Using Speed and Movement to Shut Down the Inside Zone

Every defensive coach knows that the Inside Zone is a base play for most offenses. There are many variations to the Zone scheme like lead, split, read, and bubble. At Adrian we start with the premise that it is important to beat the Zone from the inside out. We try to force the running back to bounce or cut back where we want. We will run down the read, bubble, and options off the Inside Zone. Here at Adrian College we believe in a smaller, faster, attacking defense that leaves the offense on their heels. Offenses hope to take away that movement and aggressiveness by running the Inside Zone. To counter this play we have developed ways to maintain our movement and aggressiveness while remaining gap sound. This is our Base 3-4 Angle Cover 3 alignment and fits (See Diagram 1). Diagram 1 We can roll either safety down. In this instance we would roll our free safety down to be our curl/flat