Lets give defense some love! After touching on offense in the first two blogs, I figured it would be a good time to focus on the other side of the ball and provide some tips for strengthening your defense. A good place to start with that is simply by learning how to correctly matchup with offensive personnel and then also how to mask what coverage you're in.

 

1) Matching Up - The first key to success is having the correct personnel on the field. Always wait for the offense to select their play, then take a look at what personnel was chosen. Choosing a Dime or Quarter defense against any sort of Big (2 TE, 2 HB, etc) grouping, leaves you very susceptible to being run on. Likewise, if you stay in your base defense (3-4, 4-3) against a 4 or 5 WR set, you're very likely to be thrown on.

2) Don't Show Your Hand - Basic premise here, have a defender covering each receiver. Sounds extremely obvious, but how many of you flip your Nickel defense if the slot receiver is on the right of the formation? Just a simply audible to flip your defense after the offense breaks the huddle can make the QB unsure of what coverage you are in.

3) Play the Weakness of the ‘D' - Who do you normally manually control on defense? When I get asked that question, I answer with: "Wherever the weakness is." What I mean by that is, let's say the offense has 3 WR's all to the left of the formation and I picked Cover 3 out of the Dollar. I only have 2 DB's to match up with those 3 WR's. In this case, I'd probably choose to control the slot CB and make sure nothing gets thrown deep.

Adjusting to the offense on each and every down is essential to playing good defense. You cannot rely on just one particular play that you feel comfortable with and expect that to get you through an entire game. So get back in a game and try these simple pre-snap adjustments out! Have an idea for a future blog? Shoot me an @ mention to www.twitter.com/JStein2469.