FanPost

John Fox, Von Miller and Conservative Blitzing; Oxymoron?

Foxy Bear has a football philosophy that's taken decades to mold... That philosophy is unlikely to genie-blink into a whole new animal. So then how can I justify popping off with last week's love letter on Von Miller (shout out to JuiceIsLoose for nicknaming the post)? I mean, Miller is a player that doesn't necessarily fit Coach Fox's philosophy. Von would be a blitzer for a conservative coach that doesn't necessarily like to blitz too aggressively, or even all that much. Miller's best attribute is that he's a sack specialist. We do need one, since we only have one, but linebackers in a 4-3 are actual linebackers, not rush linebackers. Even if we believe Miller could play DE on third downs, that's not enough. How do we get the most value out of his pass rushing skills?

Let me first say, this post has to do with Von Miller, but it's not about Von Miller. It's about Zone Blitzing.

Coach Fox employs a 4-3 defense, and he's expected to major in zone coverage while minoring in 'man'. Most of us know by now that his defensive philosophy is largely predicated on getting pressure with four rushers, while dropping seven into coverage. This is a bend-don't-break philosophy, with the idea being that seven defenders can more easily cover all receiving threats.

If zone coverage is our major, then our core classes will be the Cover Two, Cover Three and even the Tampa Two. These coverages are all pretty conservative and are essentially willing to give up some quick, timed, underneath passes while remaining stout against long gains and eventual scoring - hence, the bend-don't-break mantra. Further, it's important to really understand the underlying principle here: So long as you get pressure with just four (and sometimes five), all offensive threats should be covered, and eventually, a mistake will be forced before the offense scores (sacks, incompletions, interceptions, even a turnover on downs).

Force the offense to continually take small gains without giving chunks, and eventually they'll make a mistake - and you'll get them off the field prior to scoring. You've heard by now that Coach Fox prefers smaller, quicker linebackers. And this is where it comes from and why. These speedy little dudes help to mitigate the weakness in zone coverage, which is the quick passes underneath. They need to be quick enough and instinctual enough to get down and defend those quick timing passes - either by breaking it up, or by delivering a wallop as it arrives.Sometimes just being there is enough.

Sadly, my boy John Fox doesn't ever ask my opinions on which linebackers to draft (I never sold him a car... or a bridge), but I'll give you this little nugget anyway... after speed and fluidity, I look to instincts in order to guage a prospect for this system. Take it for what you will, but it doesn't matter to me that a guy can run a really fast 'forty' if he takes too long to diagnose run/pass. Instincts are paramount, IMO.

Moving on, I personally don't think the reason Foxy prefers defensive linemen is really all that deep or tough to understand. If you have smaller linebackers and even speedier guys in the secondary, you've got to add beef somewhere. So go clog the middle with a couple Ronald McDonald lovers, then trust your linebackers to hold the edge and drop running backs both violently and quickly.

Many of you have heard me say before about a guy like Foxy, that he won't change his stripes. Philosophies constantly evolve, but it's a slow process. His overall football philosophy took about a half-century to build, and the last couple decades to perfect. He'll change tendencies and adapt to changes in the league. And he'll scheme to his players' strengths. But his overall philosophy and core beliefs aren't suddenly going to change in a 'Who the Fudge is this guy?!?' type mentality.

In other words, Nick Fairley being a half dozen Ice cream Sundays short of 300-pounds doesn't make him a non-option. Martez Wilson being taller and heavier than a typical Fox 'backer doesn't mean we won't draft him either. (Personally, I doubt we draft these guys because I don't see Fairley as a great run stuffer, and I don't think Wilson is a good football player - But that's neither here nor there.)

The point here is that a player can be an exception to a trend, but a conservative philosophy doesn't suddenly get aggressive after 20 years, not unless it's having a mid-life crisis. And let's hope Foxy Bear isn't having one of those.

OK. So if blitzing is aggressive, and zone coverage is conservative... then zone-blitzing is conservatively aggressive.Get it, got it, good. I define a 'blitz' as being any planned defensive play where the defense sends more than four guys after the quarterback. Others might define it differently, but it's my story and I'll have my way, or I'm taking my toy and going home.

I guess it doesn't really matter what how you define a blitz, anyway, or even what names you want to give them - just know that a zone blitz is designed to confuse the offense by rushing a guy that didn't look like he was originally going to rush, then dropping a previously perceived rusher back into the other guy's coverage zone. And a zone blitz doesn't necessarily mean you're actually bringing in a 5th guy, either. Confused?

Yeah, that wording should be re-worded, but I have a picture here that's worth a thousand of 'em.

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Is that a blitz?

Alright so this is really a pretty pedestrian 'picture', but I'm no pro, and you still get the idea.

Look specifically at the arrows that cross the line of scrimmage. There's just four of them - four rushers. You've got Dumervil circling around the LT, and Paea opening a whole for Von to bring the speed through. Marvin Austin's job over there is to make sure the center can't lend a hand. The idea on this specific blitz is that with Doom circling around the outside, the LT has to kick out to slow him down - leaving a bigger hole for Miller. With Paea locking his blocker inside, there should be quite a hole for Von to come in and knock the crap out of Phillip Rivers.

You've noticed by now that I drafted Miller, then Paea and then Austin. I'm not really so absolutely convinced we draft these guys that I want to just keep sounding so arrogantly confident by drilling the names into your heads. Nope, it's just that it's my game here - my story and my players. I get to do whatever I want. Haha OK, I'm just messing around now, but the point is that you should focus on the draftees necessarily.Even the specific positions here could be changed. For example, I put Paea next to Dumervil. Paea is the better run stuffer between him and Austin, and more runs come down the strongside. So it's debatable as to where he goes. I put him next to Doom because I like the idea of having our best run stuffer next to our worst.

Another example is that I have Miller as the Mike on this particular play, but don't pay much attention to that. either. Miller would play the SAM role undoubtedly, but once in a while he might kick over to middle linebacker so that he can come off the weakside (since there's no TE and it's easier to overload the blockers on that side). I can't ever really move Miller to Will only because I can't have Woodyard playing SAM (and MLB is also unlikely, but possible at least).

Anyway, there are a hundred player combos we could go here. Each are debatable, so hit me in the comments if you have a different idea. For now, though, let's focus on Ayers for a minute. He's basically going to be up on the line without giving anything away. At the snap of the ball, he's going to punch the RT while he quickly reads run/pass. If it's a run, he just keeps beating the guy senseless until the whistle, or until the runner comes within reach. But it's a pass, so Ayers instantly drops off into the short middle zone that Miller just vacated (to pancake a QB).

Miller's move toward the line is probably what Rivers will react to first... he reads this as a MLB blitz. If Phillip has time to get the pass off, Ayers will be standing in the zone that Rivers thought was vacated. This play shouldn't end well for the Chargers.

Robert Ayers was a linebacker for the last two years. So was Elvis Dumervil. If there was a team ever, in the history of ever-teams, a team with Dumervil, Ayers and Miller would be right up there at the top for teams that should specialize in the zone blitz. The DEs are already skilled in coverage, even though they don't have to be. And the LDE isn't a great/proven pass rusher, while the LLB is. It just makes sense.

You can pretty much zone blitz Miller on every pass play, while constantly confusing the offense. Move him around, and move around the guys that drop into coverage. It could be Hill coming down into the MLB zone instead of Ayers. Ayers could drop into the SLB zone instead of the MLB zone. The idea is that even if Rivers thinks Miller is coming after him, he doesn't know which angle he's going to take, and he doesn't know who (if anybody) is going to take responsibility for that zone.

A zone blitz isn't a blitz. It's a way to have your fourth rusher be a linebacker. It's conservative, yet effective, and it's confusing to quarterbacks - When Cry Me a Rivers hesitates for just a split second to figure it out, then next thing he knows, he'll be picking himself up off the ground.

Again, this blitz is just one of many. It could and should be debated. There are way better X's and O's guys here than me who might be able to fine tune this idea, but know this above all else: We just rushed both Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil at the QB, from the same side of the field... without "blitzing". We still have seven in coverage, and we never put Miller in positoin to have to defend the run from on the line. This is how Foxy stays conservative while still getting the value out of Miller.

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Again with this "blitz", we're not actually blitzing. We're bringing Miller and Wood off the edges while rushing Dumervil and Paea on the weakside - all the while, maintaining seven in coverage. Rivers has about two seconds to properly read this blitz and get the ball out. His initial focus once the ball is in his hand, is he'll see Von and/or Wood coming off the edge. If he reads Woodyard's blitz and throws the ball quickly to that zone, DJ appears out of nowhere and takes it to the house. He probably reads Miller's front side blitz instead. This time Ayers is covering the zone Von just vacated. Tick-tok Phillip Rivers... VonDoom Pow!

Again with this play, nearly all aspects are debatable and interchangeable. You'll notice, though, that I have some tendencies. The idea of these blitzes will generally have the same core principles: VonDoom should each be after the QB on every pass play. You'll have to drop them in coverage once in a while to keep the offense guessing, but for Doom, that would be rare, and for Miller, it would come when passes aren't expected and/or planned for.

These plays are fairly simple for a defense, but confusing for the offense. The guys dropping in underneath coverage don't have to be Champ Bailey-esque, either. This is because the QB doesn't even know they're there half the time. And we're talking about short zones here. It's not like Ayers has to cover Vincent Jackson on a deep route. And Marvin Austin doesn't have to chase a running back sideline to sideline; He just has to waddle back a little bit, get his hands up and scream "Surprise MF!" Well OK, I may be oversimplifying the ease of coverage for Austin, but I still think some of you might be underestimating the sneakiness. I can guarantee we will drop DTs in coverage.

By the way, in each of the last two plays, the two safeties each cover a deep half of the field while the two corners each cover the first fifteen yards or so. It's called Cover Two as a reference to the safeties splitting the deep zone.

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This here is a FireZone Blitz, and brings five rushers. In this case, we have Miller coming around the TE (assuming he's still there) or the RT. Dumervil can come around the LT from the inside or outside - you choose. Ayers and Austin are going to open another hole for DJ to come in from the inside. In this case, we've got Hill dropping down to cover Miller's zone and he'll need to jump on that TE quickly if he starts coming out. Paea is going back into the middle zone, but once in a while you could throw that to Doom just to keep the offense guessing.

This is Cover Three. The difference is that each corner will drop back into the deep zone coverage at the snap of the ball, thereby splitting the deep field into thirds (Goody/Dawk/Champ). They've got to get back quickly, which means this play is a little more susceptible to a quick pass to the outside receivers. With the corners dropping further back, there's also less run support. Don't worry, though. We'll give up quick passes and short runs sometimes, because when we're in a FireZone blitz, the offense generally needs more yards than they'll get.

Also, Rivers doesn't know these corners are dropping back further. You could even throw a changeup here by putting Champ in man coverage on the #1 receiver. And either way, this is still bend-don't-break. There's only one blitzer coming in and plenty of support to stop a big play.

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This is another FireZone, which again brings five rushers.

You've got three on two over on the weakside, and that's always the goal of a blitz - bring more rushers in one area than there are offensive linemen. Then you've got Von and Ayers are coming in off the RT. If the TE is headed out, the RT has to kick outside to take on Miller, leaving Ayers to bum rush the guard. The middle here is susceptible to the run, but a team doesn't generally run the ball up the middle on 3rd and 7. Also, Ausin doesn't drop back until he reads the pass, so he and even DJ shouldn't be too out of position should Ryan Mathews try to get ballsy. And don't forget, our strong safety has already come down and is in good position to thump someone.

The zone blitz is most useful to a team that likes to play conservative, but also has speedy linebackers. Add in that our DEs are better in coverage than pretty much any other 4-3 team in the NFL. IIf Miller went to a 4-3 team, he'd earn his bread and butter in the zone blitz. You could pretty much have him blitzing every time he reads pass. He would pretty much never be in position to have to play the run from the end position, but he could play there in our third down packages.

Anyway, it's been boring with no free agency. I didn't mean this to be another Von Miller love fest, but rather an explanation to how we could get our use out of him, and how blitzing him can remain conservative and within the Fox philosophy. Our DEs can play in coverage better than any other 4-3 team. Miller would likely be a better blitzing linebacker than any other 4-3 team has. VonDoom in the zone blitz would confuse QBs and keep DCs awake at night. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Free Agency yet?!? Sometimes I wish McDaniels were still here to scream MF at these fools and get 'em in line! But I certainly don't want his sweaty palms all over our draft board again.

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