Strategy Corner - Defending Next Gen Heat

Week in and week out people discuss nanos. Some think it is not
fair because you can't make good offensive line adjustments. Others
say, just get in the shotgun. Both are valid points. However, today
I want to look at passing the ball from under Center with six and
seven man protection schemes.

The first play I want to look at this against is the 3-4 Solid DE
Contain. The 3 Man crash in nano brings quick pressure when you
have fast defensive ends. I want to mention up front that this
protection scheme is based out of Compression and Flex sets. So
look for formations such as Singleback Trips Bunch TE, and Flip
Trips.

One of the keys to passing the ball from under center and blocking
the nano blitzes up the gut is to get a WR stacked behind the
tackle. To get this look, simply flip the play two times really
quick. On the 360 that would be X + RT, X + RT really fast. Hot
route block the player that stacks behind the offensive tackle as
well as the HB to block.

On the snap the DEs move to the inside. Even if the Guards did not
pick them up, the HB and our WR stacked behind the offensive tackle
form a 2nd line of protection.

This gives me plenty of time in the pocket to read the field and
get the pass off.

I want to look at this against Engage Eight as well. I will first
look at this against Engage Eight without the Safety blitzing then
I will look at it with the Safety blitzing.

The defense can be stacked at the line. The engage eight brings
some very quick pressure from this set up.

But, with the WR & HB in the scheme, everyone gets picked up.
Rest assured, if anyone gets to the QB here it is because they beat
a block. They will not be running free here.

Now let's look at this with the Safety blitzing as we are going to
get some heat coming up the middle.

This is where our HB steps up and slows that down. I get some extra
time in the pocket to read the field and make the pass. Be sure to
lab these plays and pay careful attention to how the protection
works.

Lab this and get it into your offense. Once you get the pass
protection down then look at installing routes. Again, this only
works in certain formations. Singleback Trips Bunch, Bunch TE, Flip
Trips can definitely be used. On plays in which the HB is already
blocking, you may still need to hot block him.