Warrior General Games

There is a LB in my league who has 58 sacks and 16 hurries through 7 games, with at least 4 in each game and 8+ in the last 4. They run the same play almost every down, and noone has figured out how to beat it yet. We have some ideas, but would like more input.

http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=167115&pbp_id=3839100

http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=167115&pbp_id=3839141

http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=167115&pbp_id=3840913

http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=167174&pbp_id=4926046

That same play they run most of the game and it works excellent the whole game.

From the best we can tell that play is a 3-3-5 run d weakside blitz. We tried it out for a scrimmage but i don't think it was nearly as effective, although we did have a few extra sacks.

Any ideas??

You need to keep a blocking back in the backfield, preferably decent strength, blocking, agility, speed, and vision (probably a power back, maybe an FB).

The other way to negate would be to run every play to left, middle, right, or far right. You could also try to negate it with a quick flats pass to the left.

You could also try only single or dual WR sets (no trips). That should give you the extra blocke.

Also put your best speed/agility/vision blockers on the left.

A Good RG can stop that LB cold - and flatten him too.

Run the ball

Originally posted by greengoose
A Good RG can stop that LB cold - and flatten him too.

You should watch the play again and see why the RG doesn't stop that LB cold.

That RG is too slow - thats why I said a good RG can stop that play cold. Perhaps I should have said a pulling RG.

I've got a guard 1 level lower than that LB that would slap him in the mouth and take his lunch money - and he's not even optimized for the job at hand..

The majority of the time that blitz pickup is the RG's responsibility. If you can't plug in a faster lineman you might have to have the TE or HB be the primary receiver and hope you get rid of the ball in time. All you need to do is touch that linebacker and you could have a big pass to the HB

Dont try to go deep on that team. The WR's cant even run their patterns. Throw short passes and run right at him with the FB leading up on him(getting that running play to work is the hard part)

Run down the middle. Their D is weak in the middle when they overload on the weakside

that's pretty impressive. I may have to put that in my playbook

just like attacking speed ends, simply run the ball down their throat for the first quarter and see if that slows him down any.

Yup.....if he is built for sacks he should be weak vs the run. Get a stronger player on him in a running situation and see what happens. He will most likely run down running plays that are run away from him.

RG and HB need to be on pass focus, have sufficient agility to pick up the blitzers.

You will notice that they only run the blitz vs. 3 WR formations- why? 3 WR formations are pretty much always pass plays or a left pitch that the blitzing LBs will take out easily. In addition, you are missing the FB who would be responsible for picking up the far left blitzing LB. The worst formation to get against this defense is the 3-WR shotgun, the ROLB almost always slips by untouched.

My solution would be to put HB on pass, your highest agile/vision Gs at RG on balanced or pass. Run the ball hard down the middle or off-tackle, and stay away from medium/long passes. Short pass calls are the least likely to produce the dangerous 3-WR shotgun or single back formation. The TE is often the one most open down the field, especially if they accidentally blitz the LOLB, so focus on him.

Short pass-TE calls may be more likely to produce the double-TE pass play, which they probably won't be similarly prepared for. If you must pass more than short, long pass calls may be better than medium- the formations can be more dangerous, more guys will drop into the secondary, and you have a better chance of going for all-or-nothing, rather than 9 yards-or-nothing.

An Africa A team I work with- Sudan- (with Packman here ) played a 3-4 team like this last week. They lead the conference in sacks- we held them to 1 sack, 3 hurries, and managed to put up 215 passing yards despite a stunted running game.
http://goallineblitz.com/game/game.pl?game_id=180714

The guy has 67 sacks already this year. I'm betting the PASS FOCUS thing has already been tried.

He has 87 total tackles and 67 of those are sacks. He is built for speed. I am willing to bet that a OG lined up at FB would take his ass out on a run play.

Originally posted by tjcaliente
He has 87 total tackles and 67 of those are sacks. He is built for speed. I am willing to bet that a OG lined up at FB would take his ass out on a run play.

They only run this defense against single back-3wr or shotgun 3wr not gonna have a fullback on the field for those formations.