Be Careful How You Identify Defenses

by Homer Smith
Former offensive coordinator, Arizona, UCLA and Alabama
American Football Monthly October 1999 Issue OnlineConventional names for defensive alignments—like Eagle G and Four Across—do not tell you what your plays will face. Certainly, computer analysis will not if it is done after inputting conventional names.

What a given play will face is: (1) either a balanced or an unbalanced alignment, relative to your formation; (2) one defender who can keep himself free of pass routes, fakes, and blocks—an unoccupied defender, the counterpart of the offender who has the ball; (3) a ...Login to Read More

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