Pressuring Protection in the Trenches

This article will present some brief principles of pass pressure and thoughts on evaluating pass protection. It will conclude with two effective pass pressures versus a common pass protection. One pressure comes from the traditional 4-3 cover 2 shell and the other from the 4-3 eight-man front. Building Defensive Packages with Players in Mind I believe that it is in the best interest of the defense to have a \'base\' defense that the players feel they can play against anything at anytime. This allows the players to play fast and confident. Complementing this \'base\' defense, the coach can create a series of pressures that is simple to learn and works with the players\' \'base\' alignments and rules. These complementary pressures (along with line stunts) are employed to stop the run or pass and follow some basic principles: * Vertical pressure to stop the pass, creating quarterback