I thought of this a while back and decided to finally act on it. There are a lot of members here that know enough about football to yell or boo when their respective teams either score or lose the football but there are a lot more members who would really appreciate the knowledge that a lot of our posters have in reference to learning about complex offenses and the defenses that are needed to stop a high powered offense from making it's way down the field. Afjay brought it up again when he said that he along with probably quite a few members don't get involved in a lot of discussions because of what they perceive as being afraid of looking bad or stupid in front of the members here. Of course there will always be someone who is a lot more knowledgeable then the majority of us here but there are also members who don't know quite enough to intelligently discuss things in the football areas and it's for this reason that I think we need this thread. Now don't feel insecure about not knowing things, just ask your question in here and let the football minds work their magic and open your eyes and minds to the unlimited knowledge that is here at GIF. As this thread gets going questions will fly in and please answer the questions by first stating what the original question was so everyone knows what is being explained. I'll be first and start off with a fairly easy question. Explain the 3-4 defense that so many teams are running this year as it relates to the offense. Anyone????
This site could probably help out a lot of people: http://football.about.com/od/strategy/Strategy.htm
Thanx Dawk but I was also looking for more member participation, like a scaled down version of the 3-4 or whatever the members are interested in.
This is helpful... Thanks Sweets Ok, so I asked this question before in one of the threads, but it never got answered... so here goes again: In Pro Football, does the guy with the ball have to be down by contact to end the play? or is a knee enough?
A knee is enough if with contact. Pretty much anything besides hands and feet hits the turf and you're down with contact. Without contact, you're fine.
The 3-4 essentially replaces one large DT with a more athletic, but physically smaller, linebacker. The alignment of the three defensive linemen against five offensive linemen creates mismatches, and since the pass rush can include any combination of linebackers, its hard for offenses to know whats coming. It depends. If he falls on his own and isn't touched by the opposition after falling or the opposition did not cause the fall then he can get back up and run unlike in college football where he is down. If contact by the opposition caused the fall then the play ends with a knee to the ground.
Ok, when people say a linebacker misses an assignment. What types of things as a fan are you looking for to know this since you have no knowledge of the play that was called?
If a player takes a knee without being touched, he is considered down, as is the case with a QB kneel. However, if a player is trying to advance the ball, is not touched, and his knee hits the ground, he is not considered down until a member of the opposing team touches him, as he is still trying to advance the ball and has not been downed by contact. At least that's my understanding of it. Hope that's helpful.
Look at the scheme. If you want a ton of great examples of missed assignments, go back and watch any Colts game Gilbert Gardner started last year. His job on a running down in the gap contain system the Colts play is to contain the backside and force the RB back to the inside, because the goal is always to funnel the RB to the WLB, who is counted on to make the tackle (this is why Derrick Brooks and Lance Briggs always have extremely high tackle totals). Back to Gardner though, so many times when you saw a RB cutback and find a huge hole on the backside against the Colts, it was because Gardner had abandoned his gap and was pursuing the ballcarrier, leaving only a safety standing between the RB and the endzone on the backside of the play. This, obviously, is not very conducive to good run defense, and it showed on several occasions. The more you know about the scheme your team runs, the more easily you'll be able to identify things like that. Another helpful thing would be to have coach's tape and analyze the play, but very few people have access to such things.
Also a lot of the time the announcers will say that a LB missed his assignment and will explain why or how he missed it, if you have TIVO it helps a lot too, if you can run the play again in slow mo you can sometimes see what happened but as Dam said if you watch your team enough you can tell who hecked up, ie, Kwame Harris always either missing his blocks or letting the D get around him time and time again. Thanx for the explanation of the 3-4, wide.
Just remember people when answering one of the questions posted be sure to quote the question as Dam and wide right have done so we all know which question people are answering.
About the 3-4 defense, Football Outsiders had this article comparing the 4-3 and 3-4 Ds http://www.footballoutsiders.com/2005/06/16/ramblings/strategy-minicamps/2665/
With regards to why the 3-4 is being used a lot more by teams there are a few reasons IMO: 1, The recent success of the Patriots and the Steelers who use the system, the NFL has always been a copycat league and a combination of that and coaches from successful coaching trees moving about have seen it spread out over the league again. 2, The salary cap - DL men get paid more than linebackers, to pay for 4 top starters on DL and three at LB will cost you more than 3 top DL men and 4 top linebackers. Quality DL men are probably harder to find as well.
