114 FOOTBAI,LCOACHINGSTR{TEGIES
Xs in Figue 5 show how positions move as the
ball moves).
Good run support is essential for a successfnl
defense.By keeping the ball in the arcas where
you want it, you greatly reducethe chancesfor a
long run or a big play.
1991Prcceedings.Codch Frr is head c@ch dr he Uai])ersitr af loud. CoachBrdshi.r is his assistant.
,, ; :l ::,ti .'', i i ; i * I ; ir : ; i l r I 9 ! i i : : : , r $ I i r : l
The Stunting 4.3 Front
GEORGE PERLES
! ll !li Iit 1 lrill lir lQ * iir ; li
We run the same type of defensethat I Ian as
defensive coordinator of the great Pittsburgh
Steeler t€ams-the 4-3 stunting def€nse.It's dif-
Ierent, and I don't know many peoplewho use it.
Some people will tell you that you can't play
the stunt 4-3 without a Joe crcene. We s€idom
have those type of people, bui the defense stitl
4.3 Alignment
We take our shongside tackle and put him in the
gap betweenthe center and guard. He g€tBinto a
stancethat allows him to hug the ball. He keeps
his inside leg back to a point wherewe don t worry
aboutliningup offside.Normally,we can hug th€
ball as much as we wani. The c€nter can't back
off the ball, so he can't do much about it.
The tackt€ gets into an angle charge r,\'ith his
rear end in the way of the oflensive guard. The
middl€ linebacker is also behind our tackle. The
strong €nd plays a 5 technique on the outside
shoulder of ihe ofensive tackle. The strong line-
backer eith€r plays head-upor outside the shoul-
der of the iight end, depending on the suppod
responsibility.The w€akside tackle plays on the
FIGUBE
5 Insiderun supporlmovement
C Q
I L'
^e
C C QTQC
Sfs - - - >x xl
STOVEPIPE]
i iv. d
i' ---" \t
F
c<
: 11 ; ' , 1 . 11
: 1g : ; : : , :
outside eye ofthe Btlard, which we call a 2-gap
r..hnique.The $ eaksidpcnd js in rhes rcchnjqup,
with the weaksidelineba€ker on the outside-
In defense,someonehas to have two gaps. In
the ,{-3, the middle linebacker has two saps. In
the odd front, the noseguardhas two gaps.W}tat
we try to do is give our down tackles a gap and a
half each. What can hurt this theory is the of
fense continually running the fullback in th€ in
side gap. However, th€ offense usua]ly doesn't
have the personnelor the patienceto do it
Stunts
WhFn pFopl.sep$ha' ue are doing.they give ur
big splitE between the center and guard. W}len
that happ€ns,we can't coverthe inside gapswith
our tackles.We go into an automatic stunt called
our "Tom game."In this stunt, we slant ourweak-
side tackleintoth€ center-guardgap and loop our
strongside tackle into the face of the weakside
offensiveguard (seeFieure 1).
People try to run the inside isolation to our
strcng side. They double down on the tackle,
single out on the defensiveend, and jsolate the
lin€backer Ourcoaching pojnt for the linebacker
 EMPII{SIS ON DE|E\SE lIi

run into the €ven side ofthe def€nse.What tha!

I
IIGURE does is to bring four men into the strong side on a
stunt. This schemeeliminates tlap blocking, rso'
latron,and curbacl running.This delen.ei" ex
cellent against the I-forrnation. The stunt tackle
jsn't stunting upfield. He's stunting into men so
that he csn rcad the down block and play the trap
(seeFieue 3).

FIGURE
3
is to frll the hole, takins on the lullback witb the

r oo
outside shoulder, and making the running back
run into our single-blocked lineman. Il they try
to reach the gap tackle and lead the guard up on
ihe lineback€r, his technique is differcnt. He takes 1
on the fullback with his outsid€ Ehoulder on a
down block. By doing this, he forcesthe back to
M
run into the rcach block of the center or our
tackle-an extremely hard block for th€ center. Another game we run is called"storm." This is
Alsn,we run the thre" game_agarnsrIhe iso- like the four game, exceptthe outside linebacker
lation game.We call it the three game becauseit comeson the inside slant (seeFigwe 4).
is to the weakside.It is run like the Tom game,
except the defensive end also mns an inside slant.
This gives us great penetmtion becauseof the flcuRE
41
reach blocking schemerun by the offensiveteam. ",*
You hav€ to have penetration. There is only one
pmblem with penetration, andthatis the hap.If
you are going to pen€trate, do it on an inside Blant
sith peoplecoming to the outside (seeFieure 2).

FIGURE
2
o We have a number of combination stunts that

o oolbbr >
'--ft
! :,/
can be run. To the open side we r-un e "ram." It
involves the weakside end and linebacker Th€
end and lin€backer stunt to the inside, with the
middle lin€back€r on a scrape olYto the outside
(seeFigurc 5).
We use the "me" call between th€ weakside end
and linebacker. All these stunts are used for
When we were in the pros, the ball was in the
middle of the field all the time. Even \.ith the
ball on th€ hash mark, it was always within a fl GU R5E
l;
few yards ofthe middle. In the colleeegame, we
defrnitely have a short side as well as an open
side of the field. For this type ofgame, we devel- O\\l'
opedthe "open scheme."That simplymeantthat
we stacked and shifted to the op€n side of the
lbrmation.
We still had the Tom game,whjch now was run
oootrooy \ E-h
into the strong side of the defense.We had our M-'-
three game, but now it was called "four game,"
 116 FOOTBALLCOACHINGSTRATEGIES

pen etration; however, you cannot penetrate with_

out being coveredfrom th€ back side, or vou will FIGUBE
8
get bapped.And anltime youinvoJveone ofyour
outside linebackem in a run stunt, then one or
yourshort pass zonesis Ieft uncovered.We try to
set away with that to the short side. Itwe catl
the "open m€," that involves the stronEsideend
and tackle. In the Btunt, he si,epsto the offense
and then loopsto the outsjde while the lineback€r
ddd troo
comeson a dowIl slant (seeFigure 6).

FtouBE
6l-; Remember,technique is on€ of the keys in play_
ing tbis defense.The tackles crowd tire ball as
close as possible.The center can do only thrce

opgrpv
t
"O
L things. He can block stlaight. W}Ien the cenrer
has to snap the ball and block the tackle straight,
we
causp'rsually
have the advantage.It is difficutt be_
(hFI acldeis hugerng the balt in alignmenr.
AnolherI hing rheccntercoutddo is I hestipblock.
M In this block, the center slips past the tackle and
blocks the middle linebackex Th€ last thing the
If w€ wanted to run strongside, we caled centercan do is try to r€ach the tackle.To do this,
"open."One goodthing aboutit was it allowed us he has to step, open his hips, analmove down the
to play the I-fomation play pass. When we ran line. We drill these thr€e blocks time and time
the Tom game, th€ guard blocked dorrn and the again unlil our tacklesleam how to.eact to them.
fullback picked up th€ stunting tackle. Coaches The middlc lineba.keris readingrh^ triangte
donl like fullbackspickrnsup racklcq.e"_ ol- lhp cenier.srard. and qB. The suard cani rakp
pccrarryrr'heir
the rackte is qomeonelike Ernie an abnormal splittoblockthe middle lin€backer
Holmes.It hetpsus when we findt€ams thatlike We have stunts wh€re both the tackte and line_
to run the playpass to the strongside(seeFigure back€r comeon a stunt, so it b€comesdanaerous
7). to splir too much.When the glard cur" hib sptil
clownio prot€ctrhe gap.rhe burr ofthe deten"ivc
tackle is in the euardh way and he can,t get the
FIGURE
7 shop on the linebacker.Thath why we angle the
tackle.Al times, we put both tacktesinto Ure
saps

ro and let the middle linebacker move ju6t b€fore

the snap from one sta€k to the other so that it
contusesthe offense as to who's involv€d in the
/-\
\, r'-\\r1-
\-l
stunt (seeFisure 9).
VLIU,U _
ThiE confuses the oflensive line, and we get big
plays in the backfi€td. This screwsup the btock_
t'"--I rng assrgnment.This isn,t something that I

The "open storm" is good against the play_ac-

FIGURE
S Angled lackle in g.p, mtddte
rineback6rswitches sr.ck
lron pass into rh€ strong sid€.you give up rhe
srrongllal zone.bul we get the presqureand ler
the shong salety play both zonesinto the bound_ o
ary (seeFigule 8).
The ram stunt can be run with a number of
other stunts. The Iam can b€ run with th€ Tom,
fo1lr game, and the open me. The middle line_
oooT oo i1
backer in this schemestays liee. M - - ,t

dreamed up last night. This schem€ has been
tested, and very great coache6have had an op-
portunity to beat this defense and came up light.
4.3 Versus Offensive Sets
\\hen we face the hallback set, we don't like to
run the three game. The reason is that the half-
back can get to the outside too easily and too
quickly, before the stunt tackle.
If w€ run the Tom game and the offense runs
away from the stunt, we're still in good shape.
The centels rules have him rcaching on that type
ofplaj'. The turther he reaches, the morc penetra-
tion we will get ftom the back side (see Figure
10).It doe€n'tmake any differ€nceifthe offenBe
runs away from the stunt. Therc isn't a coach in
this room who will coach his offensive center to
disregard the tackle in the playside gap and block
back. Coaches will not change th€ir blocking
scheme to block a stunt.
IO
FIGUBE
If we face the halfback in the strong set, we
adjust differently (see Figure 11). The shong
tackle lines up in the gap and comes upfreld. The
middle linebacker moves into the stack behind
the shong end. The weakside tackle comes to
head-on the offensive suard. The weakside end
FIGURE
llj."*","
oo
^ooo
o oortr
B ET TE
M B
O\ OEFE\SL ..
EMPHASIS
loosensup and the weaksidelin€backer movesto
a stack behind the tackle.
The adjustment to the split formation involves
some automatic stunts. We don't need to adjust
toward the tight end because we are already
Btrong that wa)'. The weakEide doesn't have a
stiong running attack, and the only play we look
for to that Bide is the sprint drsw. On the weak
side, we use a "youf call. The your call involveg
the weakside tackle and weakside end. It is the
reverse ol the me call. The tackl€ loops into an
offensive tackle, and the end crosses behind and
to the inside (see Figure 12).
12rY""*""
flGUBE
t^O
a9nooo
E---T
From this defense we have an open Tom, open
four game, storm, Iam, me, and any combination
of these stunts. The "open,ram, Tom" iB a combi-
nation stunt shown in Figur€ 13.
FIGURE13l-oF".',.r....'br""tb.
fuY^A
yyq{--plul
We can run the Tom game on formation. The
fa€t that the running back is so deep gives us that
flexibility When the center tries to reach, this
opens the center of the line lor the slant stunts
and eliminates the bubble in the middl€ which
running backs look for in the cutback. Earl
Campbell was a cutback runner. We played him
ten tim€s while I was with Pittsburyh, and he
avemged 42 yads ru6hing. Our scheme could
ppnclral,eand keephim fiom culling bacl.
If a team plays two tight ends, we nake our
adjustment with our secondary people. We either
play the rcgular 4-3 and move the weak safety