What's really needed for a good defense?

[Vince148]

I was looking at some "game films" and pictures, and I notice a lot of defenses are just lined up straight across the LOS with maybe a safety playing back 10 yards or so.

As I experiment with different defensive formations, it doesn't really appear that it makes a whole lot of difference whether I'm in a recognizeable formation or not. Sometimes, I'll play with a fairly distinguishable 4-3 and other times, I'm using 4 loopers coming off the ends while manning up with my DBs and maybe playing a LB or two in the interior.

Either way, the results seem equally the same.

So, if I'm on defense, what do I really care about? What do I want to accomplish? I basically have two defenses, a run stopping defense and a pass stopping defense.

Why are some of you using 9 men on the LOS? What are some of your basic defensive ideas?

[Steel Town Tough]

Great question.First you need to have a defense that can line up to any offense and be sound.Example--CB line up on 1 WR,OLB find #2 and leverage him.Safeties line up between 2 and 3 with care about crossing over the hashes.You can keep your box players the same--DL/ILB.NEVER GET OUTFLANKED!!!When I say 1,2,3 I mean eligible wr or slots,ect.If you blitz,you need to have another player to cover the area or play man defense.Another thing is your opponent.Are they a run team or pass team.No need keeping people out of the box if the offense is going to run it all the time.Force the opponent to do wants he is uncomfortable with.Take away his bread and butter plays.I hope I did not get to complicated.Hope this helps!STT

[Michigan Joe]

Generally since there is not much zone pass defense played in MF then you will often see the all out blitzes and man-man press coverage.

I think it also depends on the rule set. Take for instance the shootout rules. In this system the "O" gets three back field motion audibles to only one on defensive audible. In this system you will see a lot of the 8-9 man fronts in order to limit the number of gaps in the defense. In shootout if the D plays a 3-4 defense the offense can motion audible two RBs into DL gaps (or outside the DEs) and the defense with only one audible is like....huh? Now take a rule set like the mid-ohio where defense gets one more audible than the O makes (typically 3 pivots to 2 in favor of defense). In this case you never get caught with your pants down by having a massive hole on your defense because you have enough audibles to react. In this case, you may decide to play LB's with more depth to have beter angles during pivot audibles and if one TTCs these LBs can be disguised to play a short zone (just an example where you may want to play with more depth on defense). Also, any touch vs front of base tackling may require different strategies to stop the run.

[jeff]

I like to have 4 strong defensive lineman that can hold up to a strong running game.
3 fast safeties that can close down on receivers and help out in the running game .
2-3 linebackers that can cover the tight end and run with the running backs , they also have to be able to help out in run support.
and last 2 very fast loopers that have to be able to give the qb less than 1 second to pass.
I forgot 3-4 great cover corners.

[Shabby J]

A four man line you can bet the bank on, looping linebackers, cover corners that can handle their biz and a safety or two the can keep yardage to a minimum.

[the french guy]

I like to have 4 strong defensive lineman that can hold up to a strong running game.
3 fast safeties that can close down on receivers and help out in the running game .
2-3 linebackers that can cover the tight end and run with the running backs , they also have to be able to help out in run support.
and last 2 very fast loopers that have to be able to give the qb less than 1 second to pass.
I forgot 3-4 great cover corners.

4+3+3+2+4 = 16 ....that' s a powerfull defense squad I'm just joking, your advises are really usefull and interesting The defense play is the hardest thing to deal with when you're a beginner...In all the games I played, our defenses are weak. It's infuriating to keep the offense on their 40yards, and then see a 40yards pass because of the lack of a good defense