[Silverhorse 228]

I'll take them one at a time:

Best defense versus the pass...for me it is to find a weakness and exploit it, for me I am a blitzer type of coach, ask anyone in my league...I bring the pressure. Last season in my first six games, I registered 39 team sacks. Pressure on the quarterback can really make a difference and lucky for me, I have an outstanding secondary.

Defending against the screen pass...tough question, but again my answer is pressure. If you can blitz effectively, then you can disrupt any timing situation in a screen pass. However, if you don't have a good pass rush, then another defense I use is to shadow the backs using 2-3 linebackers. By committing linebackers to specific backs you can sometimes limit short screen pass gain.

Best defense versus sweeping teams...if you go up against a good rushing team that runs outside, the best defense is to have really good corners. If you have some strong corners and teams continually sweep on you, then jam your corners up field on a sweep, and bring in your safeties to clean up the play...speed and timing will also beat a sweep...when I played in high school we always played a strong safety to the strong side help to stop sweeping offenses and it always worked...miniature football is no different...I actually still use my old high school playbook for some of my plays...IT WORKS!

OLB vs split TE...Split TE can create havoc in a defense that does not know how to stuff TEs at the line. The best defense for this is to obviously jam the TE at the line, but if you are playing off, in my opinion, it is better to play zone and get safety help rather than play man on man. In the NFL, teams exploit this matchup repeadedly...Dallas Clark, Jason Witten...etc. these guys know how to get separation and go across the middle..so how do you stop them...easy...hit them at the line, release them into coverage and keep them in front of you...it is no different in miniature football. The only difference is that the TE is not going to find the hole in the defense, so once again safety help is the answer.

Covering backs out of the backfield...in real football, this duty falls on the linebackers...in miniature football this duty can fall to corners or defensive lineman. I like to occasionaly fall DE back in coverage to their side of the field to stop backs who are hooking in the flat. In miniature football, you can create holes using your line to get backs open, when you can't get them to hook. The key on defense is to plug every hole and make sure your LB or corners have a realistic chance of intersecting any backs hooking out of the backfield.

I am a football fan first...miniature football guy second...I love Saturday's and Sunday's in the Fall...I live for them and I try to use my High School playbook, plays I see on college gameday on Saturday's and of course I study the NFL closely. Sean Salisbury on ESPN is someone I watch very closely and I listen to him. JAWS from ESPN is also another great analyst.

Anything else Anthony...I would love to give you my opinion...

Matthew Culp