Playing the weak side: reduction gap control 50 defense with 2 deep coverage

Coach and Athletic Director, August, 2003 by Rey Hernandez

The development of a defensive philosophy and the installation of a defensive scheme is a process that is in a constant state of evolution. This may very well be a task that may never be fully completed until the last game of a coach's career. Meanwhile, it is important for the defense to have an identification.

At La Jolla High School, we are best described as a weak-side reduction gap-control 50 defense. Since the last decade has witnessed an increased popularity in both three-deep zone and quarter-quarter coverage, we are now beginning to see a resurgence of the two-deep zone. Although we play some three-deep and quarter coverage the two-deep zone has been our signature coverage since 1990.

In the 1960's and 1970's San Diego was the setting for a great evolution in the passing game. Legendary coaches such as Sid Gillman of the Chargers and Don Coryell of San Diego State were setting the foundation for much of the modern passing game that we see today.

For me, it was Ernie Zampese and Ted Tollner of San Diego State and Willie Shaw of San Diego City College who were most instrumental in helping me learn how to defend the passing game.

The most influential moment in my coaching career occurred in a San Diego State-Houston game in the mid seventies. Houston surprised everyone by the ease with which it defended the Aztecs' passing game and I asked Coach Tollner how he did it.

That's when I learned about the principles of the Houston two-deep zone coverage. Coach Tollner let me borrow a copy of the game film and after studying it I became a disciple of the coverage.

I liked the idea of having corners who could come up for immediate run support, while executing primary pass responsibility at the same time. It was a time when option football was placing a great deal of pressure on the defenses and the two-deep scheme provided a way to slow down these offenses.

My analysis of the coverage will begin with an explanation of how the defensive front coordinated with the coverage, after which I will explain the specific secondary responsibilities.

Diag. 1 shows the base front against a standard Pro-Set.

The Nose Man plays a tilted nose position and is responsible for the strong A-gap. Our intention is to force the offense to double Learn the center, giving us a distinct advantage. The nose employs a narrow stance to crowd the LOS. He locks out the center on the snap, reads into the backfield, and keeps the center from reaching our inside LB's.

It is important to note that in a day and age when offenses set their linemen as far back as possible off the L0S, the center is the only lineman that a defensive lineman can get his hands on fast.

Coaching point: On the high school level, your least effective lineman is often the center. I guess this has something to do with the fact that even as youngsters playing sandlot football, the worst player always was the kid who hiked the ball!

The Strong Defensive End plays an inside shade on the tackle and controls the B-gap. We will also play him with an outside shade and help with the C-gap. The choke will depend on the type of offense we are facing and where they are attempting to attack us.

We call this adjustment end-over. (See Diagram 2.) It should be noted that to maintain defensive integrity in a gap-control front you cannot leave two consecutive gaps uncovered. In addition, the inside linebackers must always know where the open gaps are so that they can fill them with proper shoulder leverage.

The Weak Defensive End plays an outside shade on the weak guard and controls the B-gap. The weak side linebacker (WB) is reduced and plays over the outside shoulder of the tackle.

We try to find a quick athletic player to play this position. It is our hope that we can employ his athleticism to work against a bigger, but slower OT. Both the weak DE and the WB are responsible for keeping the guard and the tackle off our weak-side inside LB (Flip).

Flip is usually a quick and often small LB. By design he is often the free-hitter, a player who on the defensive chalkboard is not accounted for in the offensive blocking scheme.

Flip is also the only LB who has to do any significant amount of thinking. He will make adjustments in and out of the box depending on the offensive set. See Diags. 3 and 4.

The Strong-Side Inside Linebacker (Mac) will never leave the box. His biggest responsibility is to recognize the pre-snap run strength of the offensive set. If we are facing a tight-end offense, Mac will make an over call and shift our defensive front in that direction. On the snap, he will flow over the top and attempt to run down a ball- carrier who is hopefully running east or west in search of an open gap.

The Strong-Side Outside Linebacker (SB) will play on the strong side and line up over the tight end. He will be the bigger of our two outside LB's and be responsible for defending the off-tackle play.

His main responsibility is to neutralize the tight end and help us force the running back to run east or west until he is cut off by the contain player. The SB usually doesn't make too many tackles, but his responsibility is critical to our defensive success.