run between the center and the left guard, they would make a call something like a "31 dive". That's kind of a simplistic explanation but hope that helps answer your question.

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Great teams aren't always great. They are just great when they have to be. - NFL Films Narrator


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