The advantage of 1-gapping is that defenders are able to play aggressively off the snap against both the pass and the run. I prefer to just think of it as a defense with 3-4 personnel but 4-3 responsibilities. Typically, the 5-2 is an alignment used by 3-4 defenses, not the 4-3 (three defensive linemen and four linebackers, two of which are on the LOS).īut in the end, it's the one-gap responsibilities that define the 4-3 Under. L = LEO, a hybrid linebacker/defensive endĪdditionally, the front actually looks like a 5-2. For clarity, here are the front seven personnel pictured above: At first glance, it looks like there are four linebackers and just three defensive linemen (like a 3-4). Yet the 4-3 Under is sometimes mistaken for a 3-4, and it's easy to see why. Those gap responsibilities are the reason the 4-3 Under is, in fact, a 4-3 defense.
As you can see, most of the defenders (aside from one of the Tackles) are responsible for just one gap.
The offense's gaps are labeled with blue letters, and each defender's gap responsibility is denoted by a red arrow. Let's take a look at it on the chalkboard and then discuss personnel and player responsibilities:Ībove is the Ravens' version of the 4-3 Under. You see, even though it's called a 4-3 defense, the personnel tend to resemble a 3-4. and it's become the base defense in Baltimore in recent years.Įssentially, it's a 4-3 front with the personnel shifted toward the "open" or weak side of the formation (away from the tight end).īut that doesn't capture the whole picture. Meanwhile, Kiffin also took his 4-3 Under to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where him and Tony Dungy paired it with a coverage scheme they called the Tampa-2 to create one of the best defenses in NFL history.Īggressive against both the run and the pass, the 4-3 Under is a proven defensive front. You may recall that Seattle's defense - which runs a lot of 4-3 Under - just dominated Peyton Manning in this year's Super Bowl. He then took his defense to Arkansas, where it was picked up by a young graduate assistant named Pete Carroll.Ĭarroll eventually took the defense to the Minnesota Vikings (along with Kiffin) as well as the USC Trojans and, of course, the Seattle Seahawks. The 4-3 Under has a storied history that begins with Monte Kiffin, who used it to win a National Championship at Nebraska. So with that in mind, I dug into the defensive front that the Ravens will use as their "base" this season: the 4-3 Under. They've intimidated quarterbacks and stifled running backs for most of their 18-year history, and fans take pride in the defensive tradition in Baltimore. It seems that, every year, there's an ongoing debate about the Ravens' front seven: Do they play a 3-4 or a 4-3? Are they switching to one or the other in the off-season? And how will that affect their defensive philosophy?Īfter all, the Ravens made their name as an attacking, opportunistic defense.
0 kommentar(er)
