PATRIOTS-80
2nd Team Getting Their First Start
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Since the question comes up quite often what is the difference between our 3-4, and the other teams that run the zone blitz out of a 3-4 (like the 3-4 Wade Phillips ran with the Chargers and now Cowboys, as well as the 3-4 the Steelers ran), the question rises in the mind of the average football neophyte, "what the heck exactly is a zone blitz?" And since it is the off-season (and there is nothing to talk about), I thought I would post an explanation about the 3-4 zone blitz.
Concerning the zone blitz out of the 3-4, lets start with the secondary. As you know in the secondary, there are 2 safties (called a FS and a SS), and there are 2 starting CBs.
What the team does is to divide the deep secondary into 1/3s. A CB may retreat into a zone that covers 1/3 of the field. The FS covers another 1/3 of the field and the SS covers another 1/3 of the field. Another combination is that one of the safeties moves into "the 8-man box" shall we say. The result is that the remaining safety covers a 1/3 of the field, and the 2 retreating CBs cover the other 2/3 of the field.
The math is quite simple, there are 4 guys in the secondary, 2 CBs and 2 Safeties. And a guy who runs a zone-blitz team like Wade Phillips only needs 3 of them to cover the deep secondary in 1/3s. That extra guy in the secondary can come on a blitz (or have an underneath coverage assignment).
Now for the LBs. This is why zone-blitz teams prefer the 3-4. If you rush the standard 4, the offense never knows where that 4th rusher will be (as opposed to the 4-3, where you always know where the 4th rusher will be). There is an element of surprise. The zone blitz team can (and most of the time) bring more than the standard 4 rushers. They can bring 5 rushers, or even 6 rushers. The remaining LB who do not blitz divide the underneath coverage area into proportional zones.
If you are interested, here is an excellent article on the zone blitz (only it is looked at from the 4-3 point of view).
http://espn.go.com/ncf/columns/davie/1430750.html
Concerning the zone blitz out of the 3-4, lets start with the secondary. As you know in the secondary, there are 2 safties (called a FS and a SS), and there are 2 starting CBs.
What the team does is to divide the deep secondary into 1/3s. A CB may retreat into a zone that covers 1/3 of the field. The FS covers another 1/3 of the field and the SS covers another 1/3 of the field. Another combination is that one of the safeties moves into "the 8-man box" shall we say. The result is that the remaining safety covers a 1/3 of the field, and the 2 retreating CBs cover the other 2/3 of the field.
The math is quite simple, there are 4 guys in the secondary, 2 CBs and 2 Safeties. And a guy who runs a zone-blitz team like Wade Phillips only needs 3 of them to cover the deep secondary in 1/3s. That extra guy in the secondary can come on a blitz (or have an underneath coverage assignment).
Now for the LBs. This is why zone-blitz teams prefer the 3-4. If you rush the standard 4, the offense never knows where that 4th rusher will be (as opposed to the 4-3, where you always know where the 4th rusher will be). There is an element of surprise. The zone blitz team can (and most of the time) bring more than the standard 4 rushers. They can bring 5 rushers, or even 6 rushers. The remaining LB who do not blitz divide the underneath coverage area into proportional zones.
If you are interested, here is an excellent article on the zone blitz (only it is looked at from the 4-3 point of view).
http://espn.go.com/ncf/columns/davie/1430750.html
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