The four-man rush against the shotgun quick-pass package

Pat Kirwan | NFL.com

2. The four-man rush against the shotgun quick-pass package

More and more teams are neutralizing defenses with a four-man front by utilizing a shotgun or quick-pass philosophy. If an offensive coordinator looks at a defense and sees a 4-3 scheme and concludes that none of the four defensive linemen can convert to linebackers in passing situations, then that triggers a shotgun or quick-pass package. The Titans, Bears, Packers, Redskins and Jaguars among other teams that have forceful four-man fronts. They get after an offense like the front fours of days gone bye. As one offensive coach said, "Whenever we can get a defense to waste a player in a rush look who will not effect the pass play, then by utilizing a quick game from the gun we win." A prominent defensive end in a 4-3 scheme said this week, "We have to start popping one of our linemen out of the rush and occupying an underneath zone instead of wasting a rusher because we just don't get to the quarterback enough the way we do it."

The truth is that rushing three players and dropping eight will get the quarterback to hold the ball. In the end that will give the three man rush a better chance at pressuring or sacking the quarterback. Look at Tennessee, for example. The Titans have an excellent four-man rush but they only have eight sacks and never got to Jeff Garcia of the Bucs last week because he got rid of the ball so quickly. I wonder if dropping an end would have gotten Garcia to hold the ball two seconds longer and allow a three-man rush to get to him? That's the question on the mind of a number of defensive coordinators facing the shotgun quick-pass attack.



i like the way our name is at the top of that list....respect

(but i do like what he is saying...we should def try doin that sometimes to see if we can get them to hesitate for a sack or force a throw....)


Source - http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09...te=without-video&confirm=true&campaign=ec0005