3-4 one gap defense

1939hotmagic

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YJMD

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“We try to fit what the players can do in the defense rather than saying, ‘OK, we’re a 4-3 or we’re a two-gap 3-4,’ ” Phillips said. “We’re a team where if a guy can stunt and rush the passer, we let him do that. If a guy is a power guy, we try to let him be that. It’s all what individual players can do.”
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That has me excited. I think that's how we can best utilize the talent we have. Another one of the assertions is that it's more of high risk defense because if DL are responsible only for 1 gap, it puts more pressure on the LB corp to have the right gap assignment and cover screens, etc. But thinking about it more, I'm not so sure. How is that different from a 2-gap defense where a DL gets swallowed up and isn't able to cover their assignment? Just because you can assign guys to more gaps, it doesn't give you an advantage unless they can actually do it. If they can't, it reverts back to, at best, a 1-gap technique, and in that case LB are going to be less prepared for covering the DL's blown assignment.
 
slugboy

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I think the NT still runs 2-technique--at least some of the time. I'm basing that on "tying up the man in front of him", "taking on two blockers", and "being happy when the linebackers get tackles" comments I saw in some of the Nate Woody articles.
 
ilovetheoption

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slugboy said:
I think the NT still runs 2-technique--at least some of the time. I'm basing that on "tying up the man in front of him", "taking on two blockers", and "being happy when the linebackers get tackles" comments I saw in some of the Nate Woody articles.
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I saw that too, but I watched a few of their games, and watched the DL in particular, and Im pretty sure I saw the NT slanting exclusively. Now, I'm not a coach, and I could be wrong, but it didn't LOOK like the NT was doing a lot of tying up for the sake of tying up. They might have been drawing doubleteams, but to me, that's a different animal altogether.
 
MikeJackets1967

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1939hotmagic said:
Here are some relevant links:

Wade Phillips runs it in Denver:

https://www.denverpost.com/2016/02/...cos-3-4-defense-and-one-gap-equals-dominance/

And here's an overview of the defense by a high school coach:

https://www.afcaweekly.com/2015/08/one-gap-3-4-defense-keeps-offenses-on-their-heels/

And from 2014, a WaPo article explaining the difference between the one-gap and two-gap approach in the 3-4:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...dskins-defensive-line/?utm_term=.624934e044b7
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It takes a few seasons to start running the 3-4 defense well. GT as well as Tennessee will be running the 3-4 in 2018 and will have their struggles starting out like most teams do. GT will do better quicker than Tennessee because they're deeper at LB than Tennessee who probably has 4 true LBs on the whole football team.
 

Lavoisier

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From what I understand about how Woody runs the 50 defense/Oklahoma defense he has the NT line up at the 0 tech and slant to attack his gap assignment. Ideally you will have the C-G take that responsibility and you eliminate them from the play or the NT is free to create pressure.
 
forensicbuzz

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When the nose guard in the 3-4 has 2-gap responsibility, he has to be able to not be moved and control two gaps. That nose guard is a grown-*** man, and is very difficult to recruit, even for the elites. We were never able to get that guy, so we could never really execute Groh's 3-4 the way he wanted to. Woody's 3-4 is much different, not requiring the big space-eaters we could never get to sign with us. Many undersized defenses use a 3-4 alignment to exploit their speed and such.

or, I could be totally wrong.;)
 
iceeater1969

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We had tickets to the Texans when wade was there. The defense was super aggressive at times and then at times it backed off. If the opponent was great at passing he backed off more. Since the offense sucked it was a fun defense to watch. With a good qb the corner backs and lb got to cover for first 3-4 seconds . If not big gash gains. With the safeties and CB up close they really caused havoc when they blitzed.,


From reading about app state, we will do line stunts with a few blitz and occasional full blitz.

We will be able to measure the improvement in the pass rush .
Current average is 5-6 seconds for qb hurry if we blitz and 10 if we don't.
Let's hope for 2-3 sec and 4-5 sec.!
 
ATL1

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forensicbuzz said:
When the nose guard in the 3-4 has 2-gap responsibility, he has to be able to not be moved and control two gaps. That nose guard is a grown-*** man, and is very difficult to recruit, even for the elites. We were never able to get that guy, so we could never really execute Groh's 3-4 the way he wanted to. Woody's 3-4 is much different, not requiring the big space-eaters we could never get to sign with us. Many undersized defenses use a 3-4 alignment to exploit their speed and such.

or, I could be totally wrong.;)
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You're right although I think they have a 300lb NT at App St.
Thing is GT will have a number of 300lbs
at min 3.
 

Yaller Jacket

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Somewhere in the many threads about Woody I saw an article mostly focused on their nose tackle at Appalachian. It was all about him using quickness, not size.
 
ilovetheoption

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Lavoisier said:
From what I understand about how Woody runs the 50 defense/Oklahoma defense he has the NT line up at the 0 tech and slant to attack his gap assignment. Ideally you will have the C-G take that responsibility and you eliminate them from the play or the NT is free to create pressure.
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Every defense I've ever heard called a 34/52 okie had the interior 3 2gapping. I thought that was sort of the definition of what makes it an okie.
 
Coloradojacket

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forensicbuzz said:
When the nose guard in the 3-4 has 2-gap responsibility, he has to be able to not be moved and control two gaps. That nose guard is a grown-*** man, and is very difficult to recruit, even for the elites. We were never able to get that guy, so we could never really execute Groh's 3-4 the way he wanted to. Woody's 3-4 is much different, not requiring the big space-eaters we could never get to sign with us. Many undersized defenses use a 3-4 alignment to exploit their speed and such.

or, I could be totally wrong.;)
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From what I saw this year, Brandon Adams is that Nose Guard. He was quick on the attack and at 330 lbs is more than capable
 

Lavoisier

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ilovetheoption said:
Every defense I've ever heard called a 34/52 okie had the interior 3 2gapping. I thought that was sort of the definition of what makes it an okie.
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You're right about that, I was just saying from what I saw of App State he wasn't asking his guys to 2-gap. I guess Oklahoma wouldn't be the right nomenclature here for the defense, 1-gap 3-4 with 2 OLB on the line. Slant 50 maybe?
 
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