Ritchie and the 3-4 Defense!

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Blitz
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The Leos will use a 3-4 Defense this season. The 4-3 and the 3-4 defense are the two most predominent defenses in the modern era. The 5-2 Defense, often employed by college teams and the 6-2 Defense, made famous by the Chicago Bears are only variations of the two predominent defenses.

THE 3-4 and The 4-3

I don't have strong feelings regarding either the 3-4 or the 4-3. Both have been in favor at different times, both in the CFL and NFL. The success of either is based upon personell, strategy, and teamwork, as well as the style of offences that are being employed at the time.

REASONS TO SWITCH TO THE 3-4

However, I am pleased that the Leos will be going to the 3-4 Defense, this season, for a number of reasons. They include:

1. Personell.

The Leos have a great tight end in Brent Johnson and a great nose tackle style player in Ty Williams. With the loss of Wilson at defensive end the 3-4 allows the Leos to move Hunt out to his natural position at defensive end. At the same time our Leos have some great depth at linebacker. Otis Floyd is a talent, Javy Glatt proved he more than belongs last season, and Johnson oozes potential. Pottinger and Foley are two Canadians who look like they are ready to step up. We have more depth at linebacker than we do at defensive line. Makes sense to utilize the talent that you have best and right now a 3-4 is the best use of that talent.

2. Dave Ritchie

Ritchie has been wanting to utilize a 3-4 Defense since he arrived. In fact, a lot of the time, he has. Have a look at the Leos defense the past two seasons...on most second down passing situations they have been are in a 3 man defensive line. At times they've also dropped a defensive lineman into pass protection out of the four man defensive line, effectively rushing three defensive linemen. They've also used the three man line at times on first down, against teams with a weak running game or in certain situations.

Ritchie understands this defense best because it's the defense he's most familiar with. Ritchie loves to utilize the blitz and this defense provides him with more blitzing options. It will force opposition offenses even greater difficulty in determining where the rush is coming from.

Ritchie also likes to use a lot of defensive coverages with six, seven, eight, nine, and even the rare ten in pass protection. Since his defense has been in a two linebacker set more than 50% of the time (he took Carl Kidd off last year) the use of four linebackers this year can be misleading in that only two will play the majority of the time in game situations.

More Formations and Defensive Strategies

This defense will allow Ritchie to move people around even more often, giving the defensive wizard even more options for different formations, blitzes, and coverages. Ritchie has been the most innovative and copied defensive coordinator in the league. He will innovate even more in the 3-4. Call it planned chaos!!

ADVANTAGES OF THE 3-4

There are many advantages of the 3-4 Defense. One of the biggest is the nose tackle, if he is good, can occupy two players by lining up over the centre. Most centres cannot handle the nose tackle on their own. It requires help from one of the guards. Double teaming the nose tackle opens holes for linebackers to blitz into. Ty Williams has played nose tackle a lot over the past two seasons and he's the purrfect nose tackle in this defensive set. In the 3-4 the defensive ends line up over the tackles or on the outside shoulder. With the tackle occupied, it enables the outside linebackers to bltiz and with the extra linebacker back there it allows the outside blitz to take place without giving up underneath coverage.

The four linebackers also make the defense stronger against the pass on first downs by providing better underneath coverage, if they are not being used to blitz. It allows them to cover the hook and the flat zones more easily than the 4-3 and to take away underneath crossing patterns and quick passing plays.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE 3-4

The 3-4 has always been considered a stronger passing and blitzing defense but has always been considered weak against the run. The argument has been that the tailback can get past the original line of scrimmage more easily in this defense and the interior linebacker can be blocked, as he is lined up deeper. This also provides more space for the tailback to run. The reason is that the centre/guard can double down the nose tackle and the offensive tackle can push the defensive end wide. The fullback can then step up and hit the interior linebacker before he can penetrate, and the tailback reads off the block, with space to run in the second layer of the defense.

However, this is not as big a concern anymore because most CFL teams are going to an 'ACE" back formation (single back set). Therefore there is no fullback to block the interior linebacker. If the interior linebacker reads the play properly he can scrape and explode up into the line and hit the running back in the hole. The way that teams will sometimes block this play is with the fold block. The offside guard will slide under the double team blocks of his opposite guard and tackle and then attempt to lead the tailback into the hole and block the interior linebacker for him. However, this is easier said than done because the off-side linebacker can read the fold block and slide over the hole and the outside linebacker, on the side the play is being run to, can also slide inside to take away the hole as well.

THE ZONE BLITZ CHANGES THE 3-4

There was also a time, when teams blitzed, especially out of the 3-4, that they went into man coverage, and sometimes got burned badly. However, the zone blitz has changed all that. Now teams blitz while going into zone pass coverage, effectivly taking away the deep ball while bringing heat on the quarterback, the blitzing advantages of the 3-4 are even greater with zone pass coverage employed in the back end.

CHANGING CFL OFFENCES AND THE 3-4

Defenses adapt! With CFL teams going more and more with an ACE back set, as mentioned, and the predominence of the passing game in the CFL, are two factors which determine that it makes sense to go with a 3-4 Defence. Now, if CFL offences started changing again, using tight ends more often, and using the fullback or an "H" back as an integral part of their offensive strategy, it would force defenses to need to stack the line of scrimmage more.

Of course you can do that with a 3-4 anyway. You can bring the outside linebackers up to the line and run a 5-2 easily. Ritchie can also switch quickly into a four man defensive front by moving Hunt inside to tackle beside Williams and using one of the outside linebackers as a rush end. If they come with two tight ends he can go four man line and bring two linebackes outside up to the line and go 6-2. He can adjust, with the personel, that he has, at any time, based upon the game situation and the team they are playing against.


WRAP

The 3-4 Defense makes a lot of sense from a personell perspective, from the fact the Leos have been using this formation as an integral part of their defense already so they are familiar with it, and also because CFL single back sets and predominent passing attacks with 5 and 6 reciever sets make it the most sensible defensive formation to utilzie.

Ritchie will also make the 3-4 Defense something different than a standard 3-4. It will give him even more flexibility to move people around, to disguise his defense, and to create even more blocking problems for opposition offenses. It's going to be exciting to watch!
Last edited by Blitz on Sat May 26, 2007 8:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
TheLionKing
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I have always consider the 3-4 as a more aggressive defence for the reasons Blitz outlined. Linebackers can come from every which way and often does. Drives the offensive line nuts !
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