September 9, 2007 the Dallas Cowboys were set to debut their new 3-4 defense under new Head Coach Wade Phillips VS the New York Giants. Wade Phillips 3-4 at that point characteristically featured a 2 Gap Nose Tackle, and 2 Defensive Ends playing One Gap. The Defensive Ends used twists and stunts to get additional pressure on the QB. However, midway through the second quarter, Dallas was forced to make a change that dramatically changed Phillips scheme, and is now changing the way alot of teams run a 3-4. Jason Fergeson suffered a season ending injury and Dallas was forced to insert Jay Ratliff, a 6'4 295 LB Defensive End in at Nose Tackle. The rest is history. This past offseason, Miami, Buffalo and Kansas City have began implementing similar systems. Question is, is it a good long term system to run? Before I get into the +/- of the system, and my final opinion of it, here is an overview. Please note all underlined text Defensive Line: Key spot in this defense is the NT spot. Instead of containing two gaps like in a traditional 3-4, the NT picks a gap and shoots threw it. Both defensive ends act as anchor type players, playing 2 gap Line Backers: Not much is different with the outside Line Backers. However the Inside Linbackers blitz extensively, or show blitz. They also take responsibility for the Gap the NT doesn't take Secondary: Cornerbacks may very from team to team, but in Dallas's 3-4, they play disguised coverage, meaning before the snap the QB wont know if they are going to play Man or Zone. Strong Safety's in this scheme are not tradition "hard hitters", its a Man Coverage intensive positon, and the SS is generally in man coverage on the opposing teams TE's as the ILB's have minimal coverage responsibility. Free Safety in this scheme is a center fielder type. A mediocre FS will just prevent the deep ball, and quality FS will cause turnovers The Upside of this style of front it can create up the middle pressure on a 4 man rush that a traditional 3-4 never will. It also opens up the possibility of exotic blitz's. With this defense you can attack from any angle with little compromise VS the run or in coverage. If your DE's and ILB's are stout, no one is running on you. If you have two very good CB that excels in both man and zone coverage, QB's will struggle with initial reads The Downside is begining to rear its head in Dallas. Note all the underlined text. Those are skill sets absolutely required at those positions for this system to work. Your DE's arent anchors, you'll get gashed in the run. Your ILB's cant shed blocks fast, your blitz gets snuffed. Your Strong Safety cant play man coverge, TE's will have a career day every week. This becomes a strong set of personnel handcuffs. You need skillset over talent, and wind up with mediocrity at many spots because you need a Igor Olshansky, Bradie James, and Gerald Sensebaugh. Also those exotic blitz's are crucial to this scheme. One of the things that plagued Dallas this season is that Phillips has lost his imagination dialing up blitz's. Whats the point in a CB disguising coverage, if the QB isnt going to be confused by a blitz or a threat of a blitz My personal opinion of this style of 3-4 is that it takes too much maintenance to run successfully over the long haul. Its a system that if everything is in place, its hard to beat. However if injuries, defections or age hits your defense, without immaculate play calling, your defense is swiss cheese. I feel its ultimate home in the NFL is as a highly effective sub package
good breakdown. i think a team's decision on how to play their NT in a 3-4 is 100% contingent upon their personnel. The teams that have their NT's play a 1-gap style have much smaller, athletic NT's that can penetrate. The teams that have larger NT's will have them play a 2-gap style to occupy more blockers, therefore freeing up their speedier, more athletic players to actually make the plays.
For that system to, you are more reliant on the back end then a standard 3-4. Last year was our best year in that system, and its no coinsidense thats it was when we had two Pro Bowl CB's. The two years before that, our front 7 would dominate games, and we would still get gashed. Its not a system where a dominant front 7 can cover up a weak secondary and/or ILB corps. On top of that, its a huge handcuff personnel wise. As an example, elite Strong Safety's like Bob Sanders and Adrian Wilson would get abused in our system. Calius Campbell would get blown off the line play after play, and Brian Urlacher would get washed out of most plays. Too much skillset > talent
you know my passion for the 34....its a big boys defense, anything else to me is either a cat defense or a college defense. Now about dallas's line....ratliff is an extremely effective NT in the gimmicky bs 34 that dallas runs, its an "attacking 34"...there biggest loss was losing canty...i mean he did want tommy kelly money but he was a key part of that defense that requires the front 3 to get pressure. from an athletic standpoint canty was probably the second most freak athlete on the defense besides ware and they did work well together. but what made canty in that scheme was his 6-7 frame and LB athletism. i cant believe the giants paid him so big to play inside in a 43, what a waste. igor is much better suited to play next to a true NT, dallas does not have one of those as ratliff is the prototype DE in the scheme. i dont get why you think campbell would get blown up in dallas's scheme, as a prospect no one really knew where to place him cause he was so unique, i think he would be a perfect fit (like canty) for the scheme dallas runs. i think the cowboys have a serious shot at cameron heyward or dare i say allen bailey this year....heyward is more like canty, bailey is his own monster that i think best compares to justin tuck as far as roll in the NFL is concerned i do however have a problem with the way this scheme uses LBs and DBs....i like 34 DBs playing zone and dallas runs alot of man, especially at safety and LCB. the LBs are a complete fiasco because the entire benefit of the 34 is having stud LBs and so much speed off the edge and over the middle....bradie james and keith brooking are 43 LBs to me and using to take up guards like dallas does is criminal to the defense.
You cant have quicker DE's like Campbell in this scheme, your DE's are contain only. Igor is much more the right DE in this scheme then Canty (abliet an inferior player, which is a huge drawback), which is why last year was the most effective year we had in this scheme. You basicly have to play 2 RDE's that just eat blocks. DE's in our system dont play the same as most of the newer 3-4's DE's do. Most 3-4's today do what Buffalo did with Smith and Hensen and allow the DE's to rush the passer. Ours our straight 2 gap, which is why Canty was marginal here. Again its skillset over talent I would love to see Baby Ironhead or Baily (I want Petterson tho), we wont be running the same scheme next year, so I dont really know whats going to happen on the line, Spears is a UFA, but Ratliff will be a DE. James is a classic old school 3-4 Mike in the Levon Kirkland mold, down hill ILB with no sideline to sideline ability. Way too slow to play in a 4-3
