This 'suggestion' is to serve as a primer on Man to Man and Zone defenses, as well as to serve as a guidepost to what needs to be fixed. To avoid going deeply into the technical explanations of typical defensive schemes and terminology (Cover One, Two, etc., which can be researched), explanations will be limited to typical player assignments and techniques in the contrasting defensive schemes.
History of Zone Defenses
Back in the early days of football, all defenses were essentially man-to-man defenses, as each defensive player was normally assigned to cover one offensive player. Professional football leagues collected all the best talent available but, after the age of 'Iron Man' football passed and players became specialists, there were generally not enough top players to populate both offensive and defensive squads of all teams. As a result, most of the best athletes ended up on the offensive side of the ball.
What resulted was that the slower, less-athletic defensive squads became very vulnerable to the long pass and the 'Deep Six' which were the natural consequences of early man-to-man defensive schemes. To combat this vulnerability, a new type of pass defense scheme, the Zone Defense, evolved.
Man-to-Man Player Assignment and Technique
With a maximum of five offensive players out on a pass pattern, an equal number of defenders assume coverage responsibility of individual offensive players at the start of the play. (Which defensive player is assigned to which offensive player depends on the specific defensive scheme.) The assigned defenders essentially attempt to shadow the offensive receivers as closely as possible, ignoring the backfield and watching the receiver's body movements. When the potential pass receiver turns his head to look for the pass so does the defender, who then reacts to the throw and tries to break up the play.
With the defender staying very close to the offensive player, the passer is discouraged in attempting to 'thread the needle' to the closely covered player. Very accurate passers, however, may actually find this form of coverage to be easier to throw against than other techniques.
Strengths of Man-to-Man Defensive Schemes
Man-to-man defensive schemes work best when the defenders are equal or better athletes than the offensive receivers, and usually not so well when the defenders are out-manned.
Historically, there were normally four defensive linemen who were assigned as pass rushers thus leaving at least two defenders free for various assignments (blitzing, double-covering, spying (typically the QB and best RB) etc). The unassigned defensive players could do a number of things which could disrupt the offensive play.
Weakness of Man-to-Man Schemes
The main weaknesses of man-to-man schemes are twofold: 1) with each defensive player assigned to cover one opposing offensive player, the defense is one tiny slip away from yielding the 'Deep Six' and 2), by turning their backs on the offensive backfield the defensive backs will be slower to react to and more vulnerable to runs, especially delay runs (draw plays), sweeps, and QB scrambles.
Thus, overall, Man-to-Man defenses, while often able to yield big defensive plays if their schemes and tactics succeed, are also more vulnerable and likely to give up big plays, particularly if the defense's personnel is over-matched by the opposing offensive personnel.
Zone Defense Philosophy
Zone defenses employ the 'bend-but-not-break' philosophy of giving up short passes more readily than man-to-man schemes while clamping down on medium to long passes. The core idea in adopting a zone scheme is to make an offense play perfectly for 10-15 consecutive plays in order to score a touchdown rather than chance giving up a '6' on one big play.
A historical note: The 17-0 1972 Miami Dolphins employed their 'bend-but-not-break' '53' scheme (5 short zones, 3 deep zones) to the only undefeated, Super Bowl-winning, NFL season in history. Their defense was called the 'No-Name Defense' because it was so successful and yet had no well-known stars.
Zone Defense Assignments and Technique
At the start of a play when a pass play is identified and the defense is using a 'zone' scheme, 7-9 players will be assigned to covering areas of the field rather than individual players. The typical, and one of the most usual, schemes, as an example, is the 'Two-Deep' coverage. In this scheme, two safeties remain back (deep). With a normal four pass rushers, three linebackers divide three short zones across the field. The remaining two cornerbacks can play tight (short) coverage and thus constitute five short zones along with the LBs, or drop back into deep zones, thus constituting a 'Four-Deep' scheme aimed at skewing results against successful long passes.
There are many, many variations of these schemes including 'One-Deep', 'Three-Deep', various zone rotations, etc. The main point to grasp is simply restated: zone schemes are mostly designed to lower the chances of successful medium and long passes, while giving up the short passes.
As for zone technique, players assigned to zones typically start back-pedaling as the passer drops back. They keep a close eye on the movements of the passer while maintaining nearby potential receivers in their peripheral vision. At the moment the passer is seen to release the ball, the defender(s) make a break towards where the ball is being thrown and attempt to close the gap between themselves and the intended receiver as quickly as possible, timing their movements to arrive at the receiver at the same moment the ball does.
THE CARDINAL RULE FOR DEFENDERS IN TOP (or 'Deep') ZONE COVERAGE IS THAT THEY MUST NEVER (i simply cannot emphasize this point strongly enough) ALLOW AN OFFENSIVE RECEIVER TO GET PAST THEM BEFORE THE BALL IS THROWN.
NEVER.
NEVER EVER.The deep defenders MUST keep their bodies between the receiver and the goal line. Any defenders in deep zone coverages who allow receivers past them are subject to losing their jobs quickly.Advantages to Zone Schemes
Besides reducing the success of longer passes, because zone defenders are typically facing the offensive backfield during the early parts of their coverage assignments, they have a better view to what the offense is doing and can react quicker to runs and passer scrambles, especially draw plays and end runs (sweeps).
Disadvantages of Zone Schemes
1) Because more defensive players are involved in defending the pass, there will typically be less players to rush the passer and provide pass pressure. Thus, successful zone defenses need good individual pass rushers or the pass defense, as a whole, will be less successful.
Also, 2) inexperienced players may make errors in cover assignments in more complicated zone schemes. Finally, 3) 'pump fakes', 'play-action' passes, and 'screen' passes, can work well against zone schemes and their success is usually determined by the intelligence and experience levels of the defending players.
FINALLY.
So what is the problem in regards to MFN?
Pretty simple. In MFN, pass defense and defense in general works precisely opposite to what is described above. In MFN, man-to-man defenses are the high-percentage plays while employing zones is a huge risk. If zones are employed continually in a game plan, a defensive team is likely to be beaten by deep passes four or five times a game, regardless of the talent or experience level of the defenders.
Most of the problem seems to be caused by the faulty individual player logic inherent in the players assigned to deep coverage who just stop and allow offensive receivers to go whistling by. The other part of the problem is that many of the defensive plays, as a whole, have faulty logic with players doing things apparently designed to allow long touchdown passes.
Please. This needs to be fixed very badly.
Last edited at 7/15/2017 8:27 pm
