BYU Football Monday Morning X’s and O’s: Stopping the Spread

Let’s look at the spread formation with an athletic player taking a direct snap. Something tells me BYU fans will be seeing this in the future.

This formation is difficult to defend for numerous reasons:

1. It causes the defense to spread out and defend the whole field, which leaves running lanes all over the field.

2. The formation demands that the defense play a more coverage-oriented scheme because of the need to cover the possible route combinations.

3. It leaves almost limitless possibilities to the offensive coordinator's playbook: throw, pass, option, sweep, off tackle run, inside counter, reverses, reverse pass...you name it and you could do it.

Solving No. 1

This is a tough scenario because it relies on your defense's ability to win their individual matchup. It also puts the emphasis on the individual, which isn’t how BYU has traditionally been good at defense. Our strengths have been our team working together to accomplish the goal of stopping the opponent.

In a five wide spread look with an athletic “quarterback” taking a direct snap, it puts the stress on the linebacker to align in the right position to limit the pass' success, while still being able to come up fast against the run, beat a block, and make a tackle.

Against TCU, our support players were getting cut. That means one person stands alone in a giant hole trying to make a tackle on a more athletic player. The matchup favored the Frogs every time.

In order to beat this formation and the plays, you must either be more aggressive in your defensive scheme or your linebackers need to work on being better tacklers. By more aggressive, I mean manning up on the outside receivers in our nickel package and then asking the linebacker to stay at home and offer help in coverage if they can.

This scheme puts a lot on stress on the defensive backs, but it could be an alternative to sitting back and letting the quarterback have his way with our defense.

The second solution would be to ask our linebackers to be better players. They will need to consistently beat a block and make a tackle and rely on secondary support pursuing to the ball. This is what we have previously relied on, and well...you’ve seen what has happened.

Solving No. 2

Again, because the coverages are normally based on the offensive personnel, the five wide look calls for a coverage-oriented scheme. That is why our defense oftentimes only rushes three against this formation.

It puts our defense in a position to take away the numerous route combinations and forces the offense to throw the ball short, relying on the five yards and a headache concept—catch the ball for a five-yard gain and get hit by four guys, getting a headache in the process.

Our defensive calls against the spread formation are going to have to change. We are going to have to either substitute our nickel package in the game more often or depend on a linebacker to become more athletic and be forced to play in space more often. Both have their positives and negatives.

With the nickel package we gain a DB in coverage, meaning we could be more aggressive up front. With a linebacker we will be stronger at the point of attack but less effective in coverage. There will be tradeoffs no matter what, and our coaching staff will have to be better at recognizing the situation and deciding when to employ which scheme.

Solving No. 3

Our defense is going to be forced to spend extra time against this formation. UNLV and our other conference opponents have seen what can be successful against our team, and that will now become their game plan.

Our defenders are going to have to adapt and progress in order to stop this formation. Our defensive coach might have to dedicate a little extra time to open field tackling.

I personally believe open field tackling is an art. The individual player has to be able to recognize offensive blocking schemes and understand where the ball carrier is trying to go. They have to anticipate the ball carrier's movements and attack, forcing the ball carrier to react to the defender...not the other way around.

Telling a player to break down and move their feet seems too easy—and well, it isn’t that easy.

We can best defend the various plays/options with sound scheme judgments and situational play calling. Our defensive staff will need to prepare in a way that will allow them to “get a feel for what the O-coordinator is calling.”

This is accomplished by watching hours and hours of film and possibly setting a new precedent for preparing for every opponent that same way. By watching film and understanding the situations of the game, our coaches can anticipate what the offense might be doing.

For instance, in a third and short to intermediate situation, with the offense having more success with the run than the pass—not to mention they have their scrambling quarterback in the game—I would anticipate a greater chance of running and would then call a defensive play that protects against the run more aggressively. Then I have to depend on my players making the play to get us out of the series.

It is a tough job, and the players need to help the coaches out by preparing themselves so they can also recognize the situation and the flow of the play calling. This way we don’t simply rely on the coaches' instincts, but we can also rely on the players' instincts.

To date we have defended this formation with a more passive approach. If we are going to have success against future league opponents—who are going to use this formation—we need to be more aggressive. We need to take a few chances and hope our coverage can hold up and our pressure can both neutralize the pass and close running lanes quickly.

At some point we are going put the game in the players' hands and say, “Hey, we need someone to make a play and get us out of a jam.” That is where your leaders need to shoulder the responsibility and make the play. Whether it is a pass break-up, a sack, or an open field tackle, we are going to depend on someone's abilities to get the job done.

Once again, who is it going to be?